Well, when I got in the door at church tonight Pastor told me that they were disbanding the Kids' choir. He cited lack of interest and committment. He wants me to concentrate on working with the Adult choir.
And frankly, I was somewhat relieved. We had been rehearsing the kids in a side room at church, but after being told last month to do a 15-minute rehearsal after service in the sanctuary we had a disastrous practice. Imagine 10-12 kids from 4 to 14, with no other adults helping....me yelling to the sound guy in the back to 'run the track', corralling the ones acting up. In the other room we had a blackboard, small keyboard, a TV/DVD player to play tracks, 1-2 people to help, and most importantly, percussion and small instruments to try out.
I mentioned to Pastor that I agreed, and that the kids did seem interested when playing the rhythm instruments; I had been letting them play at the keyboard and the uke and small guitar in there, hoping that eventually we could do simple praise/worship songs on Youth Sunday, rather than just sing to the tracks.
We had already told some of the older teens they could sing w/the adults in Choir, so that was no big loss. But I worry about the younger kids. Not all were committed, but there was a small but growing number who were excited about learning new songs and playing the instruments. One 5th-grader went from crossing his arms and saying "I'm not singing" during rehearsal to asking me for piano lessons last week. Another came in, looked around and asked "where's the keyboard?" (I had been told to put it away so the kids wouldn't play it - the room now has 2 computers on a table behind a partition). Seems the room is for the kids, but not for music.
Oh, well - guess I am venting - but am resigned to it...
