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How to Build a Youth Ministry Worship Team From Scratch · Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Over the years, this has consistently been one of the hardest parts of my youth ministry.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: To nail down Music is a very specific skill and if you don't possess that skill or know someone who does, what do you do?
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Where do you go?
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Who do you ask?
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Our purpose is always people, and people take time to develop.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: You can't just snap your fingers and have a worship leader.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: When we pour into these people, then we gain the fruit for the church, for the kingdom.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: later on, but, who's going to do the developing?
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Today we're talking about how to build a youth ministry worship team from scratch.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we give you weekly tips and tactics to help you fast track the growth and health of your youth ministry.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: If this is the first time we're meeting, my name is Jeff Lascola and this is.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Kristen Lascola, and today we're going to talk all about how to start a worship team for your youth ministry Deep breath, because one more thing to add to your plate, right?
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Yes, One more thing, and for me, kind of a non-negotiable thing, and I will be honest, this has consistently over the years been one of the hardest parts of my youth ministry to nail down, and I think the reason for that is music is a very specific skill and if you don't possess that skill or know someone who does, like what do you do?
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Where do you go?
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Who do you ask?
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: And I always knew as a youth pastor that I didn't want.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I know worship can take many forms and music worship is just one way we worship God, but I really wanted music worship, worship songs, to be a part of my youth ministry and I really wasn't willing just to be like oh well, and I would say for myself, the kind of personality I have is I like to solve problems, I have a lot of tenacity and I keep going until I have a solution If something's important to me.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: If it's not important to me, I'm not wasting the energy.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: You know that you'll like talk to me about hypothetical problems.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I'm like I'm not wasting mental energy on something that doesn't even exist, but if it's right in front of me and it needs to get solved and it's important.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: And I always thought worship was one of those things.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: So, full disclosure my first worship with junior hires we didn't have any, any at all when I first got there.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: So I took over for a youth pastor that had been at our campus doing junior high for one year and so I kind of picked up where he left off and there was no worship and I was like no worship, I don't think so.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: So what I did was just go on YouTube and find worship songs and we would sing along to a lyric video or I would print out lyrics and just play the music if I had to.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: But one way or another I was like, by golly, we are having worship.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Right, and we sure did.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Was it preferable?
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Was it like this is going top notch?
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: No, but I figured better than nothing.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Like, what are my options?
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: I have 11 students, like five leaders.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Nobody plays guitar or piano or anything, and we we want to worship God, so we will not be stopped.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that's where I started.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to give a little background.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: That it's like.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I think sometimes people look at the church I work at.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: It's a large church, but the campus I work at was not large.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: They probably are like oh, it's so easy for you, you have a million people to choose from.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: And no, it was not.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: I just had to figure out.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Hey, youtube is better than nothing.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: And honestly, our children's ministry at our campus still uses video worship.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: So they use the Jana Elira videos.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: She's a peach like love her music.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: She's so fun and cute and great with kids.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: If your children's ministry has not tapped into Jana Elira music yet, you should.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: A little too young for student ministries, I will say that.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: So junior high, sixth, seventh, eighth, that's what I do.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: That's the first live worship that our students experience at our campus.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: So Jana Lyra videos are still going strong.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: But I remember hitting a point where I was so desperate I was like I'm done with the YouTube, I'm done.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: I couldn't find a musician who wanted to do junior high and I thought, great, I'm learning guitar.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: I guess I'm going to do it.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: I can not really sing, but good enough.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: I mean it's not like I'm horrible, I'm not wonderful.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: And Jeff my friend horrible, I'm not wonderful.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: And Jeff, my friend.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Jeff started teaching me guitar, not just me, there was like two or three of us and out of the goodness of his heart he was teaching us free guitar lessons.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: I still have my binder and I was like I, I've I learned one song.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: And I was like, all right, guess I'm the youth pastor and the worship leader, because how many years do you look for someone and you can't find them?
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: And then you think, if I can't find the talent, guess I have to be the talent.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Were you actively looking to find a worship leader?
