Is there a place in the choir for the least musically talented among us? A UMNS photo illustration.

A UMNS Commentary
By David Briggs*
May 8, 2009

My sixth grade class was going to junior high school in the fall, and our teacher was asking for three volunteers for the middle school chorus.

I was the only one to raise a hand.

The teacher, a kind, gracious woman, started talking up the choir and continued to seek students.

I waved my hand back and forth to get her attention.

Finally, she said, “Since there are no volunteers, I am going to pick three myself.”

And so went my introduction to music criticism. I loved to sing – no 11-year-old put more energy into classics such as “Jimmy Crack Corn” – but there was a reason neighboring classroom doors would close during our music time. I had – and still have – what Susan Boyle of “Britain’s Got Talent” fame will never possess: a combination of absolutely no sense of pitch with an incredibly loud voice.

People like me are a problem for churches. Congregational singing is a sign of vitality. In theory, everyone is encouraged to participate. No voice should be left behind in an institution that prides itself on valuing the diversity of God’s gifts.

But what should a pastor or music director do when someone drowns out others in the church? Or when a church member with little or no musical skills but great enthusiasm wants to join the choir?

Is there a point when the aesthetics of the service take precedence over the desire to be inclusive in worship?

To get some answers, I talked to two of the music leaders profiled in our “United Methodists Got Talent” music package.

The Rev. Charlene Harris Allen, pastor of Walkerton United Methodist Church in Indiana, is an accomplished soloist who has led contemporary music groups. Enrique Sanchez-Jeffery is a vocal coach and music director of First United Methodist Church of Kennedale in Texas.

Both say church is no talent contest.

Allen said she would never tell anyone to put a sock in it. “No, oh heavens no,” she said.

Christian theology calls on the church to welcome everyone. “It doesn’t make any difference how beautiful a person’s voice is. Their voice is beautiful in God’s ear,” Allen said. “All can sing praises to God.”

Sanchez-Jeffery says he works with some choir members about blending into an ensemble, about not allowing their voice to overpower other voices. But he does not give up on anyone, preferring encouragement and education to banishment.

“Can’t is not in my vocabulary when I’m teaching music,” he said. “I don’t like to crush anyone’s dreams.”

In fact, Sanchez-Jeffery would love to have everyone in his congregation sing. What matters is “they’re doing it for God.”

I tend to agree with these two kind souls that the church should err on the side of being welcoming. But, then again, maybe their views would change if they heard me sing.

In graduate school, my wife and I were invited to join the choir at our campus church. The pastor wanted average folks in the group as a sign the choir was representative of the congregation.

Talk about a mismatch. This was Yale University. Our choir had three students from the School of Music, including a soloist with a transcendent voice and a composer and director from London with a superb ability to read and understand music.

As we rehearsed “Gift of Finest Wheat,” the church choir director would keep encouraging me to sing more softly. “Softer, softer,” he would say, indicating with his hand that I should turn down the volume. When it got to the point my voice was hardly audible, I knew it was time to leave.

The fact is, in most churches, people like me do pick up social cues, if not from people in neighboring pews, then from spouses and children who do not want to be embarrassed. In later years, when a pastor who heard my deep speaking voice asked me to join the choir, I politely declined.

I still sing what I consider a joyful noise unto the Lord. Just not too loudly.
 
*Briggs is news editor of the United Methodist News Service.

News media contact: David Briggs, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5472 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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