Bright Stars: – Letting the Gifts of the Spirit Shine

Children’s choirs are unlike any other choir because they change constantly and very quickly. Unlike an adult choir whose members may have more or less lifetime membership, a children’s choir changes every year as children grow and learn, leave and arrive. Directors often find themselves training a new choir almost every year, uncovering new gifts as they go. 

Creativity – listening to the Spirit 

Every children’s choir is unique because of this, in its make-up, their ages, their capacity for learning and attention, their abilities. Some children are hungry for new music, easily bored, quick to learn new songs. Some with a different level of skill or ability will need to have the same material repeated over and over. The director must be constantly aware of the different needs of choir members, and their different gifts.  Creativity and even courage are essential, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

Using Active Gifts

Because of its focus on music, the choir attracts young musicians with a whole range of gifts and talents, some more developed than others. In our choir, some of the older members are learning instruments and love playing with the choir, from time to time, so we look for opportunities for them to participate in this special way. Trumpets for Christmas and Easter; flutes for descants and introductions; instrumental groups for quiet reflection during Lent; guitars, bass-players and drummers for youth-focused Masses. 

Many singers also love to dance, and move to music, so we make room for actions with lots of our songs: clapping and clicking, gestures of welcome, Auslan signs, actions that arise from the lyrics themselves. As voices develop, we can begin to realise that we have a gifted and glorious voice in our midst, one that may not fit into the choir as we know it. Opportunities like this are a gift that we can’t be too grateful for. Within the liturgy, we create opportunities for them to sing solos, to sing solo verses, to be the psalmist or cantor, to use their gift to inspire the other singers and delight the whole assembly. Outside the liturgy, they are a gift for Christmas concerts, praise-and-worship events, and recordings.

Occasionally our choir has been blessed with a young songwriter, even one who composed a song for the choir. For the composer, a live choir to try out their work on is a rare and wonderful opportunity. Feedback from the choir can be very helpful, and the encouragement they get from hearing their own composition sung in their own community can’t be underestimated.

Seek and You Shall Find

We are always on the  lookout for choir members who have an aptitude for directing, or an interest in accompanying. We give them all the encouragement we can, and provide training for them. Choir rehearsals are the perfect training ground for them. It’s important to find the time and energy to mentor these young volunteers, who are critical to the ongoing life of the choir, and of liturgical music in the community. It’s from young musicians such as these that our future music ministry will grow. 

Gifts out of the Box

Not all the choir members’ gifts are musical. We have gifted leaders, some gifted with an extraordinary pastoral sense of caring for those around them. We have gifted networkers, who always know who is away, and why. We have gifted computer experts, comedians, peacemakers – all given by the Spirit, for the building up of the Body of Christ.