God bless you, you're doing a great job

"You're doing a great job, thanks and God bless you. Your special number today was powerful and I believe that your ministration on Sunday will be even more powerful..." is the text of the SMS I received from the pastor of my church last Saturday. It's not the first time either that he has commended my efforts as leader of the choir. Sometime ago, I blogged about my appointment as choir leader in January this year. At first it was daunting, the prospect of managing the complex affairs of a choir. But I dug into my role with gusto and have found myself actually enjoying it.

I am in charge of a group of choristers many of whom are married women with small children, who also have jobs. So there is the fact that members of the choir oftentimes cannot find the time to attend choir practice, (small children can be such a handful sometimes). Then there are issues concerning family commitments and so forth, and it hasn't been an easy ride for me. But I've been open and honest with them about the fact that I am quite inexperienced at this. And by appearing to be naive, I've somehow warmed my way into their hearts, apparently, because all of the members seem to be much more enthusiastic about the choir now than I remember them ever being. And this enthusiasm shows too when the choir ministers during the church services.

I think this might have something to do with the fact that soon after my appointment as leader, I delegated various responsibilities to different members. Also, I have been careful to always seek their opinions, listen to their suggestions and defer to the judgement of the more experienced choristers when making decisions. Such that each of them feel as if they are actively participating in the decision making, and any previous resentment about my appointment as leader appears now to have dissipated.

It was my idea that rather than attending for choir practice on Saturdays and losing our Saturday evenings, we should instead meet for practice after service on Sunday, a time when I calculated that everyone would be in a good mood. This idea has turned out to be quite popular, hence the improvement in the quality of our performance. It is still my job to choose which song(s) the choir would sing at the Sunday service, teach the song to the choir if necessary and direct the music. But I'm not complaining, because I genuinely love doing this. For next Sunday I have picked this delectable song...