YOUTH WORSHIP TEAM
CREATING MEANINGFUL WORSHIP EXPERIENCES | Vance & Michelle Shepherd
It’ s so exciting and inspiring to see youth leading worship, not only musically, but when you can obviously see that it’ s from their heart and their love for Jesus. One thing we’ ve found in working with youth worship teams is when they understand what it means to create an environment where people can connect to the heart of God, they are much more connected to the worship aspect of it themselves. To spend some extra time giving them information on what the theme of the service is topically, what are the main takeaways for the congregation that week, and the heart behind the message is really important for the musicians and singers to know beforehand. We’ ve found it very effective to incorporate this information into their rehearsals and having them play through the worship set just as if it were the actual service time. It’ s a very effective way to get the team polished for the Sunday or mid-week youth service.
The worship band has a unique opportunity to really set the tone for what’ s to come in the service. Here are some helpful tips that we use to train our youth worship bands in service theme and flow:
We like to paint the picture to our students that they can also think of the worship band as providing a meaningful time for people to reflect on the different qualities of God, and our response to Him as believers. We encourage and train them to engage with what is going on in the service, listen to every word being spoken, and where appropriate, build musical dynamics with the pastor( like underscores during prayer moments, etc). A helpful thing to do is to make sure that every band member has the pastor’ s voice in their monitor so they can feel and flow dynamically with him if required to underscore for him. During their rehearsal, we have them plan ahead by rehearsing the musical bed in the key of the next song in the worship set, having the drummer doing cymbal swells, the keyboardists and guitarists holding sustained chords, etc.
We make it a practice of videoing our students leading worship, and it has provided a great tool for them to learn from. After videoing their Sunday worship sets, we then give them feedback based on what we saw on the video, giving them tips for improvement, and praise for things done well. As the students watched the video, they all agreed where their music fell short, or there were awkward silences. One example that happened on a Sunday: as the pastor was giving his inspirational greeting after the first opening praise song, his dynamic was really high, and the band’ s underscore matched his intensity. But at the end of his greeting, when he turned it back over to the worship team and walked off stage, he said excitedly,“ Come on, let’ s worship!” And then … there was a 5 second pause of dead time as the drummer stopped cymbal swelling and the musicians stopped sustaining their chords, while the drummer fumbled to start the click track to the next song. We explained to them how they should have kept holding the chord and the cymbal swell until the count-in to the next song came in, eliminating all the dead space between the pastor leaving the stage and the band starting the song.
We’ ve also found it helpful to know a couple
weeks( or more) ahead of time what the topic or passage will be preached on, striving to design the worship set( or at least a song) to fit in with the theme or accompany the message. This can get the worship leader or leaders thinking ahead about how to tie the worship songs to the whole flow of service, setting up the next song thematically, introducing the pastor, or underscoring during announcements, offering time, or prayer moments.
Whatever type of church your youth worship team is leading at, it’ s great to practice, plan and rehearse dynamics throughout the flow of the service. It makes everything feel connected, seamless, intentional and cohesive. Like anything, the more your team practices these things, the better they’ ll be at it!
May you be blessed as you pour into or become the next generation of worship leaders!
Vance & Michelle Shepherd Founders of The Shepherd School of Music in Las Vegas, NV, where they work with youth to raise up the next generation of worship leaders and musicians. facebook. com / shepherdschoolofmusiclasvegas www. ShepherdStudiosLV. com
46 October 2025 Subscribe for Free...