A Detailed Interview with E. Martene Craig
Martene, how did you first become interested in music?
I had an aunt who was a musician, and my mother played violin and sang, so I was around it at home. But the big thing was when I went from the farm to the “big” town (actually quite small) of Calwell, Ohio, and saw the marching band playing at the Town Square. I wanted to be a part of the music, and take lessons as soon as I could!
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You say you were raised in “churchianity”, but weren’t a Christian.
How did you come to know God?
I grew up in the Methodist church, but didn’t have a personal relationship with Christ. I didn’t know what that was. The particular pastor at that time preached more of the social gospel … “Just be good, and everything’s fine”. I had a friend in high school with the last name of Coyle, and my name was Craig. Back then they put you in alphabetical order in classes, so she was in front of me. She started praying for me and some other students, along with two other gals that were praying for students. Then they invited us to Bible study. As she talked with me, she knew I didn’t have a personal relationship with Christ, but I did go to church. She started sharing with me that I personally needed to receive Christ as my personal Savior. I made that commitment during my junior year. It was a process where I came to more understanding as I went to Bible studies. She prayed with me, and was there to help me to grow in the Lord. She was concerned I would fall away from the Lord at college, but we kept in touch and she kept inspiring me. Some exciting things happened because these three gals made a commitment to reach out to their friends at school.
Many of the young people on that campus came to Christ, and we would meet twice a week – once for prayer, and once to prepare for outreach meetings. There wasn’t a church that would really support us … that was back when even Youth For Christ was being pegged by the social gospel churches as being communistic. In fact, because we would carry our Bibles to school daily, some of them thought we were a little strange. But God used that time. We had an evangelist come in and many of the kids on campus came to Christ. One of those, Dale, was a young man down at the pool hall that told his friend, “We’re going to check this out.” They came forward to accept Christ, and now Dale is the pastor of one of the largest churches in Zanesville, Ohio, with a very large Christian school. All of this happened because a gal had a vision for what could happen and reached out one-to-one … my life was transformed.
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How did God direct you into Music Ministry?
I was a Religious Major at a very liberal college that didn’t believe the Bible, and they were trying to get me to be a Music Major. I was struggling with that because I’m not a performer … I love to draw out the talents of other people. I hadn’t found my “niche” yet! I became a part of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, and they brought some people on campus that talked about Bible schools. I got catalogs from different schools, and felt that I was to go to Moody Bible Institute. I didn’t know how to tell my parents that I wanted to go to a Bible school. At Thanksgiving I went home, prayed about it, and told them I wasn’t very happy in school and struggling because my religion classes denied the scriptures … and I didn’t know the answers because I wasn’t a Bible student. My mother said, “Why don’t you go to Moody Bible Institute?” That’s how God works!
I felt the call of God on my life in missions and music at Moody. I was president of the orchestra and participated in all the different music events. I didn’t see how God would put that all together. I entered the conservatory after graduation to do my music education. I directed a little children’s choir for a church at the college and I liked that very much … but here I am an “instrumental” person … so what do I do about the “choral”?
I was having a few health problems and the doctor suggested a drier climate. So that was my excuse to go to Redlands University in Redlands, California, and I switched to a choral major. While there, the professor told me there were three churches in the area looking for Choir Directors. I interviewed for all three, and all three issued me an invitation! I prayed about it, and started at the First Baptist Church of Colton, California. They paid me something like $60 a month, and I was probably putting in fifty hours a week because I loved it so much! I found my niche!
Redlands University was quite expensive, so I transferred to and graduated from Cal State Fullerton, and took graduate work at Long Beach State. It was good for me … it broadened me. I commuted to the Colton church during this time, and was there for seven years!
That was back in the beginning days of musicals … John W. Peterson cantatas! We would pack out the church, and people would come to Christ. It was exciting!
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A man once tried to discourage you from Music Ministry.
What happened?
An evangelist came to the church in Colton, and I directed the choir for the meetings. I was coming out of the choir loft one day while he was entering the sanctuary. He said, “Oh, by the way, I wanted to ask you something. Are you thinking you’re going to go into Music Ministry?” I said, “Yes, that seems to be what God is doing.” He said, “ Well, I’d forget it! You’re a woman … you’ll never make it!” My heart just sank, but it also said inside me, “With God, we can do anything!” (Martene laughs a lot as she recalls this!)
