Mini Series Part Four - What, No More Choir?

Welcome to episode four of my blogging mini-series. In this episode I will be discussing the events of Sunday and my observation there in.

If you know me even a little, you probably know that I have been involved in choirs and music departments for much of my life. This part of my life goes back to at least the second grade. Yes Derek, that would be more than 25 years ago.

Last Christmas I found myself involved in too many things at my church and I was starting to feel at least a taste of the pressure that full time church workers feel. I was involved in choir. I was participating as a small group guide for the confirmation classes. I was the treasurer for the churches bowling league. I was also trying to put time into organizing, establish, and support our new (at that time) young adults ministry called FaithWorks. I was starting to fear burning out, so something had to go. I decided the thing that my participation would be missed the least would be choir (since there were 6 other tenors, and at least 3 of them were as good or better than me). So after the Christmas Concert I took a hiatus from the music department completely. This was a very difficult thing for me, and it took very little time before I started to miss it. I decided that things should be less crazy by fall, at which time I’d rejoin the choir. From the moment I made that decision I was really fired up to get going again.

I think it was late spring when the announcement came out that our director of ten years was taking a call to a new place. He was heading to a church near his family’s home in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This came as no surprise to those that knew him. It was no surprise, but that didn’t diminish the disappointment in loosing such a talented Minister of Music, and choir director. Even with the announcement I was still fired up about getting involved with the choir again come this fall.

Anytime someone leaves a church that position needs to be filled. Especially when it is a position as visible and critical to a church like mine, where the music ‘heritage’ is deeply engrained in that place. There has been a huge shift in recent years in how church music is presented, not only in my church but in many churches around the country. There is more attention paid to the non-traditional music. This change has also effected the type of person that they want to fill that role. Our senior pastor hand a meeting with the choir a couple weeks ago to discuss the plan, and future, with them. I had a prior commitment so I couldn't go. Therefore all my knowledge in this area, so far, is second hand and conclusions drawn from that second hand knowledge. But before I expound on that let me tell you about Ken’s (the director) last official day with us.

We sang all three services. So after being out late I had to be up and at church by 7:30, or at least I was supposed to be. I ended up being only a few minutes late. It went really well. We had a bunch of people that have sung with us in the past join us for Ken’s final services.

Immediately after the last service we had a luncheon thing for Ken. It was nice. The Senior Choir did a little skit and sang a couple songs. We ended with one of my top 5 favorite choir songs, ‘The Lord Bless You And Keep You’.

It appears that this may be one of the last chances I will have to sing with this group for quite a while. From what I have been told the church has decided not to seek an interim leader for the adult choirs. Which means that, maybe with the exception of special events, the choir is being put on ice for a while. So, I was all fired up about coming back to choir and now it looks like there is not going to be a choir to come back to.

Current speculation is that the call process to fill the vacancy could take at least a year just to place the call. After that only God knows how long it will be before the position is filled.
This is really sad, in my opinion, because of the music heritage of that church and how the music department is so engrained in the personality of the church. I heard one person say ‘without the music what else does this church have?’. Well, we still have God and the Gospel message. This is in no way going to kill our church, we’ve been through more difficult challenges. However, it will have an impact and it will make our services a little less special, at least to me.

My new issue relating to that is, where am I going to get my choir fix? I have to decide what I am going to do. I am involved in the music that we do for FaithWorks, and I am starting to take guitar lessons soon. We’ll see if that fills the void.

Thus ends episode four. Stay tuned for more.