CHOIR

The choir started yesterday (15 March 2009) to raving reviews. People loved it. People asked for it to occur every week (but that is up to the worship leader). The elder over us (the elder/pastor whose portfolio includes worship; in other words, he’s the pastor that the worship leader reports to) came up to me, called me Kirk Franklin and said both that we need more mic’s for the choir (THANK GOODNESS) and that he has songs for me. Everyone was going crazy. You see at my church the sound is not good, according to my preference. The elders/pastors here operate under the philosophy that the sound should be soft enough so that you can hear the people next to you and around you singing. A better one (opinion) is that it is loud enough so you don’t hear the people around you so you are not self-conscious and you just let go and sing and praise God through music. Either way, when people recognize a song they know from a CD or a concert, they immediately realize how dead it sounds, how different it sounds. The songs lack something. You cannot really feel the thump of the drums nor experience the vibration of the bass player. The keyboard isn’t heard at all. And background vocalists come in and out. You hear the worship leader and his guitar and the lead electric guitar moreso. So the addition of the choir turned everything up a notch. And the worship leader (Wes) finally could relax and didn’t have to always sing the melody to lead the congregation. I was scared they wouldn’t be heard, but thankfully you could hear them (the sound is not great in the church or I don’t agree with the way it’s done like I said). But they also led visually and really encouraged the people. They danced and danced and danced. And you know the music here is a bit different and the style of dance. So we just had a blast. Remember central heating is nowhere to be found except in malls or office buildings, but in homes or other businesses or organizations (like my church) we don’t have it. So I had to keep handing out tissues to choir members who were sweating up a storm in front of everyone. We had a good time, and everyone was encouraged. They sounded great! And many have never sung before.

The choir sings again this weekend (28th of March) for the second time. Easter will be the third time.