It threw out a challenge to me, and it was like Satan saying, “You aren’t to go this way because I know what’s going to happen.” In that little church we had a small choir loft way up in the air, and they had to lower it so we could spread the choir across the front. We started with a thirteen-voice choir, and in seven years we had two hundred and some in the graded choir program in that little bitty church! God had a plan, and it sure wasn’t NOT to be involved!
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You’re very experienced at building extensive graded choral and instrumental programs in churches. What steps should a person take to begin developing a graded choir program?
You start with an adult choir and a Children’s Choir. One of the basic things is to have a Music Committee, a group of people that are representatives elected by the church … a core of people interested in seeing that a Music Program develops in the church. If you don’t have that type of instrument, it becomes very difficult, because you’re out there all alone.
Bob Mitchell gave the Music Committee idea to me. He was a tremendous man of God directing church choirs at First Baptist, West Covina, and a professor at the American Baptist Seminary. As a new director, I observed him and picked up all his literature.
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How does the Music Committee work?
The Music Committee has a representative from the Adult Choir, an adult representative from the Children’s Choir, an adult representative from the Youth Choir, a young person from the Youth Choir, and a professional musician. The church elects all of these people from submitted names, just like the trustees or deacons. That means they have some “say” in the church life. They attend the individual monthly meetings of the Music Committee. The Chairman is part of the advisory council that meets with the head of the trustees or deacons. That way everything blends together. The problem in so many churches is that they put the music clear out here by itself, and there’s no tie-in with communication and bringing everything together. It’s the hymnbook and the Bible that go hand-in-hand. You take music out of a worship service, and what do you have? Music is such a vital part of the worship service, but too many times it’s put out into left field somewhere. People don’t realize the disservice to unity, and bringing the whole program together.
You can build on those areas. For example, you have one Children’s Choir, then you have more Children’s Choirs … Kindergarten, a younger Children’s Choir, and an older Children’s Choir. You have adult representatives from each of those choirs that sit on the committee, so the committee can expand. You also have representation from the Production Area - sound, lighting and staging. It ties everything all together. I teach that in workshops … committees are vitally important to pull the whole thing together. There’s no way I could have directed all the groups I did, if it weren’t for all the people functioning in these different areas.
At the Fullerton church, I started with a fifteen-voice adult choir. Next, we started a Children’s Choir, and then added the Youth Choir. Then we split the Youth Choir into Jr. High and High School. A lot of college kids don’t want to be with the “old people”, so you add a College Choir. The good Southern Baptist philosophy, “Divide and grow” is where it happens!
The wider the age span is in a choir, the more you lose them at the top and the bottom. Divide them down so that it meets the needs of those age groups. You adapt their music to that age group. That’s how you build on a program.
It’s the same thing with instruments. You start with a rhythm section, and then add some brass, then woodwinds - Chicago style – one woodwind, one trombone, two trumpets and a rhythm section. Then expand on that until you have a full orchestra. It’s starting with a core, and building from there.
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You created and directed ’Round-the-Table Carol Sings.
Tell us about that.
When I was at Fullerton First Baptist, it seemed like a lot of churches were doing the living Christmas tree. I was always going places and observing to get ideas. The Lord started working with me on putting together a program, and I had no idea how I would use it. This was two years before I went to the large church. So, when I went there, they wanted to change things because they’d had a certain type of dramatic program for fourteen years. I came in August, and we kicked it off with the Carol Sings in December. We utilized all of the choirs. In 1969 we had 400 people participating and 1,200 people attending. In 1983 it had grown to 1,200 people participating and14, 000 people attending! The tickets would all go out in just one day in October!
People loved it! We moved from the church gymnasium to a high school gymnasium, and then into the Women’s Gym at Cal Poly … they would end up playing basketball into our setup times! Then we found a building at the fairgrounds, and remained there.
People have requested that we re-establish the Carol Sings because of the impact it had on their life. I met with many pastors and school administrators about it, got their blessing on it, and they are going to support it through advertising and participation. I’m very thankful for that. So, we are now working to re-establish these! It’s a tremendous outreach to the community.
