Worship Team

Definition

A worship team is a group that leads the congregation from the front in the songs sung together before or during a worship service. It is also called a "praise team" or a "praise and worship team." The person who leads the singing is commonly called the "worship leader" and is joined by vocalists and by musicians playing keyboard, guitar, bass, drums, and other instruments. Unlike a choir, which prepares sacred anthems and sings them before the congregation, a worship team's primary role is to lead the congregation in singing along. Worship teams generally sing more gospel songs and contemporary worship songs than traditional hymns.

Biblical and Historical Background

The ministry of worship teams is often explained by reference to David's appointment of singers and instrumentalists from among the Levites (1 Chronicles 15:16; 1 Chronicles 25:1). Psalm 150, which calls for God to be praised with many instruments, is also cited as a basis for the use of instruments.

Band-led worship in its present form became established through the contemporary worship music movement in the English-speaking world in the late twentieth century. In Korea, beginning in the late 1980s, worship gatherings known as "Praise and Worship" and the worship meetings of mission organizations such as Youth With A Mission (YWAM) spread among young church members. With the spread of seeker-sensitive ("open") worship in the 1990s, worship teams reportedly became widespread in local churches as well.

Practice in Korean Churches

In Korean churches, worship teams are active mainly in young adult ministry and youth group services, retreats, and Friday gatherings. Many churches also have a worship team lead congregational singing before the sermon in the Sunday morning service. Most team members are lay volunteers from the congregation, though larger churches sometimes employ a music pastor or professional musicians. Many teams hold prayer meetings or share from Scripture in addition to their regular rehearsals.

How a worship team operates depends more on the worship tradition of the individual church than on its denomination.

• Many Presbyterian, Methodist, and Holiness churches maintain an order of worship centered on the choir and hymns in the main Sunday service, and use worship teams mainly for pre-service singing or for services aimed at the next generation.
• Churches in the Pentecostal and charismatic streams tend to give worship teams a larger role throughout the service, often with extended times of singing that flow into prayer.
• Churches that follow a prayer book, such as the Anglican Church of Korea, use music within a fixed liturgy, so worship teams are often limited to particular services or gatherings.

Opinions about worship teams are divided. Some are concerned that high volume and a performance-like atmosphere undermine the reverence of worship and can turn the congregation into an audience. Supporters hold that worship teams help the congregation participate actively in worship through familiar music and help churches connect with younger generations.