The few, the proud, the choir

This past Sunday morning at church, we saw a pretty significant rise in attendance. In fact, our numbers for Sunday School were the highest I have seen in the past 3 years. It was so nice looking out across the congregation and seeing so many folks. We had a wonderful Spirit filled service during our morning worship service and the choir sounded spectacular. We actually had some basses this Sunday which did my heart good. I even strayed from my regularly scheduled program to include pg. 92, Just A Little Talk With Jesus, so I could hear that wonderful bass section.

Sunday evening we had a drastic falling off. Not sure where everybody was. I know a few members went to hear Gary Barnard play piano in a concert, but the rest of them... only God knows where they were. If it hadn't been for our youth group and some visitors from Texas Valley; former pastor, Jerry Copeland and his wife Gail, along with Mary-Alice and Steve Thomas, and Randy Wallen, we wouldn't have had but a handful. But, like Jesus says in Matthew 18:20: "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." And, in the midst He was! Even with our low attendance, the choir loft was nearly completely full! We were a little thin in the Alto section but man, what a sound the choir put out! We have been practicing, Goodbye, World Goodbye, for a few weeks and we sang it. I can't remember ever being more proud of the choir than I was last night. I looked out at them and it seemed like everyone had the biggest smile on their face and they were rearing back and singing with all they were worth. I could even hear my little 9-year old Liz belting out that song to the top of her lungs! You can give it a listen at the bottom of this post. Make sure you listen to the ending, we really worked hard on it and Barbara does a very impressive roll down the keyboard to boot!

We may not be the largest, most musically trained, or even skillful choir, but for what we lack in those 3 departments, we make up for in heart and Spirit. I've always told the choir members that I would rather hear a handful of folks singing to the Lord from their hearts than some huge professionally trained choir full of dead-spirited ones. Sure, sometimes I get down about the low numbers but I thank God for the few, the proud, the choir!