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How does the Carol Sing program work?
The program is based on a very large graded choir program. My heart is missions and outreach. This was intended to be done at a neutral location outside the church, not inside. We started in the gym the first year. It’s 360-degree sound as the choirs are all around the room. People sit around tables in the center of the room. The first year we had the adult choir on the stage at one end, and the college choir on the opposite end. So you had a built in antiphonal thing right away. Then we had risers in front of the adult choir, and the choirs would file in, sing their individual song, and take their place around the room until all of us were there, and we did combined numbers. We had certain groups going out and bringing in wassail and flaming figgy pudding. We’d say the blessing, and the groups would distribute it. In the early years we had a candlelight processional that made a cross on the floor. It can be done in a small setting or very large setting.
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Walk us through a Carol Sing production.
You start where the man on the street is at … you start with a small group doing a big medley of highly choreographed music … Jingle Bells, White Christmas, the neat songs … and then you take them to Jesus. The orchestra does a big overture, you have lighting all around the room doing things, and candle lighters lighting the table candles ceremoniously with the wedding type lighters. At the end of the big overture, it gets quieter and quieter, and the handbells pick it up with a fanfare at the opposite end of the room. One end of the room is the ‘snow scene’ – the secular end. The opposite end is the ‘religious’ scene with the stained glass windows, handbells and the Living Masters … the Laguna Arts Festival taught us how to do that. Banked on the sides, we had the Jr. High, High School & College Choirs on bleachers. On the other side you have the adults, older children and younger children. The preschool children come into the snow scene and go out from there. Sometimes one whole side is singing with all the youth choirs, and the other side will be adults and children singing.
When we bring in the wassail and figgy Pudding, there’s a traditional song, “Have A Joyous Christmas, Joyous Christmas”. During that time the youth file out and serve the people. In seven minutes, they can serve 2,000 people! It’s all very planned … they file out, pick it up, and file right back to their seats.
The pastor does the welcome at the beginning, the blessing of the figgy pudding, and an invitation at the end. There’s a card and pencils on the table for everybody to fill out, and a place to check to accept Christ. He gives a capsulated thought that will challenge them to make that decision for Jesus Christ. A team follows up on them afterwards.
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You have strong feelings about Music Directors not doing “everything” in Music Ministry. What do you mean?
Too many directors in children and youth choirs do the refreshments, pass out the music, and other things during the rehearsals. Here’s where you can involve parents and older young people in helping you do what I call the ‘non-musical things’. You do what you do best … working with those children musically … and you need other people to help you do the ‘other’ things.
For instance, taking attendance as they come in – you can’t be taking attendance and getting the rehearsal started. You need what I call Choir Sponsors, and I have a whole sheet on this that I pass out in workshops. You want to involve parents. For each choir you have a Head Sponsor, and divvy it out to other sponsors under that person. For example, some are in charge of refreshments, some are in charge of transportation, and some are in charge of calling.
You divide it out to others, but NOTHING takes the place of the Director calling a person in the choir! They think, “Oh, she (or he) took time to call me!” When some of the staff people would ask how I got all these people, I’d say you get on the phone and take the time to call. I found Monday night was a good time to call, and Saturday mornings was good to reach the young people. Call and let them know you missed them, or would love to have them participate. Others can call for you, but it’s important for the Director to do that … and it takes time! Some Directors say they’re too busy to do that, but that’s an opportunity for ministry. There’s many times I’ve prayed with people, or found out things the family is going through. One time I called a young man whose family wasn’t in the church, but he attended. I found out he’d run away, and I helped to find him and get him back because we had a rapport.
Ministry is PEOPLE … it’s not music, drama, art or dance … it is people. They have different types of abilities. You can’t get along doing a stage production without the carpenters, painters, artists, and refreshments … people that have that special gift and ability to make these wonderful things! That is a MINISTRY … not just a talent … a MINISTRY they use for Jesus.
I call the people that minister through the Living Masters my little Michelangelos! That is a MINISTRY! You have to constantly be showing appreciation and saying, “Thank you for your ministry!” I was sitting in a person’s office when a gal from their church was working on bulletin boards. I told her, “Thank you for your ministry in doing bulletin boards … they’re beautiful … that really ministers to people!” Some people think, “All I do is bulletin boards.” No, it’s a ministry … that’s giving of your time and talent to do that!
