Fork In The Road Music » Youth Band

Three “Leading Youth Worship” Guest Posts

Russell Martin — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 04:47:36 +0000

A few years ago I was asked to contribute guest posts to The Worship Community blog. Though I have not posted as often as I would like, I have submitted several articles on leading youth worship teams. Check out the following…

Create a Sustainable Youth Worship Team – One of the greatest challenges I face working with the youth band at our church is having a consistent team from year to year. Find out how…

Engaging Youth in Worship: Give Them Ownership -It is scary to take something as important as worship and turn it over to someone other than yourself, especially a youth. But it could be the best thing you could do, for your youth group and for those individuals. Here area few reasons why.

Engaging Youth in Worship: Opportunities to Respond: We often think of worship as a one way communication. The pastor, worship leader, and song leader speak or sing… we listen or sing along. We need to find ways to help youth be engaged in the worship service, here’s one way.

Looking for more Youth Worship Artciles? Here are some suggestions for further reading.

5 Things I Learned When our Youth Lead a Week of Worship

Naming Your Youth Band

We’re a Traveling Band- 5 Ways We are Better For it

3 Things to Check Before Beginning After Summer Break

Be Creative By Not Leading

Working With Youth Worship Teams – Audio interview with Jason Huffman

The Right Key is One Key to Strong Vocals

Working With Youth Bands: Point and Play

Russell Martin — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:08:34 +0000

Here is a little exercise we use with our youth band to work on playing together, keeping rhythm, following a leader and learning to listen to other parts. We took a repetitive section of a song, in our case we used the first part of “Undiginified” and we made sure everyone knew it. Then I told them that I had an on off switch. When I pointed to them they should play if they weren’t playing or stop playing if they were. I started off pointing to the drums and bass, then added guitar, keyboard etc. Then I switched off the drums to see how the rest of the group would keep beat. We played for about 10 minutes with this and I let my vocalists take a turn at telling members when to play or not.

It was something simple to do, but they really had fun.

What fun exercises do you use with your youth praise team?

Sunday Setlist- 3/15/09

Russell Martin — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 04:47:49 +0000

Yes I know I am almost a week late in posting this. Oh well.. maybe since I can’t be first, I’ll be last.

Last week we had special guests leading worship. It was our youth band. I am so honored to have the priviledge of working with this group of talented young musicians. They have worked hard all year to lead music during our youth program and for youth worship services. So when the opportunity arose for them to lead we let them have an opportunity to lead in our morning contemporary worship service. As I expected they did an awesome job.

Here were our songs:

One Way
Today is The Day
Counting on God
How Great is Our God
Blessed Be Your Name
You Never Let Go

We also took communion and had a new family join.

That’s what we sang. Check out what other churches did for their Sunday Setlists.

Appreciating Your Worship Team: Social Media

Russell Martin — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:21:04 +0000

There are many ways to let your worship team know you appreciate them. Some of these include sharing a meal together, or even giving a CD as a gift. One more I way I thought of today is to use social media.

The beauty, and sometimes curse, of social media is that whatever you put up, most anyone can see. Services like twitter and facebook are a great way to get a message out to alot of people at one time. Why not use this means to show your appreciation to your worship team. This morning our youth band led worship and did a great job. As I was getting in my car I just posted a short twitter that said “Couldn’t be more proud of the youth band, they did a great job.” My goal was that when this posted to my facebook account that some of the youth band members would see it. What happened was that other church members who were there also chimed in and left comments like “Yeah they were great.” So my simple twitter/facebook update actually prompted others to show their appreciation too.

Is this the only way to show appreciation… no. But here are some of the benifits I have seen:

1. It is immediate- A handwritten card may be more personal, but by the time you write it, mail it, and they receive it, 3 days could pass by. I was able to send out this message immediately.

2. It is global- Write a note to one person showing your appreciation and that one person will see it. Write it on something public like twitter or facebook and many people can see it, and chime in too.

3. It encourages others- When you share your appreciation on a public site like facebook then it prompts others to share their appreciation too.

4. It’s easy- No pens, envelopes, stationary, or desk was involved.

5. It gets to the point- When I write a letter alot of times I end up rambling not knowing what to say. Using a text or twitter makes me say what I want to quickly and concisely.

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Youth Bands: Who provides the equiptment?

Russell Martin — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:56:42 +0000

Our bass player was playing at practice three weeks ago when her strap came off and her bass landed right on the input jack, busting the jack, solder joints, and a good portion of the body of the bass. I was not sure if the bass would be repairable or how long it would take to fix or for her family to replace.

