THE KUKMIN DAILY

A concert titled “Again, Praise the Lord” will open to observe the 30th anniversary of Juchanyang (Praise the Lord) Mission Team's first album. The Team is known as the “icon of Korean Christian Contemporary Music (CCM).” The concert will be a performance in which the “Big Choir,” a young-adult CCM mission organization of more than 100 members, reinterprets the CCM of the middle-aged generation that led the worship and praise movement.

Big Choir Representative Ahn Chan-yong (41); Choi Deok-shin (53), former director of Praise the Lord Mission Team; and Park Jeong-gwan (57), director of the cultural institute “Sogeumhyang” (from left to right in photo), recently held a round-table talk at a performance hall near Hongik University in Mapo-gu, Seoul, where they discussed how Praise the Lord Mission Team has influenced CCM, where CCM is at present, and the directions it can go in future. (The link below has the full story in Korean.) Director Park’s evaluation was that “Praise the Lord Mission Team opened a new era in which Christians breathed together with music.” Representative Ahn explained, “Christian concerts don’t make up even 0.1% of the concerts held annually. We wanted to give the next generation their rightful place on stage.”

Praise the Lord Mission Team was created in 1981 by Choi Deok-shin and 10 or so other young persons. Its first album was “That Name,” and it continued putting out new albums up to no. 11, “Put on the Full Armor of God.” Active Team members have included CCM singers Park Jong-ho, Song Jung-mee and more than 400 others. Up until the time it disbanded in 1997, the Team contributed to the spread of CCM in the Korean churches and to the raising up of youth ministers, through its regular albums, its “Praise the Lord” camps, and nationwide tours.

On May 30 at 5 p.m., the Big Choir will hold its regular concert, titled “Again, Praise the Lord,” at Shingil Church in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul (02-2608-7693).

Reporter Kang Ju-hwa (rula@kmib.co.kr), with Marion Kim (marionkkim@icloud.com)
Photo by senior reporter Kang Min Seok


Click here for the full story in Korean