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How important is the use of hymns in church today?
I feel very strongly about this. Some of the greatest history and in-depth poetry ever written is in our hymns. Leaving out hymns is like cutting out all the history and just doing today’s current events. We don’t do that in education, and we should not do that in our churches. Is Psalms, the largest songbook in the scriptures, outdated? I don’t think so. Too many times people don’t know the stories behind why these hymns were written. Any time I do concerts, I tell the stories behind the songs. People come up to me the entire time saying, “I didn’t know that … that’s wonderful!”
We did some patriotic songs last Friday night and I told the backgrounds behind those songs. I had a lady come up and say, “This was so neat to hear the stories!” A lot of people don’t know these things, and it makes it so meaningful. Part of it is doing our homework!
I love the praise and worship choruses … we’ve always had choruses, and they’re great. But the hymns are also great … it’s not “either/or”, it is BOTH. We cannot just throw out the hymns and say it’s now just praise and worship … we’re throwing out tremendous music and tremendous poetry. I am concerned, but I think the pendulum is going to swing back. I think we’re doing a disservice to Christianity. Worship needs to be a blended thing.
What has happened is they’ve not made the hymns exciting …they’ll take the tempos slow. I went to a Hymn Sing at West Covina recently … they were vital and exuberant and lifted me to the heavens! Hymns have helped me grow in the Lord … they’re strong musically … the harmonies are great. Now we’re getting to just unison music and it breaks my heart.
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You do seminars on graded choir programs. What advice would you give women for rehearsing the different ages?
Rehearsing Children:
A very important tip is to be prepared a half-hour ahead of time … be ready to meet those kids when they come, and have a pre-choir activity. You’re there on a one-to-one basis with them. This is why it’s important for me to have someone else doing attendance … I can talk to the kids, sometimes play games with them … nerf basketball, or musical games … different musical symbols on felt with a ping pong ball with Velcro on it that you throw at it, and then they have to name it. It’s a time to relate to them, and the kids will come early to do that! You get to know the kids one-to-one, and you’re teaching music.
Have every rehearsal PREPARED and PLANNED so you know exactly what you’re doing from one thing to the next. Have all the materials in order, ready to go. The music is either under their seats for children, or in folders for the youth to pick up. You don’t want to spend time passing out music, or things like that. You can concentrate on your musical games, the songs, and it keeps the rehearsal moving.
Keep their interest … make it FUN for them! I have a thing I’ve used over the years for fun that directors tell me has transformed their program … a Surprise Can! I have a Mom fix it up to be attractive and say “Surprise!” on the outside of the can. I put little candy bars in it, things from the Bible book store, bookmarks, balls, cars … all the kinds of things that kids love! I put a scarf on top of it when I hold it up because I wear glasses, and kids can see the reflection of what’s in the can in my glasses! Then I shake it up and they raise their hand and guess what’s in the can. If they guess correctly, they get it. BUT, I give it to the Choir Sponsor and they pick it up from them after rehearsal. Otherwise, they’d be playing with it or eating it!
I use it as a discipline tool, too. I’ll say, “If everybody’s quiet and does a good job, I’ll call on you when it’s time for the Surprise Can! Boy, they’ll sing good!
Being there AFTER choir with children or youth is VERY important … being available to the students.
Have a prayer time for children … it’s an awesome and wonderful experience.
Rehearsing Youth:
High school kids want excellence … they see it on TV all the time. So you need to teach them and train them in voice to know vocal technique. They may THINK they don’t need that, but in the long run they’ll see how their voice has improved. Make the exercises FUN, so they enjoy doing things that help them … not only in music, but also in drama. The most difficult thing for drama people is projection. They get up on stage and you can’t hear them. I use a little tool where they start counting from 1 to 10 … starting softly at 1 and building to loud at 10. Then say, “Today is a beautiful day!” at level 10. That helps them learn to project. Then say, “Do this at level 7” … they learn where the levels are … instead of saying, “I can’t hear you” all the time.
Have a devotional time for your youth.
