Praise Bands

[NIrelandGillian]

From what I can tell in the short time I've been playing P&W, it all depends on the particular church & denomination, and whether there are out-of-state higher-ups that will drop a safe on you if things get too out of hand (that being whatever they define it as).

A Lutheran church I play at about bi-weekly has us off in a corner, packed in real tight. We'd rather be front & center but the church considers that floor space holy ground and we can't go there. Weird. Did a gig at a rogue Baptist church where we took the whole stage behind the lectern and we shook the place with a nice big JBL PA. That place was hoppin' that day the the presence of the Holy Spirit was unmistakable. From what I can tell around here, the churches tend toward giving the band the whole stage, though like I said above, it depends.

If a non-band-member minister is the one leading the worship, then I think it would make more sense to have the band off to the side, or if not, then behind him but with the floods dimmed. OTOH, if the WL is a band member, then it makes no sense to me to have the band off to the side. That would leave the other side of the main aisle feeling sort of disconnected because of the distance.

Sorry in advance if this repeated previously-made points.

First of all, we are in Northern Ireland, in the UK. Secondly, we have no 'higher ups' telling what we can and can't do. Thirdly, we don't have floodlights. All we have is some chairs where the band members sit to play their instruments, a piano and an organ. A variety of instruments is used, but mostly stringed and woodwind. The system works for us fine - I just wondered what other people's experience was. I know that when I have been at some other churches where the singers and the band were at the centre front of the church I could only hear the singers singing and not the congregation. It was as if the people in the congregation were letting the singers at the front do all the singing for them, when everyone is supposed to be involved in the worship.

Are you saying that the Holy Spirit was present because of the big PA system that was in place? I wouldn't have thought He needed that to be present anywhere.

Gillian

 

[jmcorn]

First of all, we are in Northern Ireland, in the UK. Secondly, we have no 'higher ups' telling what we can and can't do. Thirdly, we don't have floodlights. All we have is some chairs where the band members sit to play their instruments, a piano and an organ. A variety of instruments is used, but mostly stringed and woodwind. The system works for us fine - I just wondered what other people's experience was. I know that when I have been at some other churches where the singers and the band were at the centre front of the church I could only hear the singers singing and not the congregation. It was as if the people in the congregation were letting the singers at the front do all the singing for them, when everyone is supposed to be involved in the worship.

Are you saying that the Holy Spirit was present because of the big PA system that was in place? I wouldn't have thought He needed that to be present anywhere.

Gillian

The singer's on the stage are supposed to be louder. That's why they are using mics. They are trying to lead the congregation. I think that holds true for most churches.

 

[epluribus36]

The singer's on the stage are supposed to be louder. That's why they are using mics. They are trying to lead the congregation. I think that holds true for most churches.

Sounds very reasonable to me. I had no problem with it before I joined the band.

 

[Bass4Jesus]

> Are you saying that the Holy Spirit was present because of the big
> PA system that was in place?

No, we walked into it. It (he) was already there. Lots of energy coming back at us from the congregation. That was (and probably still is) a seriously "on fire" church. Quite the exception up here where most of the churches are dead.

 

[DannLeavitt]

Does your church/fellowship have a praise band - with or without singers? If so, where do they sit/stand?

Our church has a praise band which varies in size from week to week and uses a variety of instruments. They sit to one side at the front of the church, beside the organ and the piano. Sometimes, one lady or more will sing from the front to help us when we're learning a new song.

I have been in other churches where the praise band, complete with singers, has been right at the front of the church, which gives me the impression of a performance. I find it 'in your face' and when we're singing congregational hymns, all I can hear is the praise band belting out, as though people feel they don't need to sing as the praise band is doing it all for them.

I know other people have different views - my daughter loves the praise band being at the front of the church - just sharing my thoughts about it.

Gillian

My church has the worship team & leader at the front of the congregation.

I know that sometimes seems like it may be a performance... But we definitely do things to make sure that it doesn't go to that place. All of the members on our team are actively worshipping God through their instrument. In the 2 years I've been leading worship, I can honestly say that I've only seen maybe 2 services in total that have had a taste of performance due to the band members doing something they shouldn't. Even in those cases, it was relatively minor and to my knowledge it didn't distract anyone from worshipping as they were already focused on God. Well... In one of the services. The second one crashed and burned on impact

I can see both sides of the spectrum, on one hand it would be nice to have the band down on the floor, especially seeing as it communicates equality across the body of Christ and an equal-importance to those who may not be musically-inclined.
On the other hand... I know personally that services without a distinctive "leader" can end up wandering all around and be very messy. I have also seen teams that are down on the floor with a leader and it actually distracts the congregation from singing because they have a tendency to look at the singer/worship leader on the floor and then they can't see the words on the projector screen at the front. Talk about stressful situations

Either way, I think they both have their pros and cons. When it comes down to it, I think it ultimately depends on church structure. If it is a congregation that sticks to traditional hymns, they can afford to have the worship team on the floor because everyone will more-less be focused on their hymnal anyway.
If it's a more contemporary church, they might instead want to have the leader somewhere around the projector screen so that people aren't looking all around the room to find him instead of worshipping.

Just my two cents.

 

[NIrelandGillian]

Our current arrangement suits us just fine and is unlikely to be changed. As I said, I just wondered what other people's thoughts and experiences were. We sing a wide variety of songs and hymns, with the worship leader carefully selecting these according to the theme of the service.

We meet for our services in a large auditorium where the words of the songs are projected on to the front wall at either side. The only time we have any singers on the platform is when the choir is taking part in the service and that only happens on special occasions such as Christmas and Easter.

Gillian

 

[Jake and Jenn]

We stand up front. I don't look at it as a performance though. Of course, I also attend a Pentecostal church, so if we were "performing" no one would notice considering the way some Pentecostals get lost in worship.

 

[NIrelandGillian]

The singer's on the stage are supposed to be louder. That's why they are using mics. They are trying to lead the congregation. I think that holds true for most churches.

I don't think the singers leading the worship need to be singing so loud that they drown out the sound of the congregation singing. Here is a link to an article which says what I have been trying to say: Is Your Worship Leader Too Loud? - Behind The Mixer

When our worship leader wants to teach us a new song he asks one or more people with the gift of singing to come and sing the song through once to give the congregation an idea of how the song sounds, then everyone sings the song together.

Gillian

 

[jmcorn]

They are leading. They have to be louder or they could not lead.