A Song of Joy

   

  A Song of Joy

   

   

   

  By Todd Kirby

   

   

   

  Copyright © 2016

  All Rights Reserved

  The following is a work of fiction.

  Any relation of the characters and events to actual individuals or events is purely coincidental.

   

   

  CONTENTS

   

   

  INTRO: The Players

  VERSE 1: The Story of Cody Lane

  VERSE 2: The Williams Boys

  VERSE 3: The Story of Kat Driggers

  CHORUS 1: The Night of Outreach

  INTERLUDE: The Luncheon

  VERSE 4: The Story of Justin Stallard

  VERSE 5: The Story of Ted Kinney

  VERSE 6: The Story of Mary Lynn Dobson

  CHORUS 2: The Field Trip

  BRIDGE: The Sunday Before Christmas

  CHORUS 3: The Christmas Service

  OUTTRO: Renaissance Spring

   

   

   

   

  INTRO

  (The Players)

  Mark was trying to get everything prepared for the upcoming Christmas special.  As the Worship Pastor at Renaissance Church, it was his job to make sure everything was ready in time – and these things took time.  What should the stage look like?  What songs should they play?  Which singers and musicians in the congregation should perform that day?  Surely his very best musicians would be available; surely they would understand the importance of that weekend.

  The funny thing was, even though he knew that God would accept praise from whoever was on stage that day, Mark wanted only the best.  God, however, had a way of placing people there who were not necessarily the individuals Mark would have picked.  Fortunately, Mark was both spiritually mature enough and spiritually aware enough to recognize and accept those little changes in his plans.

  As Mark thought about which vocalists and musicians he wanted for the Christmas special, the first person that came to mind was Jennifer Mitchell.  Jennifer, like many of the women at Renaissance Church, was a stay-at-home mom who homeschooled her children, and always offered to help when something needed to be done at church.  She wasn’t the best singer he had, but she was very good.  She had a gravelly voice that was well-suited to some of the songs the worship team did, and more importantly her heart was in the right place.  Mark thought highly of Jennifer, and used her on the worship team as often as he could.

  Who else?  Well, there was Kat Driggers (Katherine to her parents, but everyone else called her ‘Kat’).  Kat was beautiful, and had an even more beautiful voice.  She had been blessed with an angelic voice to begin with, but her parents had money and they ensured that she had the best vocal training available.  She even went to college for music, and everyone presumed she would be a big star on Christian radio someday.  Mark used Kat on the worship team a lot as well, but it was always a mixed blessing.  She would undoubtedly belt out lead vocals that brought down the house, but she would do it wearing clothes a little too high and tight to be considered appropriate for worship.  And Kat didn’t seem to mind the dirty looks she got from some of the women in the congregation after the service, they were probably just jealous.  She would always get plenty of compliments from the men.  Speaking of men, Mark wondered why Kat wasn’t married.  Surely it wasn’t for a lack of suitors, maybe she was just picky.

  Margie Spencer was another option, albeit not nearly as talented as Jennifer or Kat.  Margie was a little older, and while everyone complimented her after a service, Mark knew it was more out of courtesy than appreciation.  Margie had a decent voice, but never had any training, so she was sometimes ‘pitchy’, and she had no vibrato or dynamics to her voice.  She had a good heart, but Mark wasn’t sure Margie was the right fit for the Christmas service.

  The only other option Mark had for a female lead was Susan Levitz.  Susan was also a stay-at-home mom, but she had grown up in a musical family where she learned to harmonize.  In fact, although Susan was not as adept at singing lead, she sounded great when singing a duet.  Maybe Mark could set up a duet for the Christmas service.  Susan was spunky and outgoing, and everybody on the worship team enjoyed serving with her.  Plus, she was one of the few women in the church who got along well with Kat.  Maybe Susan would be willing to address Kat’s wardrobe issues with her.

