Youth Ministry Worship

Sometimes starting a worship team for Youth Ministry seams like a standing in front of a mountain and thinking "Yeah right.  I'm not prepared for this!"  Questions go through your mind like: How do we balance having adults and teens up there?  How much do we push for excellence?  What if the student gets up there without any practice and is horrible?  And so many more...

Here are just a few things I've learned in doing ours.  Ours is not perfect.  But our students are engaging in worship.  And it doesn't get any better than that.

1.  Find (pray for) an adult who loves it...and is good at it.  


I'm the type if it's not going to be done well, I'm not going to do it at all when it comes to stuff like this.  I needed someone who loves worship, and loves teens.  So I prayed for that, and you know what?  God answered that prayer.  I also wanted someone who could lead the students and push them to to excellence.

2.  Shoot for excellence.


Anything worth doing is worth doing in excellence.  If it's horrible, your students aren't going to engage in it.  They're going to sit back and pick it apart - especially if they're musically inclined but not confident enough to get up there themselves.  Shoot for excellent.  Constantly look for new songs.  Evaluate which ones they're engaging with, and look for when it's starting to get tired.  Practice.  Don't just "wing it"!

3.  Allow for mistakes.


Don't shoot so high for excellence that you never end up with any teens helping out.  This is an opportunity to polish their skills and find out if this is an area where God has gifted them.  Allow for the drummer who has trouble keeping beat to try to keep a beat for you.  Allow for mistakes.  You just may have to turn them down a little bit at times.


4.  Be Patient!


We've only been at it for about a year and a half, and we are just now seeing our students love worship.  Now they stand without being asked to.  They're participating instead of viewing like a really bad concert.  They're asking to be a part of it.

This is how we've approached this.  There are other ways to do it, but for us this is working.  What would you add or subtract from the list?  I'd love your feedback.