They Sang What?
It's a known fact that audiences frequently miss many of the choir's lyrics on Sunday morning. Either the musical embellishments get in the way, or the words themselves are garbled, or the listener is daydreaming, or …
The choir at Church of the New Covenant in Vacaville, California, got to talking one rehearsal about the visual images in the hymn being practiced. "We found ourselves describing mountains, rivers—various scenes we had visited on vacation," says Colleen Britton. "The words suddenly came alive and were very personal for each of us. How could we share this with the congregation?"
By Sunday they had put together a homemade slide show to illustrate each phrase of the song. "We combined our slides from various family outings and trips, and it was beautiful," she says. "The congregation focused intently on what we were singing; they were totally involved with the hymn.
This kind of treatment works easiest, of course, with repertoire about Creation. The Vacaville choir has done slide shows to accompany "God Who Touches Earth with Beauty," "All Things Bright and Beautiful," "This Is My Father's World," "All Creatures of Our God and King," and "For the Beauty of the Earth." But other subjects can be developed as well.
"We've used the technique effectively both in worship and church school classes, " says Britton.
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