Praise teams are popular in churches today. A praise team is typically four or eight people, men and women, who sing into microphones to lead the religious gathering in song. The Bible, however, does not support this practice. The Scriptures support a single song leader who helps those gathered to sing in unison. Women are further restricted since the Scriptures require men to lead spiritual activities in Christian mixed company.
In 1 Corinthians 12-14, Paul wrote about spiritual gifts, their purpose, and how Christians should behave when they gather to worship God on the first day of the week. 1 Corinthians 14:26 summarizes, saying everything we do during our gathering should result in edification. That means everything done should strengthen our fellowship and our faith. To that end, God, through Paul, restricted the activities in our gathering and limited the number of leaders to one at a time (see 1 Corinthians 14:26, 27, 29-31, 33). This restriction includes leading songs in our gathering (see 1 Corinthians 14:26). According to this passage, Everything is to be done " one-by-one. "
1 Corinthians 14:34 also restricts the role of women in the Sunday gathering, specifically barring them from leading the congregation in any of these activities. Furthermore, 1 Timothy 2:11-12 prohibits women from leading any spiritual activity where Christians are in mixed company. God only allows a woman to lead in spiritual circumstances when no Christian man is present.
Praise teams violate God’s instruction for our worshipful activities, even when comprised only of men. The most the Scriptures authorize in a spiritual gathering of men and women is one man to lead the gathered Christians in song so that we worship together, resulting in the edification of all.
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