So I got to thinking, “Do many youth programs and bands have instruments that belong to the church for the kids to play, or do all the kids play/bring their own gear? Our band uses all my gear including my PA, drum set, bass amp, and guitar amp and effects, but they play their own instruments (I play left handed). So, what do the rest of do with their youth bands? Do I need to look into buying some instruments and equipment through and for the church?

Jason Huffman is the youth director at Palestine FUMC. He shares his own thoughts about ministry and more on his blog.

National Youth Workers Convention- Part 1

Russell Martin — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:47:11 +0000

This weekend I am attending the National Youth Workers Convention in Nashville TN. I have attended many of these events in the past years, especially when I was the youth director, but now since I have moved into a different role, (I am a volunteer and work with the youth band) I am viewing this conference differently. I used to come with my seminars already chosen about being a youth director, or setting up a youth group, or the best games for youth groups. Now I am looking at things like the course I took yesterday on how to be a transformational leader, or spiritual disciplines, and things like that.

The thing that always awesome are the general sessions and times of worship and teaching that occur there. Yesterday they started off with Mercy Me, David Crowder, Joe Castillo (The sand art guy) and Frances Chan.

Well… we are about to head off to lunch and a super seminar. I hope to share some of the lessons learned with you in future posts. Oh.. and for all you twitter folk you can follow what’s going on by searching the tag #nywc.

Working With Youth Bands: Change it Up

Russell Martin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:45:30 +0000

Today in our youth band we were playing Blessed Be Your Name. Since we knew the song very well I decided to use the song for an experiment. I started the intro but was playing the song in 6/8 instead of 4/4. It took on a swing/waltz type feel. The band came in and played along. The drummer picked up the beat, the bass player automatically adapted his part and with a little help, the singers sang along. Why did I do this? I really don’t know. But I learned a few things.

1. Try New Things- We tend to get into habits of playing. We always play a certain pattern, riff, or solo. Changing the time signature forced us to try different things.

2. Out of the Comfort Zone- Playing something in such a different way forced the band to pay attention. they were not sure what’s coming next and had to be more alert.

3. Encourage Adaptivity- Playing in the different time signature also forced our group to adapt. The singers had to figure out how the words and syllables best fit playing in 6 instead of 4. Our drummer had to adjust his pattern to go with the new time.

4. Shake Up a Familiar Song- When we finished one of our singers turned around and said, “I am not sure what we just did… but I liked it!” We didn’t make a decision then but we just may do it that way sometime who knows?

So I encourage you to change things up. Try songs in new keys, time signatures or chord patterns. You may never actually use the song that way when you lead worship but it will help to stretch your band on their instruments and encourage them to not just focus on the way we have always done it.

How have you changed songs like this?

Just a Glimpse

Russell Martin — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 04:59:54 +0000

For the past several years I have been working youth worship teams. Every year is different, mostly because with youth you have a constant flow of kids in and out. Some graduate, some get jobs and cannot particpate, and then there are some that join for the first time. Every year though with your group there comes a point where you hear it. What is it? It is a glimpse of what can be. It is when they aren’t just playing music but playing musically. It is when you see, that they see, that there is more to doing ths than just strumming, drumming, playing and singing.

Today we I saw it, and heard it. We came out of the chorus of “One Way” and into the bridge. The band dropped out, the keys kept playing and the singers came in on the words. The electric slowly built in, drums slowly got more intense and it just clicked.

2 minutes later the monitors weren’t working right, the singers didn’t understand their part, and it was time to go. The moment didn’t last long. It wasn’t all better after that time, but it did happen.

My encouragement to you is to listen to and identify those moments. Celebrate them and show the youth in the band what they sound like, so they can begin to hear what they sound like and strive for them.

How Do you Lead and Play Drums

Russell Martin — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:01:31 +0000

Leading a youth band is hard. It’s even harder if you are having to lead from the drumset. My friend Jason Huffman who has guest posted here before is looking for some advice in this area. Check out his post and leave a comment.

Jason’s guest posts include

Buying a Drumset

Working with Drummers

Embracing Technology with Youth Bands

What To Do With a Youth Worship Team

Russell Martin — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:48:26 +0000

Do you have a youth worship team at your church? Are you interested in starting a worship service in your youth group? Since I began writing I have had more questions about youth worship leading, working with youth bands and other related items, I thought I would create a permanent link to all the articles written about youth worship leading and youth worship teams on Fork In the Road.

Also I wanted to let you know that I am going to be a special guest for an internet call in program hosted by Tim Schmoyer of “Life In Student Ministry” at 2:00 pm (EST). We will be talking about how to help students become the worshippers God created them to be, and how that worship can be initiated and led by their peers. Here are the instructions on how to join in on the conversation. I hope you will join us.