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, there was nobody, because sometimes someone will be like a musician, but they're not really a leader.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: And then someone's a leader and they don't want to do junior high, and then you know.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: I mean not to not to slam small ministries, because there's tons of small ministries that are doing great ministry, but I think sometimes the ego of maybe somebody who's going to play worship and you're like yeah, we've got six kids it's like oh so that's a great point.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Sometimes worship without a critical mass can be a little weird and I know there's some people who do worship like in their living room with their Bible study, and that's hard for me.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Maybe I'm just not as spiritual as the rest of you, but I something about it is like I feel so exposed or something.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't feel like you're part of the crowd.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: You feel very individualized.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Like are we the worship band?
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: You know, like there's not that many of us.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with that?
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: No, not at all.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: It's just that it does kind of give off that.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: And to your point you're saying it was hard to find somebody to do, that you had a student ministry of 11 kids To have somebody come out and just play worship.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it would be like this is a.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: I'm taking a lot out of my day, right, and how long is a worship set like come here and play three, three songs and then you're done bye so unless you're part of the team.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Okay and then that brings me to you yeah, I got suckered in.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: wait a minute if you know how to play guitar, I mean all I knew was be my everything.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: That was it, and you know God in my living Did I teach?
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: I didn't teach you that.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: You must have learned it on your own.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: I don't even know that song well, someone taught me, I know it I can't probably play it anymore
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: so jeff to the rescue I don't know why I maybe I just didn't want to do it at first, or just didn't think to do it maybe you just didn't believe in yourself, that you maybe actually, you know what?
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: I had really never led worship.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: I had played music and I um could play guitar, but I would never, I'd never, led worship.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Maybe just didn't cross my mind to even do it?
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, cause it is different.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Just because you can play an instrument, like I was saying, doesn't mean you're a worship leader.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: So Jeff was one of our small group leaders and he had a big background in music and I don't know if you offered or if I asked or how we bridge that gap, but I don't think it would have been me.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: It probably must have been you please don't make me get up there and do it, jeff and I think from.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: I'm just thinking back.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: I'm not positive this is what I was thinking or not, but I think I was probably nervous, seeing that I usually did not play acoustic guitar.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: I always played electric and it was in front of a smaller crowd, which you'd think would be better, but I feel like it's like I was used to.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, no I feel like it almost you can't same idea, you can't blend in like there wasn't a band it's very cover up my mistakes.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Here I am, and everyone don't proclaim to be a singer.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: I don't proclaim to be a good, you know, uh, musician, and so I think probably a lot of those things were like well, I don't want it to be me, I'll play a in part of a band, but just to be up, go up there and be by myself, I think that just seems like it'd be a nerve-wracking experience.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Totally so, and I'm so thankful you said yes, because I was like hey, you're here on Tuesday night anyway, so this isn't like some extra trip for someone, and that's the most scenario.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: If there's somebody already there who has some skills and maybe they're not like the worship leader, but if they have any musical talent at all, can we develop them into a leader Because, honestly, you did a fantastic job.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: I would say, I was better than nothing.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: The kids loved you.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: You played really fun songs.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: You were funny and engaging but then you were deep and meaningful and I just remember it was a really good stretch for us and you had done it for years.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: And then the benefit of you was you were also teaching young musicians, and so Jeff would lead and sing and play.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: But then there were kids like remember Jakey, he was a drummer and you gave him an opportunity.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: We had a kid named Silas that you let play with you, and there was, you know, these young budding musicians that you had created space for that jk still plays on the weekends you know, and he's an adult now.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Silas is married and off in the wilderness, yeah, yeah so it's like it.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: it just needed something to start it, and that was you, which we're so thankful for.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: And so once something starts getting going so I I guess number one you would have to ask yourself do I have the capacity to learn this skill?
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: And that's probably not what you wanted to hear as a youth pastor, you're probably like I'm doing enough.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Now you're telling me I have to be a worship leader.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, I started to.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I was like this is important to me.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: So if you can't find the talent, be the talent.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Do you have the capacity to learn that skill?
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Or, like me having the gift of Jeff, is there somebody already in your ministry that you feel like, who's maybe already small group leader or something that can take the reins on that?
