WORSHIPnote♫

Summer in Georgia – what an experience it is! The heat, the humidity, the nightlife, the parks, the swimming, the fishing, the boating… the masks, the social distancing! Seriously, though, there’s a lot to do this time of year and music is still one of the options (in fact, I’m going to an informal outdoors Bluegrass concert soon!) – even if we have to make a few adjustments due to COVID.

And those adjustments have certainly been felt here at CVBC. Our church has been known for her big music: a choir and an orchestra with plenty of talent to spread around. COVID has forced us to modify what we do, but it hasn’t forced us to compromise our desire for excellence! Every Sunday morning (except one) the Music and Worship Team has been present and excited to lead the local church in worship. This team consists of the musicians you can see. Let's not forget the tech team behind the scenes, diligently learning new processes and developing creative ways to give CVBC a better and more professional online presence weekly.

During this time, you might think you would see a decline within the Music and Worship Team, but we’ve actually seen growth! During the last four months, we’ve brought on a new drummer, a new vocalist, and we’re even training two new tech members to supplement our crew! When you look at this activity, it is hard not to see God’s hand at work, protecting and nurturing Worship at CVBC.

Understandably, there are questions about when the choir and orchestra will be returning. That’s a tricky situation – one the local school system hasn’t even entirely figured out yet. Large ensembles are a conundrum across the country. Community bands and orchestras are wanting to gather back together but are unable to due to safety concerns. Here at CVBC, we’re in a similar pickle: according to the Georgia social distancing guidelines, our choir and orchestra can gather back together and start rehearsing (our groups are small enough not to require social distancing). However, we cannot lead in worship because as soon as we walk into the worship center with the congregation present, we’re in violation of those guidelines. It’s admittedly frustrating, but we’re are doing what we can to work within the guidelines of the state.

With that being said, to keep the entire Music and Worship team engaged, we’ve started putting together “virtual choirs.” You’ve already seen one of them: we presented a video of our choir and orchestra performing “The Hand of Our God” not too long ago. We have another video ready to go, and we’re working on a third video right now! It’s not the same, of course, as performing in-person, but it’s better than doing nothing.

The final thing happening within the Music Ministry’s sphere is the replacement of our old projector. I’m sure you’ve seen the lyric sheets on the pews Sunday morning, as well as the new QR card that will take you to our website that has the lyrics for the day. These items are in place because our old projector stopped functioning a little while back. Fortunately, we had already started the process of looking into replacing the old system with a new one – this just gave the process some needed expediency. I cannot give you a date, yet, as to when we’ll have a new projector system in place, but it’s close enough we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Before I let you go, I’d like to remind you to pray not only for your church and your pastors and their families, but also pray for your church family, those you used to see and sit next to every Sunday morning. If you haven’t seen a familiar face lately, let me encourage you to reach out and give them a call. Love is expressed not when someone else does what’s needed, but when you do it yourself.