During the 1980's a few high progressive churches began to experiment with a new approach to song leading. Instead of having a single man to lead singing, a team of people came together to serve as song leaders or support for song leaders. These people came to be known as praise teams.
Small rural churches used to have one or two ladies who were good alto singers. Girls would sit close to that lady and learn how to sing alto. The same church had one or two men who were good bass singers and tenor singers. Young men could listen to those men and learn to sing bass or tenor.
In the urban church the good alto, tenor, and bass singers can no longer be heard. So, the praise team replaced those people. Praise team singers have their voices amplified over the church amplification system so everyone can hear them sing. Praise teams have become a new way to help people to learn to sing voice parts and learn new songs quickly.
Some churches have a four voice praise team. A single group of four people will not be able to be present at every assembly over the course of a year. So, churches quickly learned they need at least 12 singers in order to have a four voice praise team to consistently be present every Sunday of the year.
In the average church only 3% of the members are quality candidates for a high quality praise team. This means that the church will need about 400 members to maintain a staff of 12 quality singers.
If a church wants eight voices in their praise team, then they will need at leas a staff of sixteen singers to maintain a level of eight singers every Sunday. If that church has only 3% of its members that can serve on this team, then the church will need nearly 550 members to maintain the praise team.
70% of all Churches of Christ have 100 members or less. Only 20% of all Churches of Christ have more than 100 but less than 200 members. Only 5% of all Churches of Christ have more than 200 but less than 300 members. And only 5% of all churches have more than 300 members. This means that only 5% of all churches have the human resources need to maintain a praise team on an every day basis. So, praise teams do not work for most churches.
A little research shows that the purpose of the Praise Team has changed from its inception.
· The purpose of the Praise Team Ministry is to charge and set the atmosphere of each service with the presence of the Lord, through praise and worship in song, so that it makes giving and receiving the Word of God easy.
· The purpose of the Praise Team is to lead the congregation to praise God together during the worship service.
· The purpose of the Praise Team is to engage the hearts of people who sit in the sanctuary and to lead them into a time where they can connect and communicate with God.
· The sole purpose of the Praise Team is to lead the congregation into the presence of God.
· The purpose of the Praise Team at Florence Christian Church is to provide music and musical leadership for the 9:45 worship celebration each Sunday
· The purpose of the Praise Team is to provide worship leadership to our worship services.
· The purpose of the Praise Team is to praise and worship God through song.
· The purpose of the Praise Team is to lead God's people into meaningful and Spirit-filled praise and worship during the Contemporary Service
· The primary purpose of any praise team is to give glory to our Lord, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.
As the church has been affected and changed by 40 years of unsupervised Youth Ministers in seems to me that we are on the verge of changes brought on by unsupervised Worship Leaders.
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