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: And even if they're a little novice and green, I mean I remember having a few people fill in for you and they were not great musicians but they tried their best and I would say it was still better than nothing.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: And students are pretty forgiving.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I think they are very forgiving, which I love about junior hires.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: They're just like yeah, like, let's worship.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: They're not like whoa, that was pitch, let's worship.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: They're not like whoa, that was pitchy or oh, the sound was off or Ooh, the beat was off, you know.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: And then a second strategy is can you ask the church worship leader for help, because chances are you have worship for your main service for the adults on the weekend.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Well, that's a musician.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Are they willing to help you out either at your weekend services?
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Maybe you go in with the adults during worship Would they be willing to come and play for you on a Tuesday or Wednesday night?
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: I had approached our campus pastor.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: I said, hey, can we make that kind of part of the role Like you're the worship pastor, meaning you are the worship pastor for everybody, not just adults.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: So if you, if they can't play for you on Wednesday, can they find someone who can?
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Is there someone who is willing to rotate?
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Maybe we don't want to put it on someone and they have to be there every single Wednesday just to play three songs or whatever, but maybe it could be a rotation thing where it's like the worship pastor for your church and then they have a guy who's great at acoustic and he can, like they can do a two week on, two week off kind of situation which I love that idea, and that also kind of brings me back to when you were saying learn if you can learn your yourself to play.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: And the.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: I think that's great and again, it's like better than nothing, you know, and that's probably better than just doing YouTube videos.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: But the problem with that is when you are the person who's doing the message.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: The person who's doing worship it's a lot of work and if you can't make it, a lot of things are not happening, yeah, so we.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: We did an episode a while back you can check it out about why it's a good idea to have multiple speakers, you know not just sound speakers, but people who are speaking get teaching.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Someone thought that when we did that episode.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Like I was confused by that.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Um but the the reason why you would have that is if you you ever were sick or you know, couldn't make it for whatever reason.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Somebody can possibly fill in If you like wanted to go on vacation.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: someone could fill in.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Can't afford it, so same would be true with you know worship leader where.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: If you were that person, it's a lot that your youth group is going to miss if you can't make it.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: You just would have to pre-record you doing everything.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: This is me playing worship.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: This is me speaking.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: This is me giving announcements.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: This is me leading the game.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: You're out, you're out.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Like yeah, I point is that that person can hopefully start raising up a leader to replace them.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: So, like if you made a deal with the worship leader and said hey, can you play for us for six months?
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: There's another musician, they're 17.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: They're up and coming.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: They just need someone to take them under their wing and prepare them for what's next.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Could you work with them for six months?
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Could you give me that?
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: And then we let this one fly.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: But I need someone who knows what they're doing to pour into this person.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: So maybe one of those is an option.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: We've had that happen where our worship leader is kind of scoping out who are the up and comings and like all right, we could probably hand the reins to this person in a year or six months or whatever.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Like and remember everything we talk about on this podcast.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Like, ministry is always the long game.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: It's like taking the long view of like our purpose is always people, and people take time to develop.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Like you can't just snap your fingers and have a worship leader, and you can't just snap your fingers and have an intern or a director or a pastor or a speaker.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Like when we pour into these people, then we gain the fruit for the church, for the kingdom later on, but who's going to do the developing?
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: And that's where a lot of times people throw their hands up and they're like well, I just want a ready-made youth, our worship pastor.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Where is this musician with all this talent who wants to play at my youth group for 20 minutes every week?
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Like those people don't exist.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: You develop those people and I think that was a mind shift for me too of like all right, we have to figure out are we having a steady stream of people come in that know you can grow into these roles and we have opportunity for you?
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: So another thing that you can do at your church to help this along is consider starting a band labs program.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: So at our church we have something called band labs where every Monday, from like four to five, 30, um kids can come, students, and they're working with our existing worship leaders to develop their skills in guitar, in singing, in drumming, in keys, whatever they want to do or whatever people you have available, and they learn how to hone their skill and play together as a band.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: And we watched our daughter go through that last year.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: She plays acoustic guitar and her skills went from like a six to an eight in nine months.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: And now she's on the worship team for our second and third graders at our other campus and if she continues she's going to start playing in fourth and fifth and then she'll play in junior high with us.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: She'll play in high school, she'll play main stage, probably by the time she's 16, you know, because we've been developing her skills all along and there's been people who see the value in that, and so, as a youth pastor, you might really have to cast this vision for your church of like who are we developing?
