During the chaos of our church Christmas production last weekend, I noticed an 80 year old woman standing backstage was glowing with excitement.
“Thank you for this!” she said. “I thought I’d never use my voice or be onstage again”. She was a trained vocalist, but didn’t fit in on a typical church praise team. She missed the choirs she used to sing in for the glory of God.
I know exactly how she feels.
I used to be a worship pastor who specialized in leading choirs and writing Christmas and Easter productions from scratch. I actually won an award for my music, and my worship leading was featured on a Christian satellite network worldwide. But over the past 25 years, I’ve felt the ground shifting under my feet. Finally in 2012 after being unable to find a church to serve in, I pivoted into being a lead pastor of a church plant.
After pastoring yet another church, I eventually found myself serving as a hospice chaplain and then an associate pastor. I’d play the piano some on Sundays, but rarely had the chance to lead worship. Although I was thankful to still be employed in the ministry, I felt a part of me dying. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, I was experiencing a continual and deepening depression. My weight ballooned and my blood pressure often spiked.
I would’ve never admitted it to you, but inwardly I was convinced my best years were already behind me.
But after years thinking my musical gifts were no longer needed in the local church, today I’m experiencing nothing less than a renaissance. I’m leading a choir again after years of the “experts” telling us choirs were a thing of the past.
Last weekend, I presented a full Broadway-style musical as my church’s Christmas production. Our building was packed both nights, the choir loft was full, and the church is ecstatic about the show I wrote. In one weekend, we have started a new church tradition that will go on for years now.
Best of all, people like my 80 year-old friend have a place again to use their gifts. All because I was given the chance to use my gifts as well.
My adult daughter noticed something during the production that seemed inconsequential, but was actually a key factor in my musical revival. She said, “As I watched, I suddenly realized the Pastor and his wife were singing in the choir loft for the show. How wonderful!”
Since coming to the church, my pastor has affirmed that my dormant gifts really were still quite valuable. He has given me an unprecedented level of creative freedom and trust. This Christmas, he took a risk and encouraged me to do a style of production the church had never experienced before. So now when people are congratulating me now with glowing comments, I know they really ought to be thanking him. He is the one who put those gifts back into circulation.
I’ve always loved helping other people use their gifts. That’s how I would cast my Christmas shows – I’d find what gifts were present in the church, and then I wrote characters around what I knew those people could do. For instance, when I arrived here last June, I became friends with two church custodians who’d joke together in the church break room. They reminded me of southern colloquialisms I’d forgotten like “bless your heart”, which can often really mean “What an idiot!”. Next thing I knew, I was writing a song about that phrase that would become a hilarious part of the church Christmas program.
It may indeed be the trendy thing to kill the choir and just use a praise band. Christmas programs take time to rehearse and usually cost extra. It certainly costs more to pay someone like me to work full-time creating special worship events and productions, especially when you can hire a guy who leads only a band on just a part-time basis.
But I’m afraid some of my peers in ministry may be guilty of tearing down some important fences.
There’s a rule called “Chesterton’s Fence” where author G.K Chesterton warned you should never destroy a fence (as in changing a rule or cancelling a tradition) until you know why it was in place in the first place. When it comes to choirs and Christmas programs, it’s true that worship can happen without them. But worship wasn’t the only reason they were there. They also provided a training ground for musical beginners as well as an outlet for many people at all levels of ability to glorify God.
So while it may be trendy to cancel some ministry areas, in the end you may learn it wasn’t wise to tear down that fence. You may be tearing down people as well. As one of those made to sit on the bench for too many years, having a place to serve again is truly “the gift that keeps on giving”.
