The praise team we used to be a part of (we've moved) would sing at nursing homes, retirement communities and a children's home as well as weddings, funerals and various church-related functions. We also sang at a zoo a few times and an historic, local movie theater. I wish we could have gone to many other places. I truly believe we need to get our praise teams out of the building and into the rest of the community.

Singing at a zoo? Were the animals edified? :) I know that some places I have sung felt like a zoo. Kidding aside, I agree with you. We need to get our song outside the building.

Our group used to sing in birthdays, weddings, funerals, schools, cultural events, and even in a manicure course graduation. We feel happy to not be just inside the church building, but crossing every door that's opened before us.

I LOVE to see ministry opportunities like you mentioned! When I was growing up, we didn't associate singing ministry with that many situations. It's a great way to let our light shine.

We record songs for missionary teams. They serve very much like teaching tapes. Many missionaries need some way to teach new songs where there just isn't anyone who knows how to read music. With the four parts recorded with separation in them for each part it really helps.

We do most of this work in Jamaica. I'd love to see this done for our mission teams who sing in Spanish. (No canto en español) (Ich singe nicht auf Deutsch) (Я не пею на русском языке) ad nauseam.

Have a great day

Joe, that is such a great idea! Maybe you can get the Jamaican group to come to Acafest next year? I'm glad you brought up singing and missions. Maybe someone with VHF, Free Indeed, Watershed and entourage could tell us about their singing mission trip to Africa?

When I was a single man, I sang in a small ensemble. We sang in prison. We sang at festivals. We sang at community events. We sang at special church events.

My life was so much richer for it.

I don't have time to commit to that now. I do work with my children a little and one day soon they will be ready. I am anxious for that day.

God did not give me a voice to holler at the kids. He wants to hear it. And I need more worship than Sunday mornings allow.

Our praise team has a lot of community presence. We have sung at multi-cultural gatherings, domestic abuse vigils, nursing homes, special education centers, baptist/methodist/non-denom/whatever churches, public school programs, drug rehabs, as well as any event people want to invite us to so that we can share our songs and hearts with them. We'll minister in any minute given here or there.

We have a member who felt called to take "church" to a local nursing home. On Monday evenings he conducts a full-blown worship service for a growing number of senior citizens. He leads singing, leads prayer, and preaches an excellent sermon (I know they're excellent because he emails the elders his notes each week).
It has turned out that the a cappella approach has worked extremely well for these people. The work is growing and bringing a lot to these fine folks.

When the praise and worship team is online (currently off) we sing at the local hospice center, funerals, etc.

We have a group who sings for funerals.

We don't do it near enough, despite having many talented singers. We do have a few events where we have the youth sing. We used to sing at the nursing home once a week. We used to have both wedding and funeral singing groups, but that had been several years ago. I am in favor of using them much more often. In fact, that reminds me of a story:

I do remember for awhile when taking communion around to shut-ins we sang to them a lot. My best memory of that was when we were singing the song "Old Rugged Cross" to an old gentlemen who had recently had a stroke. He was a long time member and I am sure he had heard the song 100's of times.

Anyway, after having the stroke he could not talk. He could barley move. He certainly had a hard time communicating. I had actually begun to wonder if he could even hear us singing, but when the song got to the part that said "then he'll call me someday to that home far away, where His glory forever I'll share," a huge tear welled up in his eye and then trickled down his cheek. That really hit home since about 30 seconds earlier I thought we were just wasting our time. He passed away not a week later, but I'll never forget that moment.

Sometimes we don't realize just how much something like singing can touch people.

Seth