“Savior, He can move the mountains, my God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save.” The Hillsong United lyrics radiate through the room and into the ears of awaiting ears and a quaint smile forms on her face as she pours her voice out into the microphone. It’s routine for junior Madeline Sanderson. Every Wednesday, same stage, same voice, same heart and same goal to reach her fellow youth with the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

At 5 years old, Madeline began singing and learning to play the guitar. She performed her first solo at age 6, sang on stage at age 8, and joined her father in playing for the church congregation on Sundays at age 11. Today, she is the worship leader of her youth group and attends her church’s youth camps where she sings and plays. This upcoming summer, she plans to lead the worship at some of the camps. Through it all, Madeline said she centers her worship and singing around her faith in Christ and using her talent for His glory.

“Being raised in church I have always been told to do everything I do with God as my reason,” Madeline said. “I now don’t do it because I’m told to, but because I want him as the center focus of my life. When I sing and play guitar I usually feel a feeling of success. It makes me so thankful that God gave me the ability to do this; because I honestly don’t know what my life would be like if it weren’t so filled with opportunities to play music for His glory. It gives me time to think, and also time to praise with all I have.”

Through her musical experience, Madeline has received support from both friends and family and her main encouragement has been from both her mom, Anatomy and Physiology teacher, Brandi Sanderson, and her dad, who is the worship leader at her church, Christian Heritage. Her two brothers are also involved in music as one plays the drums and the other plays the piano and sings.

“My parents are the most amazing people I know,” Madeline said. “My mom has been the main source of encouragement as far as my faith, morals and music go. My inspiration is probably my dad. When I was younger, I always said I’m going to be on the stage one day playing the guitar just like him. At times it seemed impossible, but his encouragement is never ending.”

Madeline said her favorite thing to do in her spare time is to play the guitar and said music at many times, has been almost like prayer to her and helps her to connect with God. She said she most often finds inspiration from her prayers and uses them to write songs.

“Praise and worship is a way of inviting God’s presence into where you are,” Madeline said. “I believe you can have a time of worship anywhere. Even sitting in my car listening to music I get really into it at times. In all, music is a lot of the reason God has become a part of my life and I am so blessed to be able to have so much part in it at church at such a young age.”

Madeline said through this experience she has grown closer to God, and with it she has gained stronger values and morals. She said she now finds comfort in saying “no” to things that may not be good for her faith and has gained more confidence to stepping out of her comfort zone to reach other people and tell them about her experience.

“[God] gave me the ability to lead and that is exactly what I want to do,” Madeline said. “I may lose some friends along the way, but I want my actions and the way I carry myself to show directly who I live for and plant a seed in people’s lives. I hope that when I walk into a room people can tell something different about me. I don’t want to be just another girl, but undignified for the One who gave everything for me.”

Madeline’s weekly schedule normally consists of work and school, where she tries to squeeze in some time to sing and play guitar. Every Wednesday she meets for music practice at 5:30 and before practice she has to set up the sound system in the youth room. Aside from Wednesdays, the weekends are a different story.

“Sunday mornings normally consist of getting up at 6:30 to get to church by 8 and setting up the stage in the sanctuary,” Madeline said. “[We then] go to early service for worship at 8:30, which my dad leads alone, and then [get to] practice for our main service. The weekends are normally super busy, and the closer it gets to the summer, the more filled my weeknights get preparing music for our summer camp.”

In all the busyness of practice, work and school, the stage butterflies are surely not forgotten and even then, they hold nothing to Madeline. When she does get the butterflies, she said she relies on her faith to ease the nervousness.

“I realize there is no need to be nervous because worship is not for my glory,” Madeline said. “One of my really good friends told me one night to go all out, because the point of being [on stage] is to lead people to inviting God’s presence, and if you don’t go all out, the presence won’t enter, and what is the point if there is no presence? I still struggle some weeks with my nervousness, but overall it is getting much better.”

Today, she reaches out to her fellow generation not only through worship but through teaching lessons and devotions as well. Though she has received mixed reactions to her reaching out, she hangs on to the desire to speak many more times to come.

“One night a girl actually called me and cussed me out for what I had to say,” Madeline said. “That same night someone called to thank me for the words I had given her. Even though there will be a tough crowd at times it will be worth it if only one person receives a positive message. I honestly see something huge in our generation. I see people our age doing bigger things that most adults could even have imagined at our age. Our generation is the leaders that I see making a huge impact and change on this world. Our generation isn’t waiting to grow up; they are starting their ministry now. I hope to look back and say ‘wow, look what they did‘.”

All in all, Madeline hopes to keep music in her life in the future, but said she looks forward to becoming a youth pastor and counselor to give youth the opportunity to come to her for help and guidance.

“God moves in crazy ways, you never know what he will do to get you where you need to be, but you have to be patient,” Madeline said. “God is my friend, but like getting to know anyone each day, the friendship becomes a little different, and my experiences are becoming the building blocks that shape who I am. Life is a wild ride, embrace it. Love God, and do everything to the best of your ability, because everyone can save someone else’s life by just sharing the God they have experienced.”