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Who are who's waiting in the wings?
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Whose skills can we continue to hone in for the kingdom?
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: And that's that mindset of like.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: We can't just expect this super talented musician to come knocking on our door, but if we've been developing them all along, they'll stay here and they'll use their gift for God's kingdom, which is huge.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: You know, the fruit comes after the labor.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: And then ask yourself do I have any students kind of what we were saying before with musical talent and can they help?
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Maybe they can't lead necessarily, but they can fill out the band.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: I've been in this a long time and still getting a full band on a Tuesday is really hard.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: So if you, I, have a worship leader and he comes every week and sometimes he just plays along to tracks, which I love for the fast songs.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: If you can't get a full band, tracks is always a good suggestion for your worship leader.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: If you're looking to fill out a band and you know like I remember getting girls up on the stage who wanted to work on their vocals, and you start and you turn them down a little and but they're up and they're doing it and they're singing, and then the next month you turn them up a little because they've been working with the worship leader and they're getting better and better and better.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: And what a cool ministry for other students to see.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Hey, the church doesn't wait for you to be like an all-star before you can start using your talents and gifts.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: You know, I think it's cool when you see, like all right, like they're willing to work with us, of where we're at to get to where we could be in the future.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: And there's still a spot for me, even as I'm developing and growing.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: I will admit again, this is super duper hard.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: I continue to struggle with worship for student ministries because finding someone who speaks junior high is tough, speaks junior high and is a musician.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: And willing to play.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because a lot of times worship leaders are a little more.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Their energy is different than a junior high years energy, and finding someone who fits that role is tricky.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: I would say you, you did an incredible job because you were able to match their energy and not get annoyed because they're squirrely or talking, but you just leaned into their energy.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: We had a guest worship leader a few weeks ago named BJ, and he nailed it too.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: He was like getting silly with them but then was so good at transitioning their energy and bringing them back down and he just knew his audience so well because of the point is not like, let's have fun, the point is engagement.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: So somebody who can engage with that age group and capture, like, the essence of who they are and get them to click in, now you can take them on that worship journey and, like I said, that's a that's a tall, tall order.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: So I guess look at who you've got.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: That's always the best place to start with anything.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Who do we have in our ministry?
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: All right, we've already explored all those options.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: All right, who do we have in our church?
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Who can we get on our rotation If all else fails?
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Could that be you, and I'm sure that you, that is the last resort, but there could be people of untapped potential that you just have no idea.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: And I'll close with this Don't forget about that rotation.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: It's a lot easier to ask someone could play twice a month.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Then could you be our worship leader and stay here forever.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: You know that's kind of like ah, I'm not giving up all that time you know, so hopefully that helps.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: I'm right there with you.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: This is a really tough thing, but keep working at it.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Keep your tenacity up, look for students who you can develop and hopefully the culture will take off eventually.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it could take a while.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: Let's do the Cliff Notes version of that, so you can kind of maybe jump in wherever your ministry is at right now.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: But starting out bare minimum at least, I'll just say a tape recorder.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: What year is this?
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: Like an overhead projector, handwritten lyrics like a just just the music alone or YouTube video.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: And then next step would I would assume would probably be same thing, but having somebody up front leading it, kind of hand motions, things like that If you guys do that or want to do that, like that, if you guys do that or want to do that and then the next would be actually getting a person live to play acoustic guitar and then building upon that band, adding bass and drums or a cajon or something.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, cajon's a good one.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: I forgot about that, and then it's easy again having you know if you can get students up there to either sing or to do hand motions, things like that, and then adding and lean on tracks if you need to yeah, until you get kind of like that full band.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: I I played what it was, just me, and then I played with just a drummer or just a bassist you had a cajon person for a while.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Didn't bright play the cajon.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we did that.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: I think it was cajon person for a while, didn't Bryant play?
