CUEnotes
YouthCUE's blog on topics of youth choir ministry, leadership and professional well-being
Giving leadership to your students (Part 2)
One marvelous way to introduce worship leadership to your students is select a small group and allow them to cite a scripture passage together. A director with a minimum level of speech expertise can gather, rehearse, refine, and prepare a group of 3 to 5 students to...
On the Move with National Honor Choir
Summer brings opportunities for choir tours and family trips across the nation. YouthCUE, however, combines both by making a family of the students you sent to us from across our network for National Honor Choir! They came from 13 states and 2 nations with one...
Giving leadership to your students (Part 1)
At YouthCUE, we very much believe in involving our students — lots of students — in the regular, ongoing leadership of worship. We all say we believe in it, but the question is: do we actually do it? Do we, on a regular basis, do what it takes to keep students engaged...
Only One YOU!
I’m so pleased to connect my past to my present by introducing my friend Molly Shoulta Tucker to the YouthCUE network. Molly is a recent Duke Divinity grad with a passion to share the word in sermon and song. After reading her recent post about the toll stress took on...
Avoiding a Ministry Crash
Recently, we’ve seen quite a lot of media coverage, reporting, and bantering about the airline industry. Overbooking, bumping confirmed travelers, and even dragging an unwilling medical doctor down the aisle of an aircraft have all brought on disbelief, alarm,...
Eighteen choirs with 352 students converge for YouthCUE Baylor Festival 12
On February 24-26, eighteen youth choirs from Texas and Arkansas traveled to Waco, TX, for the 12th Annual YouthCUE – Baylor Festival. Over the past decade-plus, this event has become a classic. To our knowledge, this is the only annual festival in the United States...
Perception
One day last week, I was driving to my office shortly after dawn. I noticed in the eastern sky a most stunning cloud formation which seemed surreal both in color and shape. It appeared to be a perfect match for England, Scotland, and Wales (you know, the one island),...
Students need to be not only accessed, but also engaged and nurtured
Working with teenage singers in a choir is somewhat similar to accessing the apps on your iPhone. If you have twenty-eight students, each one has different physical characteristics, answers to different names, possesses divergent strengths and weaknesses, and operates...
An expansive mission field for student choirs
From well before the establishment of YouthCUE in 1990, it has been obvious that there are numerous natural connections bridging youth choirs and senior adult care facilities. It has always been this way since the early days of my ministry in the 1970s and, now, at...
The necessity of new youth choir models
Last weekend was a busy time for YouthCUE's San Antonio Youth Chorale (SAYC). Our first rehearsal of 2017 was held on the afternoon of January 15, and then we turned around the next day on the Monday MLK Holiday and held a four-hour retreat. On Sunday, the singers and...
