{"id":2842,"date":"2009-09-28T09:28:02","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T09:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/?p=2842"},"modified":"2019-08-08T09:52:28","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T09:52:28","slug":"empowering-young-people-into-worship-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/empowering-young-people-into-worship-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Empowering young people into worship – part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last time, we looked at the early stages of working with young people<\/a>. We saw that the issues are the same as working with any band, but with some extra caveats. In this post, we\u2019ll look at a\u00a05 more key issues. In all these, we\u2019re assuming that the young people are musically gifted to some extent\u2026<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0ENTHUSIASM IS OFTEN HIGHER THAN MUSICALITY.<\/strong>
\nThere is often a desire to get \u2018worshipping\u2019 or \u2018playing\u2019 but often the musical skills don\u2019t match the passion. One young person I worked with would stand in front of a mirror while playing, as he elevated himself to rock god status. Unfortunately, his playing and tuning didn\u2019t match what he saw and heard in the mirror. Another guitarist was well versed in his scales, but was unable to match the key he was playing in, with the key a song was in. Time spent correcting them (in love) is well worth doing, without breaking the relationship. We need to be extremely patient and persevering to support new musicians, whatever their age. Anything worth building for God will take time, but nothing we do for God is ever wasted. Give them space to learn and make mistakes, gently equip them with ideas, riffs, patterns and harmonies.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0BAND DYNAMICS.<\/strong>
\nThe fundamentals of a band and how it operates need to be communicated constantly. I know a worship leader that struggles to play with a band simply because he has always played alone and it\u2019s been a challenge to understand the dynamics, use and register of different instruments. When we come to working with less experienced musicians and young people, the issue is the same. With one younger guitarist, the idea that he shouldn\u2019t always be thrashing away was quite a heartbreaking moment, but he quickly learned. Over a year on, he\u2019s excellent at knowing when to play and what, depending on the nature and part of the song. We must constantly communicate how important it is to listen to each other when playing. You may often find beginner drummers have trouble keeping the same tempo \u2013 so a metronome is a great way to help this. Keep plugging away!<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0THE CULT OF FAME AND BEING UP-FRONT.<\/strong>
\nOne of the hardest things to handle in our Christian life can be success. It\u2019s good to be confident and let your light shine, but all that we have comes from God \u2013 worship is reflecting back what he\u2019s done in and through us. For younger musicians, this can be an issue. One young person was given an unhelpful \u2018word\u2019 once that could easily have puffed him up with great pride. Fortunately, he handled it well and stayed very humble. Model humility and thanks in accepting praise and criticism. God is more interested in our character than our gifting!<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0CONSTANT ENCOURAGEMENT AND SUPPORT.<\/strong>
\nTeenage emotions can go up and down, feelings can predominate (can\u2019t they with all of us\u2026) I\u2019ve had times where individuals are in a very dark place. Other times, they want to be somewhere else (like at home on their Xbox\u2026) You need to learn people management skills and how to negotiate with and between individuals. I\u2019ve seen bands in schools rip each other\u2019s heads off (very messy…) Your role will often be peacemaker and someone who can show there\u2019s another way through. Use informal and very clear encouragement, but be real with praise! At other times, you\u2019ll need to just sit with, listen to and understand what is happening in their world, which can often be quite painful. Often the question from young people is, \u2018how much do you really love me?\u2019 Jesus believed in the disciples, despite who they were. We need to show that same belief and love.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0START OFF PLAYING A SMALL NUMBER OF SONGS THAT THEY KNOW AND LIKE.<\/strong>
\nIn time, play more songs and with wider traditions \/ musical challenges. With a band I\u2019m currently working with, we initially had a pool of just 10 songs. All these were ones they knew and liked \u2013 making it much more enjoyable and easier to learn! Where they didn\u2019t know the song well, we got the original CD, played the song and listened to it individually and together in the car. Over time, the band expressed the desire to learn more songs and ones that would challenge us a bit more musically. So we picked songs with specific guitar parts and specific drum patterns; we played a song in 6\/8 rather than 4\/4; we chose songs with a greater range of dynamics; played an old hymn etc. We also journeyed with individual songs, stepping out beyond the music to create \u2018new songs\u2019. All the time, you are looking to move forward and grow, while bringing the young people with you.<\/p>\n

We’ll have further tips in part 3.<\/p>\n

Steve Hayes is a worship leader at City Community Church in Exeter (UK) as well as a school youth worker. Steve has a great youth work resource website at myfishbites.com. <\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other posts you might find helpful<\/strong><\/p>\n

Empowering young people into worship – part 1<\/a><\/p>\n

Playing together as a team<\/a><\/p>\n

Video clip – using orchestral instruments in worship<\/a><\/p>\n

Rehearsals<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last time, we looked at the early stages of working with young people. We saw that the issues are the same as working with any band, but with some extra caveats. In this post, we\u2019ll look at a\u00a05 more key issues. In all these, we\u2019re assuming that the young people are musically gifted to some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5303,"featured_media":15623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[849,1502,781,847,846,848],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEmpowering young people into worship - part 2 | Musicademy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, nofollow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/empowering-young-people-into-worship-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Empowering young people into worship - part 2 | Musicademy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last time, we looked at the early stages of working with young people. 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