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: the cajon with you.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: We did that I think it was cajon and then we had a drummer, and then we had bass, drums and guitar.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: And then, I don't know, and someone else came to lead, thank goodness, and so I was playing guitar, two guitars, a bass and drums and then we started adding tracks.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: And then that was about when I transitioned out of the ministry, but it was, it was great.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: You know it's a lot of options.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: It's funny too, how like you just start and then pass that baton eventually.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Well, not only that, but it was like OK, it's me.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Oh, someone else wants to play with me.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Cool, you do Cajon.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: And then someone's like well, I know how to do drums.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: So sometimes, just starting it, the people come out of the woodwork Like if you build it they will come, kind of thing.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: When students can see, like another student up there like, oh my gosh, this is an option.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: I would is an option.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: I would love to do that because we had a junior higher playing bass for a while and drums, so it was kind of just cool to get them involved.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: And yeah, like you were talking about before, some of those can have continued on and still are playing, and that was 10 years ago and you know what I was just thinking of like, if you are bare bones, like how we talked about, how it's kind of awkward like here's a six of us singing a song and everyone can hear me way too loud, but creating ambiance is very helpful.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: So, like we did a worship night or a prayer, 24 hour prayer thing, worship night at our church this weekend and there was kind of worship music constantly playing in the background.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: But it was like this really dim environment with candles lit and all of that, and you could feel like I'm kind of disappearing and I can now focus on what we're here for.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: So if you're a smaller group and everyone kind of feels exposed and like this is nerve wracking, try to change up the environment a little bit.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Turn the like when in doubt during worship, turn the lights off, turn them down as low as possible.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Lights always always down.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, If it's a slower worship set, you know candles are great.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: We use different light aspects for our songs.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: For the fast songs, we use motion backgrounds to kind of like keep it hype and all of that.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: And then during the slower ones we change the motion backgrounds and all of that.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: So you know, don't underestimate how ambience can kind of help fuel your the atmosphere you're trying to create.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: If it's fluorescent lights and you're in the church basement and everyone's just sitting there, it will be awkward.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: So what can you do to create an environment conducive to worship?
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, 100%.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, that gives you a lot of options to kind of take where you're at right now and just continue to keep moving forward.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: You went through all those phases to where you're at now.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's crazy to think that.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: So, anyways, let's move to a question of the day, something fun, okay I haven't even given you this.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Not fun, are you not?
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Are you not entertained?
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Are you not entertained?
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: um, this, I haven't even prepped you with this.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: This is, you know, throw one for a curveball here.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: What was the weirdest name for a stuffed animal you had growing up?
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: wow, wow wow um the only one I can remember.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: I had a monkey named zach.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Uh, it's not a weird name, but we still have zach, we still do have zach, he can pick his nose with his fingers and his toes.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: Um, that sounds like the advertisement for it.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: He can pick his nose with his fingers and his toes.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: He's zach the monkey.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: He's kind of funky, I don't know um, I too.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't a monkey.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: I had a gorilla and named him george and, to be honest, that was the only it was.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: It was gorilla, and as far as I know, I didn't even never even heard of curious no way no, it wasn't on tv.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: We had like two channels and kpbs is always on.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: I don't think so um, but as far as I know, that was the only stuffed animal I think I ever named.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: I don't remember any other names I don't really remember naming my.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Our kids have multiple names for everything true, put in the comment section below.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: If you had an interesting name for a stuffed animal growing up or to this day, do you?
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: It's okay, this is a safe place.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: You can have a stuffed animal.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, it can be weird, it can be weird.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: This is a community comment of the day.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: This comes from MikasitaGardens3639, who says I love your videos.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: They are so helpful, fun, fun to watch and have changed our youth ministry.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Thank you all the way from mountain home, arkansas.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: Thank you, mika yeah, thank you, that's really nice.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: And how many like a restaurant?
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: Maybe it is the ar for arkansas.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: I just for you arkinsonians, I don't know what you guys call your razorbacks, whatever.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Whatever you guys call yourselves.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: How many people put AK, because I feel like that is the default.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: No, that's Alaska, oh, but it just seems like that should be Arkansas.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: But anyways, that's.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's a real random Riveting.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: We have derailed.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Hey, thank you guys, so much for watching and listening and we'll see you next time.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: It's just like whoa you, you you, you in, in, just just just wow.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: I feel like an idiot now yeah just can't.