I have to admit that in my day I’ve played with plenty of garage bands. When I was in high school, there was nothing more exciting than setting up all your equipment in your friends garage, turning the amps up to 11 and playing all the songs you knew as loud as you could until the neighbors came over and asked you to stop or called the police! So, am I asking you to engage in illegal activity? No, not at all, but “jamming out” is a great way to play with other musicians without having to worry about details and just have fun! On our last LIFE TEEN retreat we had a little jam session during the afternoon break. The band and I switched instruments and just started to play some music. It was a lot of fun. Pretty soon the teens came around and a few of them wanted to play as well. They actually heard us playing some music that wasn’t “Church Music.” This attracted some of the teens that were musicians. A few of them grabbed a guitar, a bass, and the keyboard and started to play the songs that they knew. We jumped in and starting playing and singing with them. Sometimes badly, but it really didn’t matter…we had fun. During this little jam session I quickly began to realize that we had some great musicians in our teen program. I asked a few of them to come to our rehearsal during the week. They did just that and we now have 3 new musicians at a few of our weekend Masses. What a great way to get to know who your musicians are. Sometimes the teens may be intimidated by you. It’s great to let down the walls in a non-threatening environment like a retreat or maybe even at the end of a Life night. My only caution would be to know that they will for sure need some training and guidance before you plug them into the Liturgy. Have them come to rehearsal for a few weeks to see what their commitment level is and what their sight reading abilities are. Talk to them about the difference between Ministry and playing in a band for fun or entertainment. The teens are the “now” and future of our Church and we need to do what we can to foster, encourage and develop their talents for the greater glory and honor of God.