Church sees ministry tool in children’s choir

Fifth-grader Matt Galloway knows the impact a church musical can have on a young person’s life. He made a profession of faith following a performance after last year’s Christmas musical at First Baptist Church, Trussville.
   
“They (musicals) can help people decide Christian things like accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior,” Matt said. “(Students) have a lot of peer pressure, but they need to do what they feel is right.”
   
Perhaps his own experience is why Matt was excited about his participation in “Out on a Limb.” Written by Paige Turner and Sally Murray, the musical was performed for the first time March 12 by the church’s 75-voice fourth- through sixth-grade choir.
   
Turner, the children’s choir coordinator and director of the boys’ choir, said she always ended up rewriting purchased musicals to include more children before finally deciding to write her own. She went to Murray, who directs the girls, with some lyrics and lines. Together, the two completed the musical in August.
   
Rehearsal for the work, which is about making wise choices and uses the biblical example of Zaccheus and the rich young ruler, began in January.
   
“The most important choice is Jesus,” Turner said. “Once that choice is made, the rest is easy.”
   
Matt played the part of Will, the boy who had decisions to make.
   
Performance plays a great part in children’s choirs, but Jane Burdeshaw, children’s music consultant for the State Board of Missions, said it is not the most important.
   
“Music education — teaching and training — is most important,” Burdeshaw said. “Performance comes as an outgrowth as children learn things.”
   
Although Burdeshaw places primary focus on practice, she has taken her choirs to nursing homes, grocery stores and the zoo.
   
Believing practice is important, Burdeshaw works to create an atmosphere that is fun and varied for the children.
   
“Activities need to be interwoven with the singing because children need diversity,” she said.
   
She has concluded that students don’t need to be “sitting in chairs like adults do — they’re children.”
   
She breaks the monotony with musical games and rhythm exercises.
   
Because musical programs contribute to the “total growth” of a child, Burdeshaw believes participants will be “stronger leaders when they become adults.”
   
She seeks choir directors who are willing to teach both musical and spiritual concepts to children.
   
In Burdeshaw’s opinion, children’s choirs should be a “very, very high priority in churches because they sincerely minister to the children.”
   
Matt agrees. “Every church should have one.”
   
“I think (children’s choir) is very, very important,” Burdeshaw said. “So many children may not succeed in academics, where every child can be successful in music.”