The Choir Loft

 The sun is just warming the skies as Mark and I begin our Sunday morning ritual of waking the children. I gently enter their rooms and try to calmly begin our morning as Mark heads to the piano and loudly begins running over the upcoming morning's worship list. I quickly grab a couple pop tarts and zip lock bags of dry cereal as I run upstairs to supervise the brushing of teeth, combing of hair, and matching of clothes. The mad dash for the van begins in unison to Mark's honking the horn. During the fifteen-minute drive to the church we take the opportunity to go over this morning's memory verses with the ultimate goal of keeping a peaceful, fight-free ride to church. It was on one of these mornings a few years ago that I looked up and noticed a set of power lines that were facing both sides of the country road we were traveling on. They were full of birds all lined up and standing at attention. I told the kids to quickly look out the window that the birds had already started their choir practice. Of course Mark was quick to observe the fact that there were straggling birds joining the already assembled chorus of birds. He exclaimed, “Even the birds have choir members that are late!” This began years of a Sunday morning ritual of locating the various bird choirs rehearsing for their worship service.

Many of us grace our choir lofts each week, but do we realize what an honor it is to stand there? I wish I could reach out to every choir member, musician, and praise singer and help them to understand what a ministry it is to lead a congregation in worship. The lyrics and parts have been memorized by hours of practice. It is now that the ministry begins. Being in a choir is about much more than just using our voice. It is about joining our voice with our eyes, smile, hands, and body to lead in worship. We are not worship followers, but we are worship leaders. What a place of ministry!

I wish I could personally thank each one of you who have given hours and hours that stretched into years and years of sacrifice to weekly minister in worship. So many lives have been changed because of your sacrifice.

So the next time you grab your family for the weekly mad dash to the early morning or evening practice/service, take a moment to glance up and locate the various choirs that have already assembled.

Carol Condon, wife of recording artist, Mark Condon, resides in Columbus, Ohio. She is an important part of Mark’s music ministry and is also the happy mother of four children .