The Last Time You Sang to Me

On my first day at St John’s Church, I remember staring at the large clock attached to the brownish brick wall and if guesses counted for anything, this Church must have been built in the Victorian era. In some way, the setting reminded me of Maria’s marriage to Captain Von Trapp in the Sound of Music film. I could hear the thump thump sound of my heartbeat —not minding the fact that as usual, I had prayed before leaving my studio apartment that evening. Sheffield was new terrain, and I had no idea what challenges to expect as the new Worship Director for the team my Pastor later named, High Call. New to the scene as it may have seemed, one fact was certain—there would be hurdles to cross, battles to fight, lessons to learn, friendships to be developed, and a never ending life of prayer to be made to the prayer-answering God.

Like Jerusalem and Rome, Sheffield is said to be built on seven hills and six rivers. Insofar as I was not in the city as a tourist, I paid little attention to the number of rivers in Sheffield while I lived there. Nonetheless, I hardly believe any resident or visitor to the steel city would deny coming across one or two hillsides. Of these hills, the one of Crooksmoor Road by far stands out the most to me. It is also nearly impossible to forget what it was like to walk up and down the road leading to St John’s Church from the city centre. To begin with, they could count as good work-out sessions and they also paved way for good conversations whenever we walked that path in pairs. As parishioners approach the church seated at the centre of a land measuring around 130,000 square foot, they are greeted by the site of many beautiful trees as short as the English walnut and magnolia trees. The lawn is mowed, and the waft of spring rain signalled sweet sensations and serenity second to none.

When we stepped into the rehearsal room, I was glad that I was acquainted with at least one-third of the choristers already. This was different to my experience in Manchester, where I literally had to start from the scratch as far as relationships were concerned and because I only knew a handful of people the first time I joined the choir at their rehearsal, my reaction wasn’t considered funny, to say the least. If you were in my shoes, you may have taken a similar position to me. What I observed, as far as I was concerned was shocking. First, we used a rehearsal studio at the heart of Deansgate. These kinds of studio are predominantly dark, enclosed and padded with noise proofs. There were no chairs in the room. All we had was three microphones with stands for each mic, and one amplifier for any guitars or instruments on the ground.

To my dismay, I watched as a 6'3-inch tall baritone was paired to a microphone stand with a 5'4-inch alto singer. It wasn’t clear if she was making an effort to grow taller or if he was bending low enough to share the microphone with her. I found two things fundamentally wrong with the arrangement—the heights were incompatible to be paired together, and the parts they sang were different. To top it all, prior to my coming, some had no idea what a tenor and alto or soprano was. As I already mentioned, being much younger and immature, I’m not sure I handled the situation in a decent fashion. Moreover, my only friends who were as ingenuous as I was found the entire saga hilarious. One of them laughed out so loud in the middle of a tête-à-tête between us and this was very distracting and discouraging to the others, and even more to the leader of the team. Just like I mention at the start, it eventually worked out for good.

As Tessy and I stepped into the vicinity of St John’s and to the rehearsal room—this time, I prepared to handle any shockers with wisdom and maturity. We were immediately greeted by the excitement in the air. As soon as this was over, I watched the team go into the business of the day, while I kept mute, only playing the role of a neutral observer. For the repeated time, I was utterly dumbfounded at the level of disorganisation, and impressed by the amazing potential of these talented and anointed group of young men and women. So, this time, I made mental notes of the challenges that was caught out for me—to succeed I would need a small team of partners to iron out the loopholes I had obviously identified in one clean swoop: administration, management, structure, discipline and discipleship.

Some of these loopholes showcase themselves as challenges many choirs deal with on a regular basis. And if you are familiar with the inner workings of church life, you should know that one of the most complex units in any church, ministry or religious based organisation is the choir. It has been rightly called the hot spot or trouble zone. As a result, a successful worship ministry has to be built on the foundation of constant prayers, a life of righteousness and practical weekly reviews. Besides, as with any noteworthy task, the build up of a successful choir comes with different possible challenges. Some of these challenges come up at different stages of ministry, in some cases, they are faced at the onset, and in other instances, they crop up as a result of expansion and church growth. The list below may not be exhaustive, but it covers some of the basic issues faced by some churches—

¬ Lack of Human Resources
¬ Lack of Adequate Music Facilities
¬ Lack of Dedicated Volunteers
¬ Lack of Motivation
¬ Lack of Understanding
¬ Lack of Discipline
¬ Finance
¬ Sound
¬ People Management
¬ Conflict Resolution Methods

As stated above, inadequate human resources can pose a challenge to the success of a worship team. In an ideal situation, a successful worship ministry will require a set of musicians who play one instrument or the other, and a set of vocalists who sing. In Psalm 150: 3—5, we are instructed to praise God with diverse instruments. The harp and lyre, for instance, are string instruments that can help us regulate the key and tone we sing on in a corporate worship setting. Without the instruments that help unify our singing, our songs would be chaotic and very displeasing to listeners.