Dr. Paul Tucker, Co-Director of Music
Each year, at this time, I find myself struggling with conflicting thoughts. School is about to begin again, and while I know from past experience that I won’t hate every minute of my teaching job, I never really feel prepared for
what is to come. I love teaching, but there is so much that I will have to do in the upcoming semester, I experience some anxiety.
For teachers, the idea is that during the summer break you rest up and get renewed for the new school year. It never seems to work out that way, though. This summer, for instance, I received several requests for performances in the upcoming fall semester. Now, the last thing I want to think about in the summer is a long lineup of performances, in addition to the ones that occur every year. I do not know what my choir is going to be until about two days before the semester begins, and while I want to say yes to the invitations to perform, I am usually reticent to commit without knowing how we will function as a group during the semester. But since there has never been a year when we have failed as a group, there does not seem to be a rational reason to worry.
This summer, however, there was something that promised to be new and exciting and creative, something that would be of value to everyone involved, though it required planning and extra work. Country Club Christian Church embarked on a revitalization of the early service. There were many meetings and walk-throughs of the new 9:01 service. It really wasn’t an easy task to settle on the vision for a new approach to this service. Many things had to be factored into the mix.
The planning involved everyone on the church’s program staff. Communications, Ministerial, Children and Youth Ministry, Music, Technical, Design, and Physical departments weighed in on how to make this new service effective. The first level of discussions concerned the focus of the service, and other topics were thoroughly explored in turn. Communications, for instance, had the very difficult challenge of figuring out how the service would be promoted and how to give this service a distinctive look. The result has been a fresh worship service that features, very prominently, children, a different musical approach, and a new spirit of worship.
While many aspects of the 9:01 service will be improved as we move forward, a visit to this service will certainly give the congregant a sense of a fresh approach to worship. And it certainly answers the question, “What’s New?”
