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Starting from Scratch: Building a worship band for students

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By Bobby Williams
9/24/2007

For the last few weeks I've been meaning to share my thoughts on starting a worship band or a student worship band. During my 8 years of being a student pastor, I've had the opportunity to help start a few worship bands, some successful....some not so much.

Whether you are starting a band for your student gathering, church gathering, or if it's with adults or students, here's some tips that I've learned from my experience with student worship bands.

• Start with Prayer
  Everything has to start with prayer. Before you even begin to look at who will be in the band or what songs you'll want to play, start by asking for God's direction and for a vision

  Whether you are starting a band for your student gathering, church gathering, or if it's with adults or students, here's some tips that I've learned from my experience with student worship bands.

  Vision goes a long way when you're trying to reach people for God's glory. The Bible says that those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Without a God given vision, which starts with prayer, just go ahead and wrap it up
• Don't be afraid to say NO
  Sometimes you just have to say no, and if you're like me, that can be a challenge. I sometimes feel like I need to keep everyone happy and not hurt anyone's feelings. But when it comes down to it, the idea may not fit the vision, it might be just totally ridiculous, or the person asking to join in the band has no musical ability or talent...those situations sometimes call for a no.
• Put someone in charge
  I recommend it's not you if you're the student pastor. Trust me, I've done this before and it's no fun to have added responsibility. There's always someone out there that can do it better if you just take your grubby paws off it. If you're fortunate to have a student leader you can pair with an adult leader/worship leader, I find this to be the best combination. Also, don't forget to continually mentor that student leader behind the scenes.
• Choose good musicians if possible
  This goes back to saying no if you have to. Sometimes you won't have the luxury of having the best musicians, but if you do, encourage that person to better their talents before getting on stage. God calls us to do everything with excellence, and this goes for how we lead others into worship as well. If you're going for a student led band, I understand that the best musicians are probably not there. So if you make do with what you have, call them to do it with excellence. Also, in seeking out good musicians/singers, don't be afraid to call in a favor to someone who may not be a member of your church or organization. They may come in a raise the bar for everyone else. How bad could that be?
• Establish Commitment
  It's so important that everyone in the band understands three things; 1) You are doing this for the glory of God. 2) It's not about them. 3) Everyone has to understand the vision, direction, and be committed to those things. You may handle this in different ways, but bands, especially student bands will not last unless everyone is committed. Issue a contract maybe or just be purposeful in reminding everyone that their level of commitment is of the utmost importance. Besides being committed to the afore mentioned things, band members need to also be committed to being at practice on time, being prepared, growing in their relationship with Christ, and practicing well.
• Practice Well
  There's nothing more frustrating for good musicians than practices that seem to go nowhere. Always be prepared for practice, especially if you are the leader or lead worshiper. Also, do your best to prepare everyone else for practice. The better you practice, the better you can lead others into the presence of God.
• Start simple according to experience
  Sometimes you just have to start simple to get everyone on the same page. If you have a band full of non-experienced musicians, then don't expect too much at first. Start with songs with simple chordings and structure. In other words, don't come in on the first night and say "let's do blah blah blah in the key of Bb instead of G, so everyone transpose." Keep it simple to start. Excellence can be simple. Work your way up.
• Develop and Train
  Take time to learn new music, chords, and experiment with different sounds and structures. The band will only get better if you get better. If you're leading, take what you've learned and share it with your team.

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Conversation

About a year ago i started a praise band with just me (guitarist) and 3 singer (a little bit too much) then one singer left, and we are still doing the same old same old with one guitarist. I feel like god wants us to make the band bigger b/c for the year we have been doing the band...the sense of worship is not there. I have an electric guitar player that is good at metal music, but when it comes to learning SIMPLE songs, he is unable to play them. Not only that, he doesn't act like a christian outside of church, so i know he doesn't want to do this. When looking at this list, i realized that i left one thing out (maybe 2), prayer. We have surprisingly not prayed at all before every rehearsal or after. I am the one that is in charge b/c im the only instrumentalist, and soon to be lead singer once the band gets bigger, and i have better experience in music than everyone else in the youth. Its just hard to lead in something that seems like a failure, but all i can do is pray and listen to what God wants for the praise band.

Mark 5:12:54pm on 12/21/2009

Hi me and a couple of friends have been trying to pull together a worship band at our youth group. It was great about a year ago, but then the lead guitarist left, and one of the singers. All they had was a singer and a bass player. I joined right after that, and it has just been heated and crazy. One of the youth pastors had taken over, and the bass/guitar player hated it. After about a year our youth leader's moved and our whole youth group is trying to adjust. People are always talking about how bad we are. Any tips from anyone?

