Example of Commitment Desired
to be Part of the Choral Ministry
By Larry Ellis

(This is an example of a choir director might communicate to the choir about the scope of commitment that is desired to be a part of the choral ministry of the church. Permission is granted for you to use and/or modify this as you desire within your ministry.)

We will normally rehearse on Thursdays 7:00 PM, 9:00 PM and Sundays 9:15 AM, 10:00 AM. We will sing at the 10:15 AM Sunday services.

I ask that you prayerfully consider your commitment to our choir. Our choir is a community of friends. We have a great deal of fun together while we work hard and regularly to learn and perform a variety of choral works. You will sharpen your sight-reading skills. You need to be regularly available to participate in our ministry together. You do not need to be a member of our church to sing in our choir. We desire to reach out to those who are drawn to our ministry both from within and outside of the congregation. We will be leading in all phases of the musical part of our worship each Sunday. I hope you can attend all the rehearsals and performances.

Please do not ask me for permission to be absent. You need to make the decision on that subject autonomously. We all must take vacations and have personal situations that from time to time need our presence. If you have a recurring conflict with rehearsals, please see me and together we can decide if your availability will be sufficient to permit you to effectively learn the music. However, I ask that you be committed to let me know in advance any time you will be absent from either a rehearsal or worship service. I will also be committed to make certain you know if we have any canceled rehearsals or schedule changes.

If you know you will be absent from either a Thursday rehearsal or a Sunday rehearsal or any service when the choir is scheduled to sing, please write your name on the date on the calendar on the bulletin board in the choir room. If you forget, please send me an email at larry.ellis@softwright.com. Also, please let me know your email address so that I can regularly keep you updated on our activities.

If you have personal needs, we encourage you to share those with us so that we can pray for you and personally support you in whatever way we can. I will support you in prayer personally or, should you desire, share your need in my weekly email letters to all those who are a part of and supporters of our music ministry. If you have particular choral works that you would like to sing during this year or favorite hymns, please let me know and if possible we will attempt to include at least some of them in our schedule.

This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”