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This is the story of how the Kingsport, TN, Seventh-day Adventist Church got their choir.
Starting a choir requires an additional set of skills beyond directing an existing choir. I'm not sure which
you need more of--flexibility or persistence, moral support or physical support, patience or enthusiasm. I do know that by
definition, starting a choir is a group effort that requires major amounts of prayer,
experimentation, optimism and compromise until the right mix is found for the people you have. No one thing works;
a choir is never "done", it is always a work in progress. However, if our small church can start and support a choir, yours probably can, too.
GOD BLESS YOU, and Thank
God For Music.
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Chapter One
Once again, our small church had a brand new pastor. As usual, this
new pastor believed he could accomplish new things. Not knowing (or ignoring) any of our previous music history, this newbee
asked me to start a choir. He said, "I want to wear a choir robe," teasing, but quite serious.
My initial thoughts were all
negative even though I wanted to have a choir. I had had some negative experiences in a church school, so I didn't
trust the constituency to support a church music ministry—at least not my music ministry. I knew I was too
good at putting my foot in my mouth and upsetting people in authority. Even though my job was flexible, I felt that I didn't
have enough time, especially because I lived a good half-hour away from the church. I knew who the singers were and all of
them were over-scheduled. I worried that because of our small church attendance there wouldn't be anyone left in the congregation;
they would all be on the platform. There was no budget, no choir room, no choir music. Of course, I was expected to volunteer my time—This is an Adventist church, after all.
I decided to ask for conditions.
I told them that if Pathfinders and prayer meeting
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were changed to the same night, I'd consider it.
I personally didn't want to make two trips to transport my son to Pathfinders and go to choir rehearsal, and I didn't
think the rest of the church people would come out more than one night a week. I also asked the pastor to be SURE the
church board wanted me to do this. I didn't want to get started and then be told to quit because I wasn't following
some invisible guidelines. I also asked them to consider having a meal on Pathfinder/prayer meeting/Choir night.
Not long after this, I was
told that the board had voted for me to be asked to start a choir. Nothing else was done for a while; Pathfinders was still
on Tuesday, prayer meeting on Wednesday. I assumed the church didn't really want a choir because none of the conditions I
requested happened.
Later on, a new member, who was a better organist than I, was also asked to start a choir. He, however, began a day job at
a bank and a music job at a Sunday church. Making a living had taken precedence over providing volunteer music for our own
church.
The matter was tabled for the time being.
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