A few weeks ago, our student pastor asked me to come up with a list of expectations for the members of our youth worship team. It was back in March that I began leading worship for the student ministry during their mid-week worship services. I’ve loved serving in this role, despite being stretched and trying to learn to play along with other instruments — something I’ve never done before.

As can be expected, we had a couple of members of the team who showed some apathy or, for some reason or another, ended up being asked to take a break and examine their heart and desires for being a part of the worship ministry team. This is what led our student pastor to ask me to come up with this list.

That being said, here is a rough draft that I came up with. These are in no particular order.

• Attend the team practices regularly. Perfect attendance is not required, but you are expected to be there as much as possible. In order to play during the weekly services, you must attend practice. If you miss a practice, then you will have to miss out on playing in the service that week.
• Improve on your God-given talents. Practice at home or with friends whenever you are able. Put in some time on a regular, weekly basis with your instrument. Learn about it, get better at using it, and push yourself to become an overall better musician.
• Attend church services regularly.
• While you are at church, be an example in your actions and appearance. You are, in a sense, a worship leader and you never know who is watching you with that in mind. Be mindful of how you look and how you act while you are at church or church functions.
• While you are at home or at school, surround yourself with “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable…anything that is excellent or praiseworthy.” (Phil. 4: Apply this to the choices you make regarding people and the “stuff” in life.
• Find some way to extend your ministry on the other days of the week as well (not just Wednesday night). You should make an effort to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. (This will look very different for everyone on the team.)
• Honesty and accountability are expected from every single member of the team. We should make a strong effort to be open with each other and this requires honesty from everyone as well as trust. If you are struggling, reach out to (the student pastor) or Andy. At the very least, talk to another member of the team. Let’s not allow any sort of “fake” or “mask” mentality to creep into our ministry team. We are not perfect, nor is perfection expected of any of you.
• Stay in touch with the team. Regular communication (phone, email, TXT, etc.) between team members is expected and encouraged for the sake of community — we are a team, a family, and will need to function as one throughout the week. Therefore…
• Make an attempt to spend some time together as a group just “hanging out” with one another. This may/may not happen EVERY week, but we will try to make it happen as often as we can.

I would appreciate any thoughts or input on this list.

While perusing the blogs this morning, a few youth ministry related posts stood out to me:

• Student ministry workers: focus on the kids that ARE there, eh? How many times did I stand in front of the group of youth that God had given me and complain about all of the people that were missing. I wonder how I made those that were there feel? May I never treat the absence of many as a bigger deal than the presence of the few.
• Why (Greg Stier thinks that) Mormons Do Better Youth Ministry. In an article on the Dare 2 Share website, Stier suggests that the Mormon church does a better job of reaching today’s youth. I don’t know that I agree with the gist of this article. However, we could use some of their principles and ideas and apply them to our ministries and churches in a way that would glorify the Lord.
• Why church is often a student’s last priority. On the heels of the previous article, Tim Schmoyer offers up his take on why church seems to be the last priority in the life of today’s teenagers. He ties in the comparison of the church and the athletics organizations that many teenagers are involved in.