Should Your Praise Set Be Before or After the Sermon?

I recently visited a church who prides themselves in always doing their praise sets after the sermon. In fact, the Sunday I visited, the pastor explained in great detail why they do this (does this explanation happen every Sunday?) – they want to give the congregation the opportunity to “respond” to the message (as in musically – we’re not talking about going forward while singing “Just As I Am.”)

Great! So let’s see how this works out in real life. I sat through a fantastic sermon that really got me thinking – it hit home in a powerful way. Then, the praise set started and the feeling that immediately came over me was one of… annoyance.

I felt literally annoyed to be singing. I did not want to sing. I did not want to learn new songs (I recognized one out of the three songs in their praise set.) Read More

The best places to do a praise set in liturgical worship would make a good article. A number of Anglican, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic churches do praise sets at one or more points in their celebrations of the Holy Eucharist. At St. Michael’s (Episcopal) in the 1980s and 1990s we sung simple “gathering songs” before the entrance procession, beginning with fast-tempo, upbeat songs of praise and moving to slower, quieter songs of adoration. We also had an extended period of praise and adoration after the distribution of Communion. St.Peter’s (Roman Catholic) at its Sunday Night Youth Mass in the same time period did a praise set after the Gloria in Excelsis. It also had a period of extended praise and adoration after the distribution of Communion. The Youth Mass was very popular not only with Catholic youth but also with youth from other denominations and was heavily attended.