YOUTHLEADERSHIP
STEP BY STEP: RAISING UP A YOUTH WORSHIP TEAM
One of the most challenging things to do in ministry is to build up a quality worship team with dedicated musicians and singers. But it’ s not impossible! The steps in this article can help you have a dynamic youth music ministry up and running in your church in 3 months!
Are you a youth worship Pastor that has some musical knowledge or can even play multiple instruments and sing? Are you interested in raising up students to lead worship for your ministry? If you are a youth Pastor of a church, ask your Pastor to consider letting this be part of your job description. This youth worship team will birth your future adult worship team at your church – this is invaluable training ground!
“ Where there is no vision, the people perish …”( Proverbs 29:18)
STEP 1: The very first thing you need to do is book the worship event! We recommend booking the first event 3 months out, and then get the word out that you are auditioning musicians and singers for your new youth worship team. Keep in mind that you are going to have a wide variety of skill levels coming at you, as well as different age groups. This is totally okay! You want to get as many people involved in worship as possible – people attract people. If you have 15 people on stage for your first worship event, that is a GREAT thing! Don’ t turn someone away because they can’ t formally play music yet – give them extremely simple parts( percussion, easy piano whole note chords, etc). You want them to get inspired, to feel like they CAN play music. Once they are part of a music team and get to execute their parts on stage, they will be inspired to do more. We have had many students for whom music didn’ t come easy to, and many of them are now our first chair players.
• Note: You don’ t have to mic up everybody on your team for your worship event, only your first chair players. Everybody else can play through their own little personal amps, headphones, etc.
STEP 2: Choose 3 beginner level songs for your first worship event. You will be working with your team to have them learn 1 song per month. Examples:“ Friend Of God”( Israel Houghton),“ He Reigns”( Newsboys), and“ How Great Is Our God”( Chris Tomlin). These are great songs to put together in a worship set because they are fairly easy, and you’ ll have an up tempo opener( gospel style), a mid tempo( pop rock) second song, and a slower worship song to end the set.
... youth worship teams will birth your future adult worship team at your church – this is invaluable training ground!
• Note: Establish a consistent weekly time to meet with your group and work through each song with the whole team. This will allow you to check each person’ s progress, and encourage them to move forward. We recommend grading them on each song per week.
STEP 3: Audition your singers to determine if you will have a male or female leading each song, so that you can purchase the charts you need in the correct performance keys for the band. Here are some good keys for male or female singers:“ Friend Of God”- Male( D), Female( A)“ He Reigns”- Male( C), Female( F)“ How Great Is Our God”- Male( C), female( G)
• Note: To start out, we have our student band lead at events only once per month.
This gives them 4 weeks to learn 3 songs. On your second worship event, play 2 of the songs from the month before and add in one new song. Keep doing this formula moving forward to build the band’ s repertoire.
• Note for auditions: We don’ t allow any charts to be used during the auditions or the worship events. This is how your musicians will build their song base, their musicality, and play with more conviction.
STEP 4: Audition your musicians. They have to pass the 3 song audition one week before your worship event to be part of the worship team. This will ensure that your musicians can execute the parts. If students are not ready or prepared for the event, but you put them on stage, it embarrasses them and they’ ll feel defeated. It also sets a bad example for the other students that are working really hard, and does not challenge the students to excel in their playing. Make sure you hold auditions for each and every worship event.
We hope this inspires you and gives you some fresh, practical ideas to start building your youth worship team. May you be blessed as you pour your heart and time into your ministry- God will give back to you above and beyond tenfold!
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VANCE & MICHELLE SHEPHERD Founders and operators of The Shepherd School Of Music in Las Vegas, Nevada, a music and worship teaching facility where they work with youth to raise up the next generation of worship leaders and musicians. www. ShepherdStudiosLV. com
52 Mar � Apr 2017 WorshipMusician. com