April 18th, 2007 - Choir Practice

A talk with Debi before choir practice reminded me how energizing and affirming a like-minded community can be. Also the challenges, opportunities and questions that come up when that is not the case.

Debi was describing different themes in a set of three books she read by Brian McLaren. The books impressed her. She added, “I hope they will help me in talking with a group of Christians that Nancy and I meet with when we are scrapbooking once a month. They are members of several churches who are somewhat more rigid in a few of their core beliefs than Nancy and I. I don’t say anything when I feel that I should. These books deal with many of the topics that come up.”

Debi’s silence is something I understand completely. My internal debates, when I argue with myself about whether it makes sense to state views I know will not be appreciated by another person, are typically uncomfortable. Interestingly, it can be a flip side to the childhood faith that Paul brought up on Sunday. There can definitely be comfort in black and white answers to life’s questions. So what motivates the discomfort? Do I feel there a complicity or implied agreement if I do not say something?

During choir practice we run through the piece we will perform on Sunday, Praise His Holy Name. David will play drums and, in this rehearsal, we hear the shape of the piece. This gospel music we are doing now is an energetic tonic to the usual post Easter lull. As we learn these songs there is boldness and freedom that comes with the glimpses we see of singing in the Spirit.

All of the gospel songs we are practicing feel like they invite the presence of the Holy Spirit as we rehearse and hopefully that experience will pervade the choir and congregation as they are performed.