Does it ever bother anyone else that we've taken the word "worship" to somehow only mean the music that we play during Sunday morning service????

I'd talked to my pastor a few different times, but we'd decided I wasn't ready musically, then after my first year of college, came back, he said I could join, and I came Thursday expecting the typical "rehearse three weeks to gel with the group first" and got told I was playing Sunday.  I only get to play during summers and the occasional weekend home though, my church at college requires all the worship team to be members.

i used to lead praise in my church's high school ministry.

i started being in praise team as a seventh grader in the middle school ministry. i was very bad. seventh and eighth grade were all about me developing my keyboard skills and learning how this whole band thing worked. i basically had to ask the leader to join, had to show up and not play at a few practices to show my commitment, and that was pretty much it.

freshman were not allowed to join praise team, but since my older sister was in the team, i was basically at every practice anyway. there i learned more about how to lead a band and be a good, key member of one. i also spent this year of no service honing my keyboard and "singing-while-playing" skills.

sophomore year i basically filled out an interview and auditioned. i then made the band, and since there were no keyboardists except for me, i got a lot of playing time. it was awesome. i didn't really sing this year, though.

junior year i reapplied (every member must reapply if they wish to stay in the team), and remained the keyboardist, but also started to develop my background and lead vocal skills. i also started to serve at many retreats this year.

i was informed near the end of the year that i was the best candidate to be a leader, seeing my experience level in praise team.

i basically see it as being part of a praise team means a LOT of commitment, and also a certain level of skill is necessary. even if you have commitment, the band is being held back if your talent isn't up to par. i mean, it's kinda messed up, but in the end it's better for everyone, because the ones who lack skill may gain motivation to improve.

i regret letting so many members onto my team senior year...it just made things very complicated and way too technical...it took away from some of the praise aspects.

heheh, praise vs. musical technicality...now there's a WHOLE 'nother story to that.

That was awesome!

He would fit perfectly in my church's band--we have a brass band, no guitars, no bass, no lead singer (except, of course the congregation), no keyboard (unless you count the ones on the piano and organ).

At my church, we call it the the worship team, though it's really the praise team, since we're supposed to worship God through everything we do, not just music. One of our retreat speakers pointed that out to us, but it's hard to get out of the habit of calling it the worship team.

I joined my church's youth's teams after I talked to my pastor about it. I started in the jr. high Sunday service and youth group team first, in seventh grade, and now I'm in the senior high team. I started with keyboard [my first interaction with chords! Needless to say, it wasn't pretty] and vocals and now I'm a student leader with two others. I've always been influenced by my parents, who are deeply involved with the Chinese congregation's praise team and so I've picked up a lot of what I do now from them.

I volunteered to play bass for the youth band and then I worked my way up to playing bass for the sunday morning band which is now exactly the same band as the youth band like a month ago I was asked to switch to playing guitar

The circumstances in which I entered the music team was "dark"...

I started off as the sound technician for a few months. Then the church had an internal conflict (don't you hate it when these happen?), and as a result the church split into 3 factions, including the neutral faction who refuse to get involved in the conflict. Eventually half the church left, along with most of the music team.

So, because of the desperate need of the time, I was drafted into the music team. Had no musical background at all, and I was given 3 weeks to learn the bass guitar from scratch to play 5 songs on sunday! That first time was disastrous!

Anyway, after that I continued to improve on my skills and God blessed me by expanding my musicianship into playing the acoustic, electric, and also singing and composing some songs.

Yeah, whenever I ponder on the beginnings of my music ministry... I always wonder what would have happened if the church hadn't split...

I lead in my youths worship band and I play guitar and sing with the adult praise band during the sunday worship :)

I  also take part in the young adult worship band which is different then the youth one.  Haha- its CONFUSING I know.

-katie/ those_minglingthoughts

spoof "more cowbell" maybe? lol

(it's a SNL sketch with Will Ferrell and a few other cast members pretending to be blue oyster cult)