Jeremy Armstrong sees God working through a combination of choirs and ministries:
Two years ago I received a call from another worship pastor asking if I would consider joining his and a couple other choirs in the area for a Christmas Presentation. His choir was very small and the others involved were not much larger. My church’s choir was the largest (40 singers) and he almost didn’t call me because of our size. We set up a time to meet and discuss the possibility.
From our first meeting forward it was evident that God was working through this combination of choirs and ministries. Even our particular musical gifts complimented each other. I was the choir guy, another guy strong in band, another keys and the fourth a talented vocalist. We began praying and planning and listening to possible Christmas collections. It was our desire to do more than present a Christmas musical but to engage our congregations in worship centered on Christ’s birth.
We chose All Bow Down, a Travis Cottrell “Praise & Worship Christmas Musical.” Other early decisions included dates and locations for our Christmas worship event. We settled on a Saturday night at one church and Sunday night at a second church in early December. Next, we scheduled combined choir rehearsal dates. We met once a month at each of our four churches and then rehearsed separately in the weeks between. We scheduled solo and praise team auditions after one combined rehearsal and the band rehearsed separately. The four worship pastors divided up the musical’s worship leader roles. We were originally going to hold band auditions from our churches but decided keeping one band together and adding what was needed would work better for us. The last few rehearsals included band, tech and choir. All Bow Down has some really good brass parts and with no one having quality players in our churches, we recruited some outside help.
Before each monthly rehearsal, we four worship pastors would meet for lunch or coffee and cover details, discuss creative elements, marketing to our churches, etc. and pray. We would also email and text message weekly to stay in constant contact with one another. Communication was key!
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