"The Triumphant Sound of Music"©

by Cheryl Faye Hollar
(Franklinton, NC USA)

I know I use events in my church to coincide with this article, but after all, love is the heart of the Christian message. This month is no different, since I want to talk about the music program at my church!

I’m very excited about it, since we just voted on a new Music Director who is quite gifted by God. Fact is, we’ve gone through several years of searching for a music director.

I don’t know how many of you have music directors anymore, but we’ve had them in my church since I was in the youth choir (which was quite a while ago). By having a music director, I mean that we have someone stand in front of our choir and “direct” us. I might add that, over the years, we’ve had many accomplished musicians in our midst, and I’m thankful for those good memories and that great training.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous article, my church has been through a rough time with leadership positions and, sadly, to be truthful, we nearly closed the doors. But now, thanks be to God, we are on the upswing!

Anyway, while we did have a good director of music for the past four years, he was not a “trained musician.” I don’t mean to sound as if we’re too good not to have a “trained” professional or anything like that, but we’d always had someone who helped us understand what was on the written musical page and that helped us with our musical sounds and pronunciations of vowels. Those southern words can really stand out in a musical composition – and not in a good way!

To cut a very long and quite involved story short, yesterday we voted on this new director, who, as I mentioned, God has truly gifted in music. It is truly a joy to hear him play and to watch him as he plays. You just know he is “called” in the field. It’s just a world of difference from the past four years.

And looking back even further than that, I can see that music has always touched my heart. As a child in church, I always enjoyed the music more than the preaching (all pastors out there, I apologize).

I even considered majoring in music in college – but I’m so shy, I could never get up the courage to take any of the classes where you had to perform in front of people – singing or playing – and I nearly died when I had to play a child’s song on the guitar for one of my music appreciation courses for elementary school teachers. I did everything I could to try to get that teacher to let me play that piece in private.

And, come to think of it, “The Sound of Music” is my favorite film. For someone who is not an accomplished musician, music has had a very important part of shaping who I am.

Anyway, our new director is also our church accompanist. He is proficient in organ (holding a degree in the area) but plays a clavinova in church. I don’t know if any of you have ever heard of a clavinova, but I didn’t even know the word existed!

Anyway, when we voted to call him as our Music Director, we also voted for the church to purchase one of these clavinovas. We already have a baby grand and an organ that, I’m sure, were given by past members to the church as gifts, and I’m sure the organ has been there since I can remember. Since the church was built in the 1800’s, there’s no telling how old it is.

I am humbly thankful for God sending our Music Director to us. Let me just add one more thing before I end this article. One of the things the new director is seeking in a church – even more than the opportunity to play – is a church family, a place of love. Every Sunday, we sing “The Family of God” as a church before we depart. I hope he can find love and acceptance in my church, and I’m so thankful for the people that have gone to him and hugged him, talking to him and thanking him, after services each Sunday. By the way, he was voted in unanimously. Praise the Lord. Discord has turned to joy!