This year, the Light Above Company in Pasadena has started offering free guitar lessons as part of its music ministry. While the students are primarily children and youth from the church, the free lessons are also a way to share the gospel with the community around the church.
Bob Cañete, the church’s bookkeeper and the lead guitar teacher, sees this as an important ministry opportunity. Cañete has been teaching guitar for more than 15 years. “It’s the retention part,” he says of this ministry. “It’s the youth ministry and the music ministry as one.”
The lessons are offered every Sabbath from 2-3 p.m. on the church campus. Four other teachers assist Cañete in teaching the students. As soon as the first lesson last month, there were already students participating from multiple churches.
The classes were designed for beginners, starting with the basics, such as parts of the guitar, how to strum, and basic notes. Soon each student was able to play “Jesus Loves Me.”
Each class has a corresponding video lesson. These videos include a tutorial as well as music sheets created for the guitar accompaniment to various hymns from our church hymnal. Check out these video lessons on YouTube; the channel name is “Light Above Classical Guitar Lessons.”
