Dear friends,
Today I share with you the schedule for our first few months together. Please do whatever you can to be present for whatever you can. The choir is not complete without each and every person. No matter how big or small your voice, no matter how big or small your personality, no matter how big or small your resume, no matter how big or small your age, your presence is essential to enable us to truly form a sense of community. Try this motto for those who try to dissuade you on Wednesday nights: "I can't. I have rehearsal!" Reality sets in, and conflicts arise, but I promise that if you invest your time in our process, you will be rewarded fully and that your time will not be wasted. That is my covenant with you: I value your contributions, and will not take advantage of them.
Some new things appear on your schedule:
1. a Summer Community Sing of the Brahms' REQUIEM next Wednesday at 7:00. Invite your friends to this as well-- it is open to the whole world! :) This is a no-pressure, full-immersion experience. We don't sing enough just for fun...this is the time and the place and the piece!
2. TOf particular importance is our choir retreat day on Saturday, August 29 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Please let me know as soon as possible that you will be attending. We will provide refreshments and lunch for you. We will spend a good bit of time rehearsing and singing, but we will also invest in some activities that will help us work better together, acknowledging our challenges but affirming our abilities to unite as we move forward. Again, please know that your presence for this particular experience is ESSENTIAL to our progress and process. I am so grateful to have this special time with each of you.
Each Wednesday evening or Sunday morning you have many choices. The fact that you ever choose to come to be with us at First Plymouth is an amazing gift to those of us you find here, and I believe that it is also an amazing gift to you, too. That's why you come back. That's why we come back, too. Ministry and service are gifts that flow seamlessly both ways. I am thankful to have been called to serve with each of you, and I look forward to helping us all find our collective voice, offering our gifts to the One who has given us so much.
Grace and peace,
TT
