No matter what rehearsal time we suggested, some key people wouldn't be able to attend. They just hadn't had a choir to allow
for in their own planning or in church schedules for long enough to make any easy decisions. Several choir members were active
in prayer meeting; others were either in Pathfinders or leading the club. Even if we had had a choir room to practice in during
part of Sabbath School and/or missionary period, there were Sabbath School leaders and teachers in our group. In our small
church, individuals often filled several responsibilities.
Friday
evening was a possibility, but I felt that I really needed my Sabbath Eve rest—it was important to my husband and my
family's togetherness as well as a spiritual rest. Thankfully, a significant number of the singers had the same
preference.
Although
good scheduling didn't seem possible, giving up was even less attractive, and there seemed to be some good moral support from
church and choir members. They had already made some changes in the church schedule; it was time for a compromise.
Finally I decided that I could rearrange my schedule, and subtract a bit more from family time, at least for a while. We decided
to have three weekly rehearsals for singers to choose from: 5:45-6:45 and 8:00-9:00 on Wednesdays and after church on Sabbath,
with
a soup and salad/sandwich lunch. Then we decided that we could have a joint
rehearsal before Sabbath School on the Sabbaths when we were scheduled to sing. (I cringed at that
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last choice. I'm the ultimate night-owl and getting myself and
my son up in time to get to church by 8:30 on Sabbath morning would take a major amount of effort—not to mention heavy
duty persuasion of my son.)
This not
only avoided a conflict with prayer meeting and halfway avoided a conflict with Pathfinders, it also allowed a few minutes
for us to wolf down the Pathfinders' fundraiser supper between early choir and prayer meeting/Pathfinders. It was less than
ideal, but seemed to be workable.
The next
Sabbath, during announcement time, when I got up to explain the new rehearsal plan, I felt just a little bit silly with my
illustration about how choir rehearsals were going to work. But the only way I could think of to assure people that the plan
would work was to fall back on a rather basic geometry theorem,
"If A=C and B=C, then A=B." Bringing a geometry review into our pulpit got a good laugh out of the congregation,
but it seemed to get their attention. I told them that, as director and possibly the only person who would be at all
the rehearsals, I was going to be the common factor and as long as they learned to stay with my directing, it could
work.
The question was would it work?
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