When we think about our mid-week youth meetings, we often think about music. If our group is large enough, we may even have a youth worship band, and I am totally on board with that. If you can get your students serving in youth group, they are only a couple steps away from serving the church body as a whole. You may not have the student talent to create a worship band or an adult volunteer to lead, so you may be using YouTube videos for musical worship. Whatever your situation looks like, it is important to understand that music matters.
Music is an important part of the Christian life and, as pastors and student ministry workers, we need to expose our students to the right music for worship. What makes music the “right music?”
• The right music is about proper substance, not style. For many years, “worship wars” was a major point of discussion. Adding drums or guitars to a worship service was seen as wrong by some congregations. To a large degree, I believe we are past that type of battle in local churches. There are still going to be disagreements but, by and large, churches found the style that best suits them. However, at the end of the day, it is about the lyrics of what we are singing rather than the style of the music.
• The right music needs to reflect proper theology. It is important that the music you are singing in youth group or during congregational worship is biblical. It is easy to hear things on Christian radio and think, “That will be great for youth group!” However, if we aren’t careful, we will sing things that are only partially true. As student ministry workers, we need it to be rock solid. Music burns its way into our hearts. If we are singing about the wrong things, it will shape what we think about God. This is true with group worship as well as traveling music in our church vans and buses. We need to curate playlists that honor God and His Word.
• The right music should be singable. That isn’t the case with all the things we listen to. However, for youth group or congregational worship, we should find music that is in a comfortable key for the group we are leading. We must think about age, gender and even musicality.
Music is a big part of our teenagers’ lives. For some of us, that love of music remains. We sing at every opportunity we get. Let me encourage you to think about the music that is a part of your ministry. What we listen to matters because music matters.
If you are looking for a great conference about music and theology, check out the Sing! Conference in the Nashville, Tenn. area. It does an incredible job balancing the practical and theological concerns of music in the church.
Join the conversation at facebook.com/groups/StudentMinistryMattersCommunity.
