During a recent practice, Youth Praise and Worship members at St. John Vianney Parish in Kailua pose for a photo. From left, Lia Walters on the synthesizer, Erin Valenzuela on vocals, Reagan Beissel on piano and lead vocals, Olivia Holmquist on vocals, John Medeiros with bass guitar, Austin Holmquist with percussion, ministry leader Michael Wong, Christian Salehi on saxophone, Michael Salehi on trumpet, and Noelani Brennan on clarinet. (Courtesy photo)
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
On Sunday afternoons at St. John Vianney Church in Kailua, you’ll hear the sound of contemporary Christian music coming from a room where middle school and high school parishioners are playing piano, bass, clarinet, electric guitar, synthesizer and percussion instruments. Several vocalists sing along.
They are practicing ahead of providing music for St. John Vianney’s monthly family Mass. But beyond providing music in church, the group has helped teens find their niche at the parish.
“For me, the most important part of Youth Praise and Worship is its ability to reach youth who might otherwise not feel like they have an opportunity to be involved in our parish and the Mass,” said the parish’s director of religious education Steffanie Beissel. “There is a huge difference between being an observer and a participant, and YPW helps bridge that gap.”
Beissel’s 15-year-old daughter, Reagan, agrees that playing in the group makes Mass a lot more interactive “than just sitting and watching.”
“It gets kids involved so they don’t feel like they are just spectators but part of the actual parish,” said Reagan, a freshman at Sacred Hearts Academy.
The idea for a youth-led music ministry at St. John Vianney Parish in Kailua started in fall 2018 when Beissel asked parishioner Mike Wong to help with the middle school youth ministry “lock-in.”
Wong had done music ministry for the local branch of People of Praise, a charismatic Christian community. And he’s great with kids, Beissel said.
“I joked he was like the Pied-Piper: a group of rowdy, energetic sixth to eighth graders entered the room, and within minutes was sitting on the floor quietly listening to how to worship God through music,” Beissel said of the successful lock-in activity.
From there evolved the idea for a regular youth music group leading music at the monthly family Mass. While the band started small, more and more youth joined.
“I wasn’t really recruiting, and people just started showing up,” Wong said. There are now 11 members.
While the group took a break for a while after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they resumed socially distance practicing in the parish hall when it was allowed.
The teens bring their own music and equipment and help choose what music they’ll be working on. Reagan Beissel, for instance, has been working on “Good Good Father” by Chris Tomlin with her friend Olivia Holmquist.
Wong has seen these youth grow more and more confident in their playing and singing. He’s also received positive feedback from fellow parishioners.
“I wanted to see what the reaction would be from the congregation because we don’t have a whole bunch of young kids attending Mass, it’s mostly our older generation,” he said.
Turns out many enjoy the contemporary music the Youth Praise and Worship band provides.
“We get so many compliments,” Wong said. “In this COVID time, they find the music very uplifting.
Beissel also believes the band gives teens “a great chance to interact with other Catholic youth in a time where we weren’t able to give them that opportunity very often.”
Reagan thinks Wong is a great youth music minister who puts the teens through their musical paces but has “a very strong element of fun in the mix.”
“Honestly, I don’t think any other person would have been more qualified to be in a group of teenagers in contemporary worship songs due to his background and the fact that he’s so open-minded and supportive of all the things that kids are doing,” she said.