At the Academy, we have two-hour rehearsals and split it up into 40-minute segments of music, drama and dance. They learn all the areas and techniques, as well as actually doing it. It helps when you’re going to do a musical, and they haven’t had any drama or dance. So who gets all the parts? … the people who’ve had a little experience at school. This way, you can train them all.
Rehearsing Adults:
You’ve got to realize that they’re “kids”, too! They want to have fun! I always prepare little jokes and fun things to keep it moving. Again, know exactly what you’re doing, be available before and after, and teaching them to read music. Every Choir Director should have in mind that the flyspecks on that page mean something, and they can learn to read music! It’s not that difficult.
Have a special time where they can share what’s happening in their lives and pray with each other. I had one gal who came in late and said, “I just had to be here tonight …my husband just left me, but I needed my family.” We prayed together with her. Another guy facing cancer was going the next day for more treatments. He said, “I’m at the end of my rope, but I had to be here tonight.” He barely had the strength to come, but we prayed, and he’s doing great today.
And finally, rehearsing Instrumentalists:
Instrumentalists are a different breed of people!! (Laughing!) I was one of them! You’ve got to know that score and those parts. You’ve got to be organized, set up (have other people set it up for you), and have their music available. Otherwise, they become very agitated. You need to move the rehearsal quickly, and not get bogged down. Even the most pro person will want to enjoy the rehearsal.
A key is to give the orchestra a piece of music where THEY shine … not just accompanying somebody else. So we usually do an overture or a medley. It’s exciting for the congregation! All these players come from the church or community and they volunteer their services … they’re not paid. We have one whole family in the trombone section: a Grandfather, his son, and two grandsons … all playing together!
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At one point you were directing 15 choirs, choral and handbells, at one time! How were you able to do this?
It was because I had other people helping with all the non-musical things. I rehearsed a lot of hours, but some of the handbell rehearsals were one right after the other, or dovetailed together. I’d have the Jr. High handbell rehearsal right before or after their choir rehearsal. If their Bible study was before, I’d do it at the opposite side of their choir time. It’s not the work that’s difficult, it’s all the different political or emotional things that can get in and take our energy. I always tried to keep my nose to the grindstone, and keep my eyes on Him … that’s the most important thing!
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You also developed a School of Fine Arts in a church setting.
How did you structure it to cover the expenses of the music teachers and staff?
I’ve always felt that choir directing is a “teaching/directing” position. Many of the people needed individual attention. The Lord laid it on my heart that we needed to be teaching private instruction in the church to meet the needs of these people. We set it up so that the teacher was paid as an independent contractor. The funds were paid to the teacher, and a portion went to the church and the school – it was divided three ways. The faculty got the large percent, and a small percent went to the church, and a small percent to the school to take care of advertising needs.
I put the school together, and then gave it to the Instrumental Assistant to head up. We had quite a program going! We had audition groups out of the larger choirs. In the graded choir programs, everybody has an opportunity to participate … nobody is left out. But you also have small groups, or audition groups in your Music Ministry out of those larger groups.
Today we are eliminating so much opportunity for children and youth to be a part of actively ministering by eliminating choirs. I’ve seen so many youth just blossom because they have this opportunity. In our Graded Tour Program, the Junior age kids went for one day, the Jr. High went for a weekend, the High School went for a week, the College-Career small audition group went four to six weeks in the summer, and the College Choir itself went a long weekend in February because of school and work. We had graded programs where they could look forward to all these things. You have opportunity for everyone to participate, and then you have special audition groups. To me, worship teams need to come out of the larger choir.
In order to prepare for an audition, many of them are looking for teachers. It was amazing! When all these kids start taking lessons at the School of Fine Arts in order to get into the small audition groups in the Music Ministry, the quality of the group goes up! You’re putting together Christian teachers and students in order to further the ministry.
We’re on the ‘front lines’ in Music Ministry, and that’s why Satan attacks so much and tears the Music Ministry down … many times he defeats us because we don’t realize we’re in a war, and we’ve got to keep our eyes on Him.
You went on to create ARISE Academy of the Arts outside the church. What is it?
