ChurchSearch: The Decision

I suppose it will come as no surprise to those of you following this search that Custer Road is my choice of church with which to affiliate. Over the past few weeks I have met numerous people and have been warmly welcomed. Last night I joined the Chancel Choir. I expect to actually join the church after I return from a visit to my daughter in late September.

A few reflections on the choir: This is by far the largest choir in which I have sung since college. There are about 200 members and the Chancel Choir sings at two services -- a number of people sing at both, and members are allowed to choose whether they will sing at 9:45 or 11:00 or both. For now, I will be attending a 9:45 SS class and singing at 11:00. Old habits die hard. I have to confess to feeling guilty last night when the 1st sopranos sang the descant and there were at least a dozen, perhaps as many as twenty, singing that part. I am not and never have been a first soprano, but my previous choir was so thin on first sopranos that I was wishing I could share the wealth. There were times when this 1st alto had to be a faux soprano when there weren't enough real ones. But guilt aside, I really enjoyed the experience.

I had wondered how such a large choir would even notice the addition of a newbie, but I needn't have worried. I was met outside the choir room by a couple of ladies who had me fill out an information form. I was introduced to another alto and escorted into the choir room, shown where the folders and hymn books were kept, and then shown where to sit. Shortly afterward, amid enthusiastic greetings from others in the section, the greeters brought me a name tag and a folder with my name on it. Several times during the rehearsal Tim called for us to shuffle, turn around and greet the front row, back row, or whatever. This group, large as it is, does not permit anonymity. I was pleased to be joined by a fellow visitor from the information class.

My thoughts strayed several times to FUMC Jackson, who I knew would be rehearsing at the same time, in sadness over the loss of a beloved and valued member, Greg Tillman, who lost his battle with cancer yesterday. My love and sympathy flows to my friends and former choir-fellows in that loss.

On another note, I have had some varied church experiences over the past couple of weeks. On August 13, a Texas cousin and I were in Philadelphia visiting another cousin -- our fathers were brothers -- and we experienced a "high church" evening prayer with a sung liturgy. I'm afraid I was concentrating so hard on getting the melody right that the words of the Psalm did not register, but it was interesting to experience another type of worship. Of course, as cousins with evangelical and musical roots, we had to sing a few old favorite hymns as well. People with the same DNA harmonize especially well, and I think we did. At any rate, we enjoyed ourselves. It is a hallmark of my dad's family that where two or more are gathered together, there will be singing.

Upon deplaning, Melba turned on her cellphone and found a message from her sister that another one of our dads' brothers was hospitalized with congestive heart failure. That was on Thursday, and the following Tuesday that uncle passed away. The two of us drove to Missouri for the funeral and, along with about 25 other assorted cousins, we sang at the funeral. Again,the harmony created by DNA was at work, as well as the passion with which we sang our youngest uncle's favorite songs. So from high church liturgy to gospel in one week -- what a ride.

ChurchSearch: Round 2, Weeks 1-2

So I didn't get around to posting last week, but I have gone back to Custer Road for the last 2 Sundays. They had a Visitor Information class starting last Sunday (Aug. 3), which I decided would be a good place to learn about the church. I was right -- it was, so I went back there today. I am meeting more people each week, and have met several choir members. The choir is on summer hiatus this month, so I will plan to start when they resume rehearsals in a couple of weeks. I also registered for the Disciple Bible Study, Christian Believer course which starts in September.

At first the idea of attending such a large church (7,000 members) was intimidating. But then I realized that, regardless of the size of the church, my "home" is going to be the small groups of which I am a part. The advantage of a large church is the range and number of small group opportunities it offers. Of all the churches I visited in Round 1, I liked the worship service at CRUMC the best, so that will probably be the deciding point.