Hello, and welcome to RockinGodsHouse.com’s series on How to get started in praise teams.  This series will cover the basics of praise and worship, how to get an audition, how to prepare for your audition and much more.  Check back often as new praise team posts  drop on Mondays.

The first post is Praise Team: How to get started and it covers the basics of praise and worship, am I good enough and how to get an audition/evaluation.  So read on, enjoy and let me know what you think.

Praise & Worship: What is it?

Joining a praise team is a very rewarding experience and there are many benefits both spiritual and temporal.  The friendships that develop between members are lifelong and let’s face it, it’s fun standing in front of a lot of people doing what you love.  But the primary purpose of a praise team member is praise & worship.  Let’s look at what that means.

Praise – Thanking God for what he has done and what he has yet to do.

Come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
² Let us come to him with thanksgiving.
Let us sing psalms of praise to him.
³ For the Lord is a great God,
a great King above all gods.
⁴ He holds in his hands the depths of the earth
and the mightiest mountains.
⁵ The sea belongs to him, for he made it.
    His hands formed the dry land, too.

Psalm 95:1-5 NLT

Worship – Being reverent before God because of who he is.

Come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the Lord our maker,
for he is our God.

Psalm 95:6 NLT

As a praise team member you are responsible for creating an atmosphere that facilitates  praise and worship for all in attendance.  Always remember this and go into every practice, meeting and service with this as your chief mindset.

Praise Team: Am I good enough?

Moving forward with the appropriate praise and worship mindset, it’s important that you have a true understanding of your skill level.

Am I good enough?  Can I get up there and play with them?  Both are fair questions and the short answer is, yes and yes.  We are all good enough in the eyes of God.  With that being said there are certain standards required to play or sing on praise teams.  These will vary by church and the factors that determine these are, church size, how many musicians/singers attend the church and the skill level of them.  A few other factors include, does the church have a pool of musicians or do the same play at every service.  How many opportunities are there to play/sing.  For example, are there multiple services and ministries that you may try out for.

Okay, the only way you will know if your skill level is sufficient to play/sing in your local praise team is to request a tryout or evaluation.  To go about getting a tryout/evaluation speak with the worship leader after church and see what they require.  If you attend a very large church and time with the worship leader is tough to come by then ask a current member of the praise team and they will be able to point you in the right direction.

Once you know how your church goes about evaluating talent and the audition is set it is time to get prepared!  And it just so happens that is the subject of the next praise team post.

I will discuss how to prepare for your praise team tryout and how to select a church to play at if you are unable to play at your local church.

Before I go for this week I was wondering if you could tell me a little about the tryout/evaluation process at your church.  Just leave your comments below!