  What about male vocals?  There was really only one male vocalist available besides Mark himself, and that was Jeremy Bonds.  Jeremy had a soaring tenor voice that made Mark think he had some professional training, although Jeremy had never mentioned any.  In fact, Mark couldn’t remember much of anything that Jeremy had talked with him about.  Jeremy seemed quiet when he wasn’t on stage, and didn’t talk much to anyone other than his wife and children.  He was probably just introverted.

  The musicians were another matter.  Obviously Mary Lynn Dobson would play piano; she had been the pianist for Renaissance Church since long before Mark was employed there.  She was probably playing in church as a teenager, and now was so experienced and adept that she rarely needed music, even for the new songs.  Mark enjoyed challenging Mary Lynn musically.  Like when two songs in the set were in different keys, he would ask her to transition in one, two or three steps.  Or when a chord didn’t sound right in practice, he would ask for her opinion on a better option.  “Mary Lynn, that Cmaj7 doesn’t sound right, should we try a different inversion?”

  It would be difficult to replace Mary Lynn if anything ever happened to her, but she had a young student in Rose Kinney.  Rose was very talented, and Mary Lynn had been teaching her piano for a couple of years.  If she stuck around after high school, Rose could eventually take over for Mary Lynn, but Mark didn’t think she was ready just yet.  Hopefully Mary Lynn wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

  Mark would play acoustic guitar, but who would play electric?  He only had two real options at this time: Ted Kinney or Justin Stallard.  Ted was Rose’s father, and was pretty active in the congregation.  He not only played electric guitar half the time on the worship team, but he led a small group Bible study and usually helped with whatever was going on at the church.  When the Renaissance Church doors were open, the Kinney family was there. 

  Ted had a wisdom that Mark appreciated too; raising two other daughters besides Rose had taught him lessons few men have the opportunity to learn.  Even though he wasn’t the greatest guitarist Mark had ever heard, Ted practiced a lot to make up for it and was always prepared for the service on Sunday morning.  He seemed to have a great friendship with Mary Lynn as well.  Nothing inappropriate, Ted was very happily married, but there was obviously a history between them.

  Justin was another story.  He was much younger than Ted (early 20s) and didn’t like to practice unless it involved secular music.  Justin often gigged outside of church, and when he wasn't working, he was playing in a bar or at a festival with one band or another.  Not only was he a gifted guitar player, he had a pretty good voice as well.  With training he could probably lead his own worship team someday.  The problem was that Justin didn’t appear to be very spiritually mature - all that talent and absolutely no direction.  And while Mark hadn’t kept statistics or anything, it seemed like Justin often wasn’t in church if he wasn’t playing.  That was a requirement of everyone on the team: you need to be in church even when you’re not scheduled to play that week.  Mark would probably need to address that with Justin.

  The only other guitar player Mark knew of was Cody Lane, but the senior pastor at Renaissance Church would not look kindly on using him.  Cody was an incredible guitarist (picture Ju
stin in about 10 years), but there was an indiscretion that caused him to leave the church years ago.  Mark stayed in touch with Cody, and often invited him back to church - but Cody always had an excuse.  It seemed a shame, Cody was an impressive guitar player, but he hadn’t really picked up a guitar since he left Renaissance.

  The rhythm section of course would be the Williams brothers, Brad and Brian.  Two amicable siblings who, despite growing up and raising families of their own, could only be considered ‘adults’ in the very loosest sense of the word.  Even though Brian seemed to be in somewhat of a funk lately, the brothers generally played better together than with anyone else, and as a rhythm section they were tighter than nearly any Mark had worked with.  It was probably a good thing there were no other drummers or bass players in the congregation, because it would be difficult to justify giving the Williams boys a break from the worship team.

  Yes, choosing the team would be the most difficult decision Mark had to make regarding the Christmas service, but it was hardly the only one.   Senior pastor Jerry Miller was notorious for waiting until the last minute to give Mark his sermon topic, and then expecting him to choose songs for that Sunday which went along with it.  Fortunately, since this was a Christmas program, nearly any Christmas song should be appropriate.  Mark had a stack of CDs on his desk, along with quickly scribbled notes on napkins or business cards from where he would hear a new song on the radio and want to play it in church.  Generally an organized individual, Mark’s office