TBC Student Worship Camp helps students grow musical gifts, worship leadership

The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary campus welcomed 80 high school students June 3-6, for the Texas Baptist College (TBC) Student Worship Camp, where faculty and students helped attendees fine-tune their musical skills and study the theology of worship and how to serve their church in that area.

“Our goal for the camp is to help equip students to serve more effectively in their own churches and to help raise up the next generation of worship leaders,” said Joe Crider, dean of the School of Church Music and Worship. “Several students see the importance of being trained as a response to the call of God on their lives and many of them will attend TBC and maybe, eventually, even [Southwestern].”

Marc Brown, assistant professor of church music and organizer of the camp, said the event provided a service to churches raising up worship leaders in their congregation. Brown recalled how systems were in place during his time in youth groups to help teach and better equip young Christians to lead worship, but said those traditions are often not in place anymore.

Brown said pastors may find musically gifted teens in their youth group, and “they really want to help train those students to be better, but that’s not their area of expertise. They’re at a loss for what to do. They’re lost to where to go.” Brown said the camp is the perfect place for those students to further develop that skill and then return to use that knowledge to minister to their church.

Cate Tombrella of Kerville, Texas, after attending the camp the past three years, will begin pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Worship Studies at TBC in the fall. She said she looks forward to studying at further depth what she has already been learning at the camp.

“I’ve learned a lot about playing keyboard or how to better hone that skill, but also just a lot about leading worship instead of just going up on the stage and performing,” said Tombrella, whose father is a Southwestern alumnus.

Tombrella said she especially enjoyed a breakout led by Crider, “What’s at stake on Sunday mornings,” discussing the theology of worship, the reason for leading worship, and the impact it can have on the congregation.

Campers attended a variety of breakout sessions each day, following a morning devotional led by Richard Ross, senior professor of student ministry. Those sessions were designed to give them opportunities to discover new musical talents or continue to grow in current ones. They would also practice with their individual bands, which they were assigned to upon arriving, preparing with their peers for an end-of-the-week showcase for family and faculty.

Campers also attended master classes based around their individual instruments, including voice. All campers participated in the camp choir and bands engaged in friendly competitions throughout the week.  Brian Berry, instructor of biblical studies in TBC, led evening devotionals.

Lindy Crock, an upcoming high school senior from Fort Worth, enjoyed her time at the camp after being recommended to attend by her voice teacher, Timothy Edmond, a current Southwestern Master of Music in voice student from Oklahoma City. Crock was pleased with the fellowship and worship opportunities offered by the camp.

“I’ve loved getting to worship with a bunch of people, especially that also do music, that’s been really fun,” Crock said. “And getting to grow in my walk with God, but specifically related to singing songs to Him, that has been really cool.”

Highlights for Crock including singing a cappella with other students in Cowden Hall, as well as the close fellowship she experienced with her fellow campers in the dorms, where they were able to share about life and celebrate with and encourage each other.

Servio Jerez, from Grand Prairie, is going into his senior year of high school. His youth pastor, who is currently pursuing his master’s at Southwestern, recommended he attend the camp. Over the course of the week, it was Crider’s breakout class on the theology behind worship which felt the most impactful to him, as well as the advanced music theory and improvisation class by Nathan Burgraff, associate professor of music theory.

Jerez said the classes helped him delve “deeper into an understanding of music, which has really helped me be more comfortable on stage in leading worship, because I’m able to focus more on leading the conversation.”

Abigail Romero is an upcoming college freshman from Dallas. This year was her second time attending the camp after being recommended to go by a member of her church. She said Crider’s breakout sessions were thought-provoking, leading her to examine her own worship.

“His class, it like changed the entire way that I worship,” Romero said. “Which is insane, because like, I’ve been doing this for four years now, and it took me four years to actually understand how I’m supposed to do it rightly.”

Romero said the biblical foundation of the leaders’ teaching was incredibly impactful.

“The main reason why I loved it and the main reason why I want to go through is because every single word that comes out of the mouth of the teachers first came out of the Bible,” Romero said. “And that’s really, really, really rare to find nowadays, because people want to sound poetic, or people want to sound agreeable, rather than actually speaking the truth that the Bible says.”

The 2025 camp marked the third year since bringing the event to Southwestern’s campus, growing from about 50 students in 2023 to 80 this summer. Brown also pointed out that as some students return for a second and even third year, the spiritual maturity and musical ability of the group has increased as the students increase their knowledge and help other new students grow in theirs.

“It’s like there was a quality jump,” Brown said of the change in culture of the camp. “And not necessarily in us, but in the campers and the people that God’s bringing here.”

This year, the TBC Student Worship Camp partnered with Christian musical artists Shane and Shane to provide three free months of their “Worship Initiative” digital resources to the camp attendees. The Worship Initiative is a ministry started to help train and be a resource for local church worship leaders. It provides everything from sheet music, to tutorials, and a variety of other tools to assist in helping a church’s worship team learn and grow.

“We were thrilled to have The Worship Initiative encourage all 80 campers with three months of free access to the resources and training videos on their website,” Crider said.

Andrew McKinney, the executive vice-president of The Worship Initiative visited the camp on Friday to spend time with students and their parents during lunch, encouraging them to use the resources offered by The Worship Initiative to keep up the skills they picked up throughout the week.

“We look forward to partnering more in the future with the Worship Initiative and their new website channel – SBC Worship,” Crider said.