Introduction
Over the summer, I was assisting several scholars with a project that explores how young people (aged 12 through 30) engage in worship. Utilizing ethnographic methods, our research team visited six different summer camps across North America that bring young people together to participate in worship-related activities. You can learn more about it here.
It’s an exciting topic. After all, as a 25-year-old, it sometimes seems as though every churchgoer over the age of 30 is strategizing to spark or sustain my generation’s interest in worship for the sake of keeping their congregation operationally afloat: “How will we remain financially stable in the long term? Who will host our events? Who will lead our music?”
It is too early in the stages of the project that I describe above to offer many solid conclusions about what factors, musical or otherwise, motivate young people to participate in worship. There is so much analysis still ahead of us! In the meantime, to summarize what I am learning about young people and their capacity to lead congregational song, I will take less of a cue from the project data and more of a cue from my own life and experiences as a young adult.
When Young People Lead Music
Specifically, I want to reflect on my work as co-director of Menno Youth Ensemble. Although I recently concluded this role, it was my privilege to meet with a group of eight high school students once a week over eight months to make music together. We learned everything from choral repertoire to pop music, ranging from a cappella to instrumental arrangements, and on several occasions, we led congregational song at local churches.
Despite the relatively low number of participants, Menno Youth Ensemble was richly diverse. Some participants could sight-read advanced musical scores. Some of them could only learn music by ear. Some participants could play upwards of five instruments, while others primarily identified as vocalists. There were participants who exclusively read chord symbols, and there were participants who would have sung all four vocal parts at once if it were possible to do so.
Most of these young people were involved in other musical groups and activities while participating in Menno Youth Ensemble. For that reason, we saw our ensemble as less of a space for teaching new musical skills and more of a space for honing the skills that members had learned and then brought to our table from somewhere else. The result was a little eclectic and often a bit “clunky”: it sometimes took a lot of time for people to switch instruments between songs, and it was probably disorienting for congregations to experience such a wide range of musical genres in a single service! At the same time, our approach as an ensemble was highly participatory and accessible, leading me to wonder how churches might learn from it. If a congregation seeks young people to assist with leading music, perhaps there is value in considering not what kind of music will attract young people, but what kind of music is accessible to young people. As Menno Youth Ensemble demonstrated for me, the answer to that question varies from one young person to another.
When Young People Do Not Lead Music
Don’t mistake my description of Menno Youth Ensemble thus far to mean that young people wish to lead music in their congregations all the time (or at all). In fact, my work with these high school students taught me quite the opposite lesson! Yes, it was delightful to see young musicians contribute their various gifts to worship services through our ensemble, but it was also important to honour the times that these same musicians did not wish to exercise such leadership. I will share the two most striking examples.
First, at the halfway mark of our winter season, most members of the ensemble traveled with me and my co-director to a retreat center to make music with Mennonites of all ages for a weekend. It was a rejuvenating few days of workshops, worship, jam sessions, and crafts. I led a workshop with a songwriting focus (although I am far from a prolific songwriter myself). To my delight, one of the participants of our ensemble wrote a beautiful melody and paired it with lyrics expressing thanksgiving to God for creating the natural world. As I recall, she used “we” rather than “I” language, making it especially suitable for congregational use. I immediately started to brainstorm ways that she could share the song with a wider audience. Conveniently, I chair a team of people who make songs and other worship resources freely available on a website called Together in Worship, so I emailed her several weeks later asking if she might be willing to submit her work to us. Her response surprised me. Knowing that I had drafted a song at the workshop as well, she somewhat cheekily told me that she would only submit her song if I also submitted mine (which is still incomplete at this time)! I had assumed that by writing a song with so much liturgical potential, she would be eager for people to sing it in worship, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Maybe it feels intimidating to her. Maybe it falls on me—as one of her mentors—to model the vulnerability and courage it takes to share a musical gift with the Church.
I navigated a very similar situation with one other member of Menno Youth Ensemble. At the end of our season, we hosted a coffeehouse for family, friends, and other community supporters. We prepared several collaborative acts as an ensemble, but we also encouraged solo performances from our members. One participant shared an original song that she composed; much like what emerged at the retreat from one of her peers, the song was very suitable for worship! She wrote it in a contemporary style with lyrics speaking of the comfort that comes from her relationship with God. Once again, I readily encouraged her to submit the song to Together in Worship so that other people might find opportunities to sing it. Once again, to my surprise, she thanked me for the recommendation and told me that she would consider it, but several months later, she hasn’t submitted the song (although she assured me that she still intends to do so!).
Who Will Lead Our Music?
It is tempting to deduce from these examples that older music leaders need to work harder to convince young people that their contributions to worship are both valid and essential. Perhaps these two members of Menno Youth Ensemble don’t fully realize the value of what they might offer to the Church through their music. The risk of this approach, however, is the amount of pressure that it places on young people. Are we inadvertently suggesting that the future of the Church rests on what young people contribute to it, whether that is an original song or a commitment to leading music on a regular basis? While it is true that the Church is shaped by young people in the long term, and it is important to create space for young people to make their mark on worship, it is equally important to ensure that we aren’t overburdening them.
I want the members of Menno Youth Ensemble to know that all of their diverse musical gifts are welcome in worship. I also want them to know that their music is uniquely valuable and capable of transforming their communities in life-giving ways. Despite all of that, though, I want them to know that musical leadership does not fall exclusively to them. I want them to feel free to immerse themselves in congregational song so much that they start writing their own songs—not because the older people in their churches are demanding anything from them, but because the older people in their churches are so inspiring and encouraging to them.
Young people should keep receiving opportunities to lead older people in music. At the same time, older people should continue to lead music for the sake of its impact on younger people. That impact often runs deeper than what a young musician might be willing to share on a Sunday morning, and that’s alright. After all, there is little reason to celebrate a congregation that stays operationally afloat if the relationships that form below the surface and between generations are not rooted in mutual trust and support. Who will lead our music? It might be someone young, or it might be someone old. Let’s show enough grace to each other to let people of all ages ask (and answer) that question as the Spirit leads them.
Mykayla Turner holds a Master of Sacred Music with a Liturgical Musicology concentration and a Master of Theological Studies. She obtained her A.C.C.M. in Piano Performance from Conservatory Canada. Currently, she is a PhD student in the Faculty of Theology at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, ON. Apart from her academic work, she is an active church musician and liturgist. She also co-directs Ontario Mennonite Music Camp and chairs the team of volunteers who maintain Together in Worship, a curated collection of free worship resources from Anabaptist sources.
