Have you heard of this idea of having a “praise team” in the song service of some churches?\u00a0 This is confusing to me because it would seem that it would place women in a leadership role if they were part of the “team” leading the congregation.\u00a0 What are your thoughts on this?<\/p>\n\t
A “praise team” is a select group of singers used to lead the various harmonic parts of a song for a congregation. They became popular because the song leader normally sings the melody line (soprano). For people unused to singing in harmony and unable to read music, it becomes difficult to pick up the alto, tenor, or bass lines, especially when a new song is introduced to the congregation. Thus praise teams are advocated as a way to speed up the learning process.<\/p>\n
However, I strongly suspect that there is another motive behind the use of praise teams. It is the polished singers who are members of the praise team and since they are almost always found in large congregations, they are given microphones to amplify their voices so everyone can hear them. As a result, the poorer singers are drowned out by the better singers’ voices, thus making the overall song service sound better to the human ear. It is the desire to sound better to others that is the driving force behind praise teams.<\/p>\n
A man leading the congregation in a song is mentioned in I Corinthians 14:26, “How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.<\/em>” Such leadership is forbidden to women in I Corinthians 14:34-25 and I Timothy 2:11-12. The concept of a praise team seeks to avoid this restriction by having a set of men and women simultaneously lead the congregation in singing. However, the leadership is still being exerted; and, thus, is a violation of what God asked of Christian women.<\/p>\n Second, the advocates of praise teams seek to impress men with the sound of the congregation’s music. Such a view leads the congregation down the wrong path. “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ<\/em>” (Galatians 1:10).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Have you heard of this idea of having a “praise team” in the song service of some churches?\u00a0 This is confusing to me because it would seem that it would place women in a leadership role if they were part of the “team” leading the congregation.\u00a0 What are your thoughts on this? Answer: A…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[520,126,84],"class_list":["post-7524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-music","tag-pride","tag-worship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37380,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-about-a-congregation-using-a-praise-team-to-lead-singing\/","url_meta":{"origin":7524,"position":0},"title":"What do you think about a congregation using a “praise team” to lead singing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning!! I recently visited a congregation that had a \"Praise Team\".\u00a0 There were 8 adults in front of the congregation (4 males and 4 females). Each one facing the congregation holding a microphone.\u00a0 They were singing a song (acapella), with the words appearing on a giant screen up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34752,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-of-psalms-hymns-and-spiritual-songs-praise-for-the-lord-and-songs-for-worship-praise\/","url_meta":{"origin":7524,"position":1},"title":"What do you think of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, Praise for the Lord, and Songs for Worship & Praise?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read your excellent review of the\u00a0Jeffcoat\u00a0Sacred Songs of the Church songbook. Our congregation is considering changing books and we are considering several of the more traditionally focused books. Have you had the opportunity to review and consider the\u00a0Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs\u00a0by Sumphonia? We are also considering the\u00a0Praise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59766,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-songs-that-we-sing\/","url_meta":{"origin":7524,"position":2},"title":"The Songs That We Sing","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker As I was growing up, I loved to join in the singing of hymns and gospel songs during church services and other occasions where people gathered together to praise God in song, and through the years with my general love of music I have maintained an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28218,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-of-songs-of-faith-and-praise\/","url_meta":{"origin":7524,"position":3},"title":"What do you think of Songs of Faith and Praise?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am writing to you because I came across a blog you had on your website concerning your review of the Songs for Worship and Praise\u00a0hymnal. \u00a0I have owned the hymnal for a\u00a0couple\u00a0of months and also own\u00a0Songs of Faith and Praise\u00a0and\u00a0Praise for the Lord. \u00a0I am trying to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24414,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/thank-you-for-the-tips-on-song-leading\/","url_meta":{"origin":7524,"position":4},"title":"Thank you for the tips on song leading","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you so much for the tips that you\u00a0have displayed\u00a0on the site about\u00a0Song Leading\u00a0in the Church. I have been part of the church of Christ as far back as I can remember.\u00a0 I am very thankful that my parents raised me in this church. I was inspired by my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59338,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-review-of-the-hymnbooks\/","url_meta":{"origin":7524,"position":5},"title":"A Review of the Hymnbooks","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker Originally published in Torch, October 1988 Please understand that my review is of necessity going to be biased by my own view of what constitutes a good hymn selection. With that in mind, I shall begin by saying that I grew up using the old \"brown\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}