It’s a training ground for the discovery and development of the expressive gifts in children, youth and adults. When I came on staff at the large church, we needed to do a different type of program. The former Christian Education/Music Director was remaining on staff in the Christian Education position. They wanted to bring a new venue to the Music Ministry, so I changed the structure of things. They had a few choirs going, but didn’t have choirs in a lot of areas. As the choirs grew, we needed a School of Fine Arts with music, drama and other areas. Through that, the school faculty got involved. In order for them to teach at the School of Fine Arts, they had to take on one ministering group. For example, the piano player for the Boy’s Choir was a teacher, and right away he was getting all these kids that wanted to play piano like he did! That made the School of Fine Arts really grow.
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Under your direction, ARISE performance groups have been featured in some amazing settings. Where have they performed?
We did ministry overseas in Poland, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Main Land China and Switzerland. We also did things like the pre-fireworks show for the Pasadena Rose Bowl! The first year we had a huge community choir right across the 50-yard line. Then we brought in Arise Unlimited, a highly choreographed group of six guys and six gals singing, with all sizes of flags and a salute to the armed forces, along with Promise, a group of third – fifth graders that also did special things.
The first year they had us at the early part of the program when people were still arriving. Then they saw what we were, and the next year we were the warm-up group for the Beach Boys! The following year, the Beach Boys were the warm-up group for us!! (Lots of laughter!) The last year they did fireworks around us, and we did songs choreographed to the fireworks! I love my country and patriotic music … I was weeping singing about God and country. I don’t know when I’ve had such a spiritual experience on the 50-yard line at a football field!!
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MUSICalifornia is one of the largest music conferences in the nation, and you had a hand in starting it. How did that happen?
Ralph Carmichael and I go way back, having done a lot of things together. Ray DeVries (the Ray DeVries award is presented at Musicalifornia each year) was assistant pastor at the Lincoln Avenue Reformed Church … an excellent pianist and vivacious guy. We became friends when he brought his kids to our church to be in the choirs, because they had no children’s choirs. He was like a brother to me, and Ralph wanted someone to be the spokesman behind Lexicon. I knew what a wonderful guy Ray was, Ray was interested in the job, and Ralph hired him.
Then MUSICalifornia came about, and I was very involved helping Ray with it. We did the first premiere when it started, and helped in all the beginning things. It was a wonderful experience. It started in Anaheim, moved to L. A., and then moved to San Diego.
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If there was a scripture that best described Music Ministry,
what would it be?
It would be one of my life verses when I was called into Music Ministry, Colossians 3:16, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another (there’s the education) in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
There are the different types of music … Psalms being your more classical music, Hymns being the hymns of our faith, and Spiritual Songs being your choruses. We need to be up-reaching to God, we need to be in-reaching … reaching to each other, and we need to be out-reaching … reaching out beyond the four walls of the church.
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You’ve had some physical challenges while serving in churches. Tell us about them.
At Fullerton First Baptist, I was sitting in my office at my desk and happened to brush my hand across my left eye, and noticed I couldn’t see my name with my right eye. God provided a doctor that had studied under a man that had studied the disease in my right eye, a fungus called histoplasmosis. Most people on the west coast don’t even know what it is. I was raised in the Ohio River Valley in Ohio, and it comes from the poultry droppings in the soil there. I was a textbook case. I have no center vision in my right eye, and what I can see is blurry. I went through a year of two shots a week to keep it from spreading to my other eye. It could some day, but it hasn’t.
In 1980, one of the gals in my choir kept on my case to get my general checkups, which I hadn’t been doing. I went in on a Monday, the doctor found a lump, and I went to the hospital that day for a mammogram. On Wednesday he told me I needed to see a surgeon, and I was in the hospital on Thursday morning. That was in the day when you signed a paper that if there was malignancy, they removed the breast … and that’s what they did. I got through that fine, and missed one outreach tour with the Jr. High kids that weekend … my assistant did it.
On Friday, I returned to find out that the lymph nodes were involved, which meant going through radiation and chemotherapy. That was one of the lowest days of my life. I came home and sobbed out to God, “I’ve given you my life … I’ve given you everything … and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do … and I don’t understand.” I opened up my Living Bible to I Peter 5:7 … “I will take your shaky legs and make them stronger than ever…” I grabbed onto that, and that held me through everything.
