One of the most exciting things for me, and I’m certain all ministers of music, is to welcome a new singer to the\u00a0 choir.\u00a0 I love to watch those who have been with me a while encourage the new singer, show them “around,” help them find music, introduce our guest to those who will be sitting around them, etc.\u00a0 I will always make a formal introduction and give them there “Welcome Snicker Candy Bar” and we jump right into rehearsing.<\/p>\n
The past couple of evenings, I\u00a0 had the opportunity to work the the choir of the Union Baptist Church in Winder, Georgia.\u00a0 Brian Faglier and his wife, Lynn,\u00a0 have lead the music in that fine church for sixteen years.\u00a0 This is\u00a0 great choir and I had a blast.<\/p>\n
Monday evening I worked with sopranos and altos and Tuesday with the tenors and basses.\u00a0 We had a great time as we “woodshed” their individual parts preparing their music for the fall.\u00a0 On Monday evening, after working a a couple of songs, a lady with a very good voice ask the question, “What do you mean, resolution?”\u00a0 (I had been talking about the altos resolving a particular chord.)\u00a0 This prompted other questions from others.\u00a0 After a few explanations about resolution, where to find their parts, when to repeat, etc, “the light came on.”\u00a0 Of course, as a guest, I had no way of knowing who were veterans to music and who were new to choir.\u00a0 The lady who asked the question was brand new and\u00a0 had she not been bold enough to ask the first question, she may have not only been “lost” the entire evening, but because I had not been sensitive to the needs of new singers, she might have simply not returned.\u00a0 (Brian would probably have not asked me back to work with the\u00a0men the next night or worse yet, would not have taken me for coffee….)<\/p>\n
Gratefully, she DID ask the question, I was able to explain, \u00a0she had a great time, and no doubt will become an active member of the choir.\u00a0 It has, however, caused me to do some “meditating” the past few hours. Those who know me, know that I have been at it for over fifty years and always have made it a point to consider that my choirs are made up of very experienced singers as well as people who are just beginning their musical experience.\u00a0 However, in my zeal to teach notes, I forgot to consider who was in the room.\u00a0 There is nothing wrong with not knowing<\/em>, but there is something major wrong if the environment is not conducive to ask questions<\/strong>.\u00a0 I wonder how many people have attended only one rehearsal…..<\/p>\n I have openly been critical of Christians who use “church language” around non-church people and of churches using “church talk”\u00a0around people who have hardly ever been to church and then wonder why they are turned off.\u00a0\u00a0Years ago \u00a0I remember going to the northern part of the USA, \u00a0commissioned by the Home Mission Board, \u00a0to work in “unchurched” areas.\u00a0 I\u00a0was singing in a struggling church attempting to organize not only S.S., but TU, WMU, BH, RA’s, GA’s, Pot Luck, offering EE and CWT when the people around the church weren’t even certain who Baptists were, much less, Southern<\/em> Baptists, and as my friend Clyde Chiles would say, they\u00a0 may have known Jesus only as a grotesque figure on a stained glass window<\/em>.\u00a0 The local folks weren’t dumb, but they didn’t need all of that, they simply\u00a0needed Christ. \u00a0We don’t have to “dumb down the Gospel,” but we do need to speak the language of the people with whom we are attempting to communicate.<\/p>\n The previous paragraph is of major significance and maybe another time I might expand on that, but the point of this “essay” is to remind music ministers\/leaders that 95% of our singers don’t have degrees\u00a0 music<\/strong><\/em>, are not seeking degrees in music<\/em>, don’t really care about secondary subdominants<\/em>, nor the name of the composer’s pet.\u00a0 Generally they are there because they love to sing<\/em> <\/strong>and our job is always to affirm them, encourage them, and lead them with clear language.\u00a0 We don’t need to talk down to them, we just need to make sense to them.\u00a0 (This makes me think of another topic for another essay, I firmly believe non-Christians and non-church members should be welcomed and\u00a0part of a local church choir.)<\/p>\n How many times have I asked my doctor to “hold on a minute, put this in words I understand.”<\/em>\u00a0 That is not be being a jerk nor does it mean I am stupid, but I’m not a doctor, I just want to make certain I know what is going on in or on my body.\u00a0 I have been blessed with doctors who, for the most part, have been very accommodating.\u00a0 I don’t know much about medicine, but generally, my doctors don’t know a great deal about music.\u00a0 (There are some exceptions, however.)<\/p>\n We all have men and women in our choirs who are skilled in countless disciplines\u00a0that I know nothing about.\u00a0\u00a0If I\u00a0ever am in the position that I need to know\u00a0how\u00a0set a broken leg, drive an over the road truck, assemble a drive train on a John Deer, make glass, etc,, \u00a0I would home my\u00a0instructor will speak to me\u00a0clearly, patiently, graciously, and eagerly.<\/p>\n With all this said, I’ve got to get ready for rehearsal.\u00a0 I am sure looking forward to welcoming some new singers tonight…….\u00a0 I am really enjoying partnering with Level Grove Baptist during this interim time.\u00a0 Yes, I’m a working on Christmas Celebration 2014<\/em>.<\/p>\n (I hope things are spelled correctly. I can’t find Spell-Check…)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the most exciting things for me, and I’m certain all ministers of music, is to welcome a new singer to the\u00a0 choir.\u00a0 I love to watch those who have been with me a while encourage the new singer, show them “around,” help them find music, introduce our guest to those who will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions\/113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}