How does BYB Work for You?
Across the country we see the same reality in many churches.
Worship teams feel under-resourced, while students with musical potential remain under-estimated.
Building Your Band exists to help churches bridge that gap by developing the next generation of worship leaders.
Our approach is simple and relational.
1. Discover
- Identify the students God has already placed in your church
Most churches already have students with musical ability. They may be playing guitar in their bedroom, taking piano lessons, singing in school choir, or experimenting with music production. But many of these students have never been invited into the conversation of worship leadership.
The first step is simply discovering who they are. Church leaders invite students to participate in a Building Your Band camp experience where they begin exploring music, worship, and leadership together.
Often this is the moment when students realize:
“Maybe I could do this.”
2. Develop
Train students spiritually and musically
During the camp experience students receive hands-on instruction in:
- Their musical instrument
- Band rehearsals
- Worship theology
- Spiritual formation
Students spend time learning the language of music while also exploring what it means to worship God with their lives and their gifts.
They rehearse together in bands, practice leading songs, and experience the joy of creating music in community.
This stage builds both confidence and calling.
3. Deploy
Launch students into real worship leadership
The goal of Building Your Band is not simply to run a camp. The goal is to develop long-term worship leaders for your church.
After the camp experience many students begin serving in:
- Youth worship teams
- Sunday worship teams
- Special services and events
Churches often discover that students who were once quiet observers become some of the most passionate leaders in their worship community.
4. The Result?
When churches intentionally invest in developing student worship leaders, something remarkable happens:
- Students discover that their gifts matter.
- Churches discover new worship leaders.
- And the next generation begins taking ownership of worship in the life of the church.
- What once felt like a shortage of musicians often turns out to be a shortage of pathways.
Building Your Band helps create that pathway.
Start the Conversation
If you would like to explore what Building Your Band could look like in your church, we would love to talk.
SUMMARY
BYB is a culmination of decades of worship experience by multiple instructors who guide potential worship leaders from a starting point (zero experience) to actually playing in student and adult bands in their churches .
1. Learn an instrument from scratch:
- Piano
- Guitar: acoustic and electric
- Bass
- Drums
- Voice
- A/V & Tech
2. Enter the “conversation” of making music, by playing and sing songs together
3. Join a band in and perform with them
4. Study basic worship truth as a follower of Jesus Christ
5. Become familiar with the “Language of Music” (what many call basic music theory)
6. Church leaders call this camp experience “rocket fuel” for the young worship band participant.
7. Students enter the musical conversation in one week of camp!
8. Using this proven approach has resulted in:
- 11 different camps in the past fifteen years
- We have seen over 500 young people impacted for worship
- Students on at least twenty-five church stages
- Both student and adult worship leaders and band members in the Triad and the Triangle and throughout Jamaica.
HISTORY
Since its beginning in 2010, David Loftis and his team of worship leaders have been training dozens of young worshippers to populate the stages with backline band players, upfront worship leaders and support roles. This ministry continues once again now as a curriculum which you can use – or we will bring – into your local area.
BASIC INFORMATION
WHO: Rising 5th – 10th Grade students (11th & 12th graders come as “Student Assistants” who can also learn, but who help facilitate the camp as well).
WHAT: A 5-day day camp experience introducing and perpetuating worship through music for pre-teens and teenagers.
WHERE: Local Churches & Colleges host.
WHEN: M-F (ALT: Tues-Sat or Wed-Sun) 8:30-5:00pm, with a family cookout and concert on the closing evening.
COST: See Pricing Sheets for two Optional Plans (one we print & ship to you, one as a digital license so you can personalize and print for yourself). Included in the curriculum:
- Notebooks for students & teachers
- Stipends for teachers
- Rental of facilities if applicable
- Camp costs (daily meals for campers & staff, Cookout food, etc.)
- Cost of prizes and giveaways
WHEN: Timing is up to the host church, then according to schedule of instructors and participating churches.
WHY: developing worship leaders for God in the next generation is critical for our young family-oriented church plants to sustain their ministry. Reaching the next generation for Christ will involve dedicated worshippers. Ultimately, as John Piper says, “worship is the fuel that drives the engine of evangelism and missions” – so developing a next level of worshippers is critical for this generation and the next.
PERSONNEL NEEDS & TRAINING
PERSONNEL NEEDED & WHAT IS PROVIDED: (for a typical camp of 50-60 campers).
| Camp Directors – | 2-4 |
| Admin Team – | 2-3 |
| Instructors – | 5-10 |
| Assistants – | 10 |
| TOTAL NEED FOR THE CAMP | 19-27 |
TRAINING
Will be provided by David Loftis & the BYB team for each level of the ministry. Typically, the training consists of 3-4 sessions of 60-90 minutes which include orientation, basic camp training and planning, safety and ministry training and team spiritual preparation. This can be done on a “long” Saturday or broken up over Friday evening & Saturday morning.
