I found a terrific article written by Jimi Williams on reasons why worship bands don’t incorporate young people.
That got me to thinking: Are we raising up the next generation of Worship Leaders? Seriously, what are we doing to ensure the next generation has as much, and hopefully more, worship oriented believers as there are now?
Think about your church praise team. Who are you –as a guitarist, pianist, drummer, etc..– training to one day either take your place or play beside you? If the answer is no one, then why not? Are there no young people in your church with any musical talent? I doubt it.
I’m preaching to myself as much as anyone. Over the last 4 years I’ve worked with a couple of young people, but only sporadically. When life got really busy, having a couple of kids, that mentoring time was the first to go. We’ve had a few come to practice and play along side of us, but it was challenging. Not bad, just challenging. The reason is, I went from just playing to setting up, transposing, helping with rhythm, re-writing, and playing.
But isn’t that selfish? Didn’t someone along the way have to do the same thing for me? But I thought Sunday mornings were supposed to be about God; praising and worshiping Him, not teaching and mentoring and all that stuff. Oooohhh, maybe that is what its about. What greater act of worship could there be than to help a young person develop a talent to be used to worship God? So, instead of one guitar or voice being heard, it is two. And that two becomes four and so on…
Obviously Sunday mornings aren’t the right time for learning to play the guitar, but can’t they at least be a part somehow while they learn? Can they come to practice and learn to be a part of a group and then slowly work their way into a praise team role? It might take a little extra time before or after practice to show them some things, but isn’t that o.k.?
My point is this: if we don’t involve them, we will lose them and their tremendous ability.
The next generation could vary well die with their music still inside of them.