Dear friends,

This is just a friendly reminder about tomorrow's schedule. We will meet at 8:15 in the choir room to prepare ALL HAIL THE POWER OF JESUS NAME and LAST WORDS OF DAVID for both services. It is important that we all be on time so that we can work together to offer our best in worship. Warming up as a group is not just a formality or habit, it is an important time to form ensemble, to bring people's minds to a common purpose, and to enable the voice to do its job. Please respect and enable all of us by making it at 8:15. You will have a snack in between services, then lunch will be served at 11:30. We will then have rehearsal with the Abendmusik Chorus folks in the chapel from 12:30-2:30. I look forward to a wonderful day together!

Here are two notes from folks from Abendmusik Chorus. How blessed we are to offer such a wonderful community to everyone who seeks us out. :)

The rehearsal time was enthralling. I got so high on the music and the energy that I was bouncing around for a long time afterwards. Am truly thrilled to be a part of so much beauty, with you and Jeremy. Thank you to the whole choir for your warm welcome. See you on Sunday.

I had a great time Wednesday night! It is so good to be singing again- I have missed it a lot! I am looking forward to Sunday, and will probably come in for Church and catch lunch after.

Grace and peace,

TT

Dear friends,

My first Wednesday night without you tendered me to realize how much I value the steady rhythm of our life together. Our Wednesday nights energize me and propel me to think more deeply about life and faith and community and God and music and relationships and and and so many things! I missed being a part of First-Plymouth so much on Wednesday night. Even though I knew you were in the most capable hands of my colleague and friend, Jeremy, I wished I could have been there to see and hear each of you, to pray with you, and to be in my comfortable seat in our circle. What a blessing to work with people that you miss when you are away! What a joy to have a job that you miss while you're working on the road! What a gift to have colleagues like Becky and Jeremy that make so much possible for me and for us all!

As many of you know, I am back in Michigan spending a wonderful week with my beloved chamber choir-- singers AND people with whom I've grown so much these last seven seasons. Almost everything I have come to know about choral music we have learned together. Almost everything I believe about singing, we have experienced together. Almost everything I understand about shared leadership and group process, they have taught me. We trust one another, respect one another, and celebrate one another. We humble ourselves for the good of the whole. We share everything in the music we make together. What I have realized coming back this week is how grateful I am for these people who have trusted me, loved me, and graced me by sharing their amazing talents and their valuable time making music with me. They could all sing with any group they would want to, or they could all go sing solos just about anywhere. But they choose to listen to one another, to allow their voices to serve any style of music we encounter, and to support and encourage one another in every possible way. What a metaphor for the world! If only more people in our world would work together rather than just look out for their own well being, just think what the kingdom could be!

While I am grateful for being here this week, and enjoying such a challenging and rewarding connection with these singers and these dear, dear people, I can't wait to get back to Lincoln. We are beginning to discover so much about who we are and what we might be able to become, with God's help and with one another's gifts and talents. We have the chance to experience so much each and every week and for years and years and years. Let's continue to trust one another, to bring our best for the good of "us" rather than "me," and to fully treasure the opportunity we have to share in every moment we are together. I wish you could all experience the magic of this week in Birmingham, Michigan-- it's like a week of Wednesdays! But there is so much magic in Lincoln, too.. . we just have to look and listen carefully to discover what's been waiting to reveal itself all along!

Have a wonderful weekend. I can't wait to be home with you all on Wednesday!
TT

*Dear friends,*
**
*Our wonderful rehearsal last night inspires me to look forward to this
Sunday morning at First-Plymouth. We will assemble at 9:45 in the choir
room to prepare to sing PILGRIM'S HYMN, COME THOU FOUNT, LOVE DIVINE (pink
sheet), and HOLY GOD WE PRAISE THY NAME. Pastor Jim plans to talk about the
mystery of God's love. I don't yet know what he will say, but just knowing
the topic, the music we are about to sing has sought me out in a new
way. That magical image from Pilgrim's Hymn, "unceasing love, O unceasing love surpassing all we know" has captured my imagination and heart this week. And through the text of COME THOU FOUNT, I notice that we offer our hearts in return for that unceasing love, as we passionately sing, "Here's my heart, O take and
seal it for thy courts above"-- not just once, but twice...not just in one
key, but in many keys! *
**
*It's so easy for us to get caught in the details and situations in life
that keep of from seeing and feeling and experiencing God's love-- even
though it's always there. And it's so easy for us to forget to share our
heart with others and with God in return-- we think there's not enough time,
or we're too tired, or our job is too demanding, or we don't feel well
enough. I fear that sometimes a church choir can get too focused on
learning particular music for certain occasions-- get so caught up in the
details and the business and the work that we forget about the love part and
the God part-- the true reason and purpose we assemble. *
**
*The prayer wall we began to build this week offers us another opportunity
to realize that our work together is ministry-- prayer and praise and love--
it's holy work. Our singers come from their busy lives every Wednesday with
worlds of concerns, and we come together and share our lives together as
a community. Our community offers support and hope and inspiration and
peace. We are called not just to sing the words "unceasing love" but we are
called to share the meaning of those words with those who sing with us, with
those who hear us sing, and with the One who gives us voice. We can be part
of that 'unceasing love,' and it can be our heart that we offer to God and
to others!*
**
*This message comes from one of our members, and lifts up some of these
ideas already coming to light!*
**
**
*

Crazy times for my business these next two months, everyone wanting things
done for the holidays, and very few things going right...and missing work
too much...not feeling great lately...ALL makes for 'not in the mood' for
much else attitude...includes choir:(
BUT, I really do love coming to choir again!!! Tonight proved it once
again...the whole evening is a thrill to be a part of...and sometimes the
body movements are the only physical exercise I've had since my early
morning walks :)
YOU energize me and ALL of us! YOU help to remind me that I am SO
THANKFUL...that I have this God given ability to sing, a desire to share my
talents with others, and simply that I LOVE MUSIC...something I have
forgotten!!! THANK-YOU!!
Sometimes after 30+years of singing some of the same music, it gets old, and
we have sung it like we are tired of it...We are bringing LIFE back to these
wonderful pieces of music.
We are NOT the same choir we were, and in a very short amount of time you
have helped us bring back the answers to why we sing...THANK-YOU!!!

*

Thanks to EACH of you, and blessings to each of you as we continue to be
God's instruments trying to become a symphony! : )
TT

p.s. Remember our buddy challenge this week: find a book or movie that you
have both seen, and talk about it. Maybe even decide on a movie to see or a
book to read together! : )

p.p.s. The sixth and seventh graders are hosting a fundraiser on Sunday
morning. If you like pancakes, this is your chance to support them!

p.p.p.s. Thanks again to Stephen and Michelle for creating our awesome
choir newsletter. If you did not get a copy yet, there will be some extras
Sunday morning, and we hope to attach it to the blog soon, too.

p.p.p.p.s. Call someone you haven't talked to in awhile.