audience1girl 2:11:21pm on 11/24/2009

@jon - There might not be a need for a worship band at your church. However, that does not mean you can't pull together some of your friends to start a worship band on your own time. When I was in high school, the worship band I was a part of played many Christian events around town - many of them not associated with my immediate youth group. Get your buddies together and study other worship leaders. Notice how they interact with the people at the event. Learn how to distinguish between times of quiet reverence and fun praise. In short: know what you're role is as a worship leader. Then, with your buddies, practice, practice, practice. And when you're done, practice more. And more. One of the biggest mistakes youth bands make is that they want to get out in front of people and play before they are ready. Ask someone close to the band to give you an objective opinion about your music and how you can prepare yourself to play an event. Then, when you think you are ready, practice more. And more. It is important to remember that you must have someone in youth ministry evangelizing for you, however. Many youth pastors work by word of mouth - and if they haven't heard of you, they may not give you chance. On that note, make sure you practice often, and offer something distinct that your church youth group and other worship groups in the area do not offer. I am not suggesting to 'compete' with them, but to distinguish your group so that you may fill a different need. You want to have more of an 'edge' than your church worship band so you will fit better in a concert setting, while still playing the music your wish to play. After someone in local youth ministry (and probably even your church) is on your side, ask them for opportunities to lead. When given the chance, do your very best, be excellent, and don't forget to thank them for the opportunity.

John 12:10:22pm on 10/13/2009

ok so there are quite a few people that are unhappy or unsatisfied with our youth group or youth leaders. some of us that are more committed to our youth group have desided to start a worship team/band and kind of start our own Bible study. as of now i am playing the keyboard and i am the lead singer. one of my friends is playing the drums, and we are still without guitarists, but we have some kids in mind. we dont have any of our youth leaders really helping us. we want it to be from us, and if our youth leader figures out that worship and praising our God is wanted in our meetings then he can add us into it. if he doesnt want it then thats fine, we are going to keep going. the reason we are starting it by ourselves is eveytime we "try" having worship in our meetings its is ALWAYS led by youth staff, and no one really wants to listen to them.there are some youth leaders that know what we are doing it and they are encouraging us to do it by ourselves. the problem is the few people involved are VERY active in extracirricular activities in school. we have very limited time to work together and practice together, or even practice ourselves. we REALLY want and NEED the praise band to work out, and we are committed as much as we can be. do you have any ideas for us, is it even worth it any more? where do we go from here. we have the music and the insturments (once we have guitarists) we just dont have ANY time to get together and practice. email me if you can... Freckleface9101@aol.com

Katie 7:07:25pm on 7/24/2009

Hey Sweetie My advice to you as a fellow Ministry Leader at my Church is to stay prayed up and keep the Faith don't lose patience with them Understand that it is a good thing that their still attending the group which means that want to get something out of it you just have to push them. For ex. you say you need better musicians see if there's any talent in your Youth Group give them something to look forward to because after all it is about them so instead of you doing all the work work together. You can elect a Youth Co- Leader and or Counselor just get them involved because the # 1 sign of them wanting to know about Jesus Christ is that their still showing up : ) so just keep up the good work and remember God is always right on time it seems bad now but your Strong you can make it happen.... Tria Moore you can catch me on Twitter @ tearstowardssal. Good Luck sweetie

Tria Moore 12:07:37pm on 7/09/2009

need help! I am a senior in high school and I'm in charge of the worship band at my youth group. Our youth group is composed of mostly unchurched kids who dont seem to care much about God. The youth group is more of a hangout for them, and all they do during worship is hang out (texting, talking, flirting, pretty much anything but worship). It's so bad that our church's worship pastor quit leading worship for youth group, and recommending that we just stop. However, I refuse to give up. I have been trying to find a way to get them to care and worship God, but with little success. We are in the process of improving the worship band (adding new, more talented musicians, and planning ahead and organizing whereas before it was like rehearsal before youth group was cramming for a test you know you're going to fail. Also, I've tried making worship "interactive" by putting up big white sheets of paper and telling kids to write/draw/create/etc. on them during worship, giving them a thought to guide them (for example, "I know that God loves me because..." Last night's youth group was one of those "why-do-I-even-bother" kind of nights, and I really need ideas because I love these kids and I want them to experience God. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I desperately need your advice and prayer.

Erik 11:07:48am on 7/09/2009

thank you, but how do i start a new praise band if there is already one in my church?

jon 6:03:54pm on 3/02/2009

I think another important topic to talk about here is that although you do want musicians who play well, you also want to have musicians who have a worshiper's heart. There is no point in having an awsome guitarist or drumer and then they could carless about the meaning of the songs or the word. Dont get me wrong I know this is something you build on your members but you must also see an effort. I have had my experiance with musicians in the band who just like to come to church and show off their abilities but then after they are done playing for the worship they sit in the back of church and talk or text on their phone all thru the sermon. So in conclusion a heart of worship would be more important than talent when selecting band members.

Carlos 4:10:32pm on 10/08/2008

ya I have been trying to put a band for the past couple weeks... it is really hard finding people who feel the same way about you towards worship. I think I got what it takes... I got all the material, and I write lyrics like mad... i'm a piano player and even a better guitar player. so if there is any one in the Kitchener-Waterloo area... email me at zefferrecordings@hotmail.com

Jeff 2:09:41pm on 9/12/2008

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