Growing up in the church I had great opportunity to glean and learn how to identify the giftings God had given me and begin the journey of shaping and growing them for His pleasure. My journey took shape through music and it became clear very quickly that the music that brought me joy was that which brought a smile to God’s face. From junior high through college I sought out those opportunities to learn what true worship is and struggle through the question of what God wanted from me in this area. At times I felt that there was ample guidance from my church, while at others I felt that it could have done more to train and encourage me in my journey.
A great help for me was the church choir, as it helped to mature my voice and give me a foundation for singing and worship. As I matured I was given occasional opportunities to sing on the “big church” worship team, or share a special song for a holiday service. I also was able to take part in our youth group worship team which was led by a passionate leader who excelled at encouraging the students to develop our gifts in courage. I was able to sit in with the team and learn the guitar by playing along unplugged, and as I got better I was able to play quarterly with the team when the youth group took over “big church” service. By the time I was a junior in high school I was leading worship for the youth group and continually growing as a leader.
Although I had a great experience, I look back now and realize that there were ways that the church could have come alongside its young leaders even more. So often there is such a wide gap between the youth ministry and “big church”, one which is occasionally crossed, but is still left wide. I think that having the main service worship team come alongside and mentor the members of the youth worship team could have been a great way to bridge that gap, refine instruments, voices, and to teach what true worship is (as so many get worship confused with just an emotional feeling). It would have also helped the students to make an easier transition between high school and college when they stopped going to youth group and began active participation in “big church”.
Obviously, as leaders in the church we know that the next generation is what is going to be leading in the future, and God is calling us to be used by Him in their lives. In terms of worship, it is so important that we continue to actively give opportunities to teach our students how to humbly lead. As an adult and a worship leader, it has been an honor to work with students by giving vocal lessons, guitar classes, and mentoring one-on-one. Our worship is not only done through music, but also by reaching out in love to others and it is my opinion as worship pastors and leaders it puts a smile on God’s face when we share what God has given us with those who are younger and struggling to figure out their purpose.
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That’s great. That’s what we are doing at our church. For a congregation of abou 80 people we have 7 worship leaders. Four of them are in college. We just started training them at the beginning of this year.
I have our students serve on SUnday mornings about every three months and I also have them serve WITH us as well, even encouraging our adults to sing back up for them, etc. We’ve developed great relationships and have enjoyed one another. They do a great job.
BTW, love the contribution by a fellow chick worship leader……thanks for that!
As I said in my blog, I was amazed to hear from Denise and her encouragement from being in my ministry. Today, we are creating a “farm system” where students lead, but our worship team members are there to coach and mentor along the way. We are just beginning this and I have high hopes to see God raise up a whole bunch of young people like Denise!
My dad was crazy passionate about releasing young worshipers. He would us teenagers as subs for weekend services, and set us up to lead a few songs every few weeks on a sunday night. The biggest driver of all of it was that our pastor believed and regularly said that there was no Holy Spirit Jr. I’m so thankful for that night, and the opportunity to get involved…
mjd
I find a similar disconnect with many worship teams in general. Sometimes, the “big” service is a closed door except for those musicians who are already at a level 10 with their skills. If that’s the only opportunity for someone to be on a worship team, then that’s a daunting obstacle to overcome, especially if you think your skills are at a 3 or a 4 and you don’t know how to get to the next level. We should be giving our “best” on Sunday mornings, but we should also be discipling others in their giftings to help bring them up to the place they can minister at that level.
I’ve been leading worship on Thursday nights, and I’ll be coaching and mentoring my own team. We’ll be starting a weekly Bible Study focused on worship, in which others interested in joining a worship team, or just in worshipping through music, can come and learn, and hone skills (vocals, guitar, etc), and gain confidence to step into an audition, and join the team.
I had a similar experience as you Denise as I look back over my ten years diving into leading worship, I find that I had few mentors, even though I always was looking for one to take me under their wing. I just spent lots of time with the Lord, worshipping, and leading worship at Bible studies, then building from there, learning and gleaning with God’s help and from small comments here and there from others. In the church I lead in now, my goal is to help build up other worshippers, musicians, worship leaders, and to spread the passion for worship that I have in my own heart.
I will say, through everything, I had one person who always persevered encouraging me to press deeper in with worship, that’s my best friend. And despite living 700+ miles away from each other now, that one relationship was probably the biggest influence I had in continuing to pursue ministry in music.
I am so overwhelmed with joy at the postings to my thoughts. I am thrilled to hear that worship leaders are paying attention to the issue of rasing up the next generation.
I agree wholeheartledly that sometimes churches get caught up in the performance, and only allowing “10″ musicians to play, unfortunately it does not give room to usher in the younger talented musicians who haven’t quite reached that level of perfection yet.
I was appaled to learn of one church nearby that pays top dollar every week for their musicians, flys them up from around the state and sometimes out of state in order to have the “perfect” sound. And then that most of them weren’t even believers, but professional musicians wanting a paid gig. In one way I can see the outreach there, but in another how can those who don’t understand the beauty of worship, lead an entire congregation?
Anyways, I have greatly enjoyed the conversation about this, and love that this site is a forum where I can discuss topics in worship, and learn from others.
Have a great weekend!
Denise
Thanks for the article. I am trying to bridge the gap in our ministry. I oversee the worship and technical areas of the church.
I see our praise teams getting older, there is a strange absence of youth on out stage. And we run about 2,500 per weekend.
To remedy this, I placed college information cards in our auditorium for several weeks asking parents/students to give us contact information. As a result of this info, we are preparing 50 care packages this week to send for finals, and have 2 new guitarists on stage, a 19 yr old and 24 yr old! Praise God.
We are now strategically planning get togethers during every college break, as well as encouraging all the students to find an area to serve in over the summer.
I am also including scripture readers, actors, guest musicians/vocalists from this group on our teams any time they are home for visits! It’s working!!