Worship team program grows under leadership of Daniel Garrison
Whether students are stringing the guitar, banging drums or equalizing sound on the tech board all have been influenced by worship team instructor Daniel Garrison. So how did it all start for Garrison? When did he first begin to build this program?
Garrison turned his life over to Jesus in high school and has not looked back since. Any opportunity to play music and help out at church, he was there.
Graduation came fast and Garrison wanted to start in worship ministry right away. This began with junior high slowly progressing to high school and later the college ministry. Before he knew it, he was offered an internship for full time worship ministry at Peoples church.
“Through the whole process of leading, you meet a lot of people, and one of those people that I met was Jeremy Brown. So when he became superintendent back in 2014, I had known him for a long time. He asked me if I could lead a worship class at the school and I said,”‘I’ve never taught before but if you’re willing to help me with this, we can make it happen!”
Today, Garrison leads Fresno Christian high school students who sing, play instruments and control the tech board to come together for weekly Thursday chapels.
After seven years of working at Fresno Christian, Garrison has discovered that the best way to get inspiration for the chapel setlist is from his students.
“Sometimes it starts with a song, and we expand from that with a theme we can tie in,” Garrison explains. “Other times, it’s us pulling in songs we haven’t played in a few weeks that touched many students, so it has to be repeated.”
Choosing music is only part of the challenge Garrison has to face in his job. Over the years, he has learned how to take students who come with little to no musical background and transform them into worship leaders.
The first semester of junior high class is a non-audition class where learning basic instruments and tech develop an interest. Training begins early. By the second semester, students are leading elementary classes in weekly chapels.
“High school however, has to audition. This school has a lot of very talented students, but we only have a certain amount of spots,” Garrison said. “So to join the high school crew, you have to start out with some talent, then we will expand on that.
“We also look into the spiritual side. I have to see that each person is very passionate about worship because I want to take that passion and magnify it over any musical skill.”
Garrison challenges his students daily with new songs and exercises to stretch their talents and make them a better musician overall. Worship team offers bible credit and works through curriculum to meet class requirements as an alternative to a regular bible class other students take. This gives Garrison a platform to also instruct the students as a bible teacher as well.
In the six years worship team has been offered many students have gone on to continue their worship ministry beyond high school. Lessons learned on the SMC stage have transfered to churches all over the nation.
Tyler Villines, ’18, currently attending GCU has applied many lessons he learned while at FC to his current position of college worship leader for The Collective at NPHX in Arizona.
“To be honest with you, I have no idea if I would’ve ever realized my calling into full time ministry if it wasn’t for G,” Villines said. “He saw something in me that had not yet come to be.”
“I was just some athlete who didn’t really have any direction, who decided to try out for worship team to get out of bible class, and walked off that campus prepared physically, mentally, and spiritually to step into my calling. I get the opportunity to lead a college group here in Arizona in worship and I find myself nearly every week thanking God for G.”
Has Daniel Garrison impacted your life? Let us know in the comment section below.
For more Feather photos go to The Feather Media page and to learn more about the worship team read, First-year worship team member finds passion through singing.