Different doctors gave me different opinions on treatments, and it was very confusing. I always brought to the choir what was happening for prayer, and a gal in my choir worked at City of Hope. She asked if she could get the lab work and take it to City of Hope. A doctor there (who is now head of the Oncology Dept) said I needed another opinion, and I agreed. I went through more tests at City of Hope, and they determined that I could have had a lumpectomy … and I should not have the 9 months of the type of chemotherapy they recommended, but 12 months of a different kind of chemo, and NO radiation. I read everything I could get my hands on and called other experts. They concurred with what this doctor said, so I had three doctors that agreed on the treatment.
The doctor asked how I was doing and I said, “What I can’t handle well is having my activities drastically curtailed.” He put his hands on my shoulders, looked in my eyes, and said, “We’ll keep you going.” With God, and a doctor like that, how can you lose?
I would get the chemo on Monday night, and by 2:00 AM, I was extremely ill. Then it would subside by the rehearsal the next evening. God is good. It was more difficult at the end, and I missed a few rehearsals. I did a Carol Sing that year, and a big guy in the choir would immediately come off the platform and carry me to a mobile home they had outside for me. A nurse in the choir would rub me down like a sports trainer because of the waving of the arms and my surgery. The Lord sustained me during that time, and the church was very helpful.
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At one point in your ministry, you went through a very difficult time when the long-term Senior Pastor you worked with retired. What happened?
After being there fifteen years and just named the most successful ministry of the church, the senior pastor resigned, and the board asked me to help hold the church together during the transition. The new pastor said in his interviews that he supported and believed in what we were doing in the graded choir program, but when he arrived nine months later, I was asked to leave. He was from an ultra conservative church, and the music we had done for years became an issue.
Before he arrived, I was told that he did not want the School of Fine Arts, so I asked for and received permission fromt the trustees to take it out of the church. When I was asked to leave, I was already in the process of this change with the School of Fine Arts, so I just continued with that and kicked it into high gear.
Other successful women on staff also left when they saw what was happening to me. It was a very painful time in my life.
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What kept you from becoming bitter over this experience?
I was so devastated and hurt … I never went through extreme bitterness … I was just crushed. I’m not married, and I put my whole life and soul into the ministry. These people are my family. To be told one morning that your ministry is over and to not step foot back on campus … if I had not had the Lord in my life, I would probably have taken my life. What happened was so devastating … not only what happened, but how it happened.
I tried to keep a sweet spirit, but stories go like crazy, and you become a victim of wondering what the real reason was, and what this person says to that person type of thing. I do not wish that type of thing on anyone. I would say that this experience was more devastating than the cancer I went through. That pastor was asked to leave after eight years when that huge church plummeted in attendance.
Our churches need to learn to be a place of healing … we’re the healers of life, and too often in the church we don’t know how to confront in a spirit of love as the Scriptures teach. We are not taught how to confront properly. “Caring Enough To Confront”, by David Augsburger, is a practical and wonderful book … about how we deal with people … how we confront people. We ALL need to be trained in that. Too many times it is not done out of a loving, caring spirit. Too many times the staff is devastated by what happens … and some have left the ministry or departed their service for the Lord. We need to learn to redeem people and relationships, and not destroy them.
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What advice would you give to women working in Music Ministry to help them be more effective?
It’s basically living in a man’s world. First of all, we’ve got to keep our eyes on the Lord. We have a higher calling … we have to realize Who we’re serving. Sometimes that gets muddy with all that’s happening around us. For me, this helped alleviate the many inequalities that I found between salaries for women and men, and also between single women or men in contrast to married men. Those inequalities can eat at you sometimes. You either accept it with the right attitude, or else get out and not be involved in that situation. Keeping our eyes on the Lord helps us accept these things. Also, have an upbeat, positive attitude with your colleagues, and a joyful spirit.
Be a team player as much as you’re permitted to be. Sometimes the boys don’t let the girls play! (Laughing!) The girls on staff may feel more like secretarial help, instead of actual staff. We’ve got to keep our eyes on Jesus, because Satan will use this in a tremendous way to defeat us and our purpose. My purpose has always been to serve the Lord, and I’ve had some difficult things … but it’s trusting that God will take care of you.
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