I am the leader of my church's praise team--more by necessity and circumstance (a story in itself) rather than by talent or being deserving of the spot. There are people in the church who know a lot more about music, conducting, and group leadership dynamics than I--yet nevertheless there I am. It's been an interesting ride--I could be wrong but I think I've now been in that position going on 3 years. The people of the praise team are all my friends, but leading them is quite a different matter than being a friend and I feel that at times the responsibility has been beyond me. However, lest this post turn into all gloom and doom--I should say that even though they can be frustrating, they have also worked hard and have progressed a lot in a short time span.
Anyway--let me get to the point--- About a month ago my church's pastor sat down with me and informed me that we had been invited to conduct the song service for the sabbath school at camp meeting. I was happy and fearful at the same time. Happy because being invited to sing at camp meeting means that the leaders at the higher levels of the local church organization have somehow become aware of the praise team in our church and have deemed it to be of quality. Good enough to lead out in music during a time when all the churches of the area gather together. It is a tremendous honor and a great recognition of the hard work that the people have put in. This was the second time in 3 or 4 years that we have gone--so it was a double honor. I was fearful because organizing to get the group up there is a true headache--the time and effort you have to put in not only to practice the group for camp meeting (in addition to the normal every week worship practice) but also in organizing all the little details such as coordinating with the pastor in charge of sabbath school at camp meeting, figuring out transportation, lodging, and food, figuring out equipment requirements etc. Needless to say it is a huge interruption in the normal flow of the praise team.
This year was especially frustrating-- due to circumstances that were beyond my control I wound up basically not having any real practices, I had to chase down the conference officials at every turn only to get pushed to the side, ignored, or given the run around (oh you're calling about that? no you have to speak to pastor so and so--once you call him he refers you to someone else etc.) and on top of that I had to deal with praise team group dynamics--everyone wanting to know what was happening (when I didn't even know because no one at the conference would get back to me) and a few in the group wanting do things their own way.
Things reached a fever pitch when last wednesday I was still waiting to see what would happen regarding meal tickets for the group. I had to call up the pastor I was working with for sabbath school and tell him either this would be resolved or the group was not going. i wasn't rude about it--i knew he wasn't in charge of the food aspect--but I told him I needed his help because I was getting nowhere. I told him that as leader of the group I could not possibly ask the group to get up at 4 am and have them starve the whole day. Faced with the real possibility of us pulling out, someone got back to me within the half hour. It is a sad but true testament to the lack of organization that exists in the higher levels of camp meeting planning. It should never have come to that point in my opinion.
The group had to get up at 4 am in order to be able to be there on time for sabbath school song service at 9:15 am. 4 am to get ready at home (take a bath, prepare the clothes, get dressed, do their hair etc.--you get the idea) 5 am to start getting to the church from nj and brooklyn respectively, and leave from the front of the church to the camp meeting at 6:15 am. We got there at 8 am, which turned out to be enough time to set up the equipment and eat breakfast. But we had to sing cold--no time to warm up or practice. I was praying that if this was going to be for God that He would help us to lead His people in giving glory to His name.
The song service itself went well--something for which I can only praise the Lord because I know that it was all Him. It is a tremendous responsibility to lead out such a large group of people in song worship. the only explanation is the the Lord wanted those who came to camp meeting to meet with Him and so He helped us to do a task that could have easily gone very wrong. The song service went long --because the leaders had a little trouble starting on time. I estimate that our song service lasted about 30 to 35 minutes--8 songs every stanza plus a time to meet and greet. It's a good thing that we came prepared with a list of emergency songs. Normally song service in our local church is 3 songs. We could have gone 5 more songs after those 8, but after that I would have had to improvise--- thankfully that did not turn out to be necessary. There was, however, one last surprise in store---the bulletin indicated there would be an opening and closing hymn for the sabbath school, but as to what they were--it was not listed in the bulletin. I went in the back during the meet and greet and consulted with the sabbath school pastor to see if he knew what they were---he didn't know either, and I wound up having to pick an opening hymn on the spot. I mentally prayed and we sang Redeemed (the classic one, not the newer one). The whole assembly belted out Redeemed with much joy and I felt that it set the correct tone for the rest of sabbath school.
Our pianist had to leave for the train station at 10:25 to go back to NYC because she had family coming over to her house that afternoon and she had to be there to meet them. By boarding the train at 10:40 she was ensuring that she would be back home at about 12:40 or 1:00--perfect time to eat sabbath lunch together. Since our pianist had to leave, I told our keyboardist to be ready to play during the closing hymn and he got very nervous at the prospect--but thankfully it did not turn out to be anything to worry about. Because the sabbath school was running late the sabbath school leaders decided to cancel the closing hymn and instead just pray to end the sabbath school and go directly into personal ministries time.
With sabbath school officially over the praise team was now free to enjoy the rest of the day. The speaker at the Youth and Young Adult Tent turned to be Pastor Sheldon Cooper from southern New Jersey who had a powerful message for those in attendance regarding the dangers of being lukewarm and calling the young people to make a full and wholehearted commitment to God. After eating a very delicious and healthy lunch at the camp cafeteria we went back home this year instead of staying until the end of evening vespers service like in years past. We just felt very exhausted and all of us wanted to get home at a reasonable hour rather than at midnight or 1 am like in past years. Since the trip from the camp to the city is 2 hrs and 30 minutes it is easy to see how if you leave camp meeting at 9:30 pm you might wind up going home past midnight. Remember that 2 hours and 30 minutes would be just to reach manhattan--after that everyone has to go back to their homes in brooklyn and new jersey. So we left this year at 3-- and wound up getting home at around 6:30 pm. All things considered it was a good day.
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