The Backup (Or The Time I Subbed For the Primary Chorister)

A few years back, I served for a few months in our church as the backup, substitute, third string, second rate Primary chorister.  J. was pregnant and sick and needed some help, so I volunteered to do her calling for her.  Why I did this, I have no idea.  I'm not musical and I'm not really super outgoing.  Plus, I really don't have a [good singing] voice at all.

When asked to participate in "Special Musical Numbers" at Church, I'm quick to point out that while I'm capable of "making a joyful noise to the Lord" (see Psalms 100), even if my "noises" were considered musical, they would not be considered "special."  That's usually enough to do the trick and get me out of the assignment.

But my love language is probably Acts of Service, so I decided to enthusiastically help J. with her calling.  Over the 3 or 4 months that I did the calling, I grew to love it.  It finally dawned on me that J. was not getting better and was getting closer and closer to giving birth, so I realized I needed to "up my game."  I decided to dive in and teach the kids the ASL signs for their main song in the Primary program.

But first, I had to learn them myself!  Thank goodness for YouTube and the internet!  I figured out the signs and practice.  As Sunday approached, I was excited to teach the kids the song and the signs for the song.  Then, we got a call.  The Bishop had decided to release J. from her calling due to the pregnancy and a new Primary chorister had been assigned--effective immediately.  I never did get the chance to teach the kids the signs or the song.  :-/

Fast forward to this week.  I made the mistake of telling K.M. that I had loved serving as the Primary chorister.  As luck would have it, K.M. had just been called as the Primary chorister and was going to be out of town this week.  She had no substitute lined up.  She wanted me to help and K.M. is not the type of person that really takes "no" for an answer.  (As I have learned through experience...)

My "PDR"

I practiced the songs this week, but I knew from experience that the three most important things to remember as Primary chorister are (in no particular order):

• Have a fun game for the kids;
• Be energetic because the kids don't care if you know how to actually direct the music; and
• Have a fun game for the kids!  (Did I already mention this?)

For the game, I grabbed my mini hoop from my office and decorated it with an official BYU football helmet sticker.  Then I grabbed one of Baby M.'s toy BYU basketballs.  The kids would shoot a shot.  If they made it, they got to pick one of the three mystery songs to sing.  I worried that it would be too simple and whether the girls would like the game.  (#itsnevertooearlytoconvertthemintoBYUfans!)

I was a little nervous, but I felt like since I was doing a good turn, I'd be entitled to some inspiration and help.  I can honestly say that I did feel like I had some flashes of inspiration, including the idea to have the kids hold up the signs with the words to the song that they were learning.  (Previously, I had thought I would tape them up on the white board.)

I have to say that I felt like it went really well.  The kids seemed to love the game.  I had kids lined up after church because they wanted to shoot the ball.  The girls seemed to like it as much as the boys.  I moved around during the singing and tried to get all the kids involved in singing--even the older boys that like to pretend like they're "too cool for school."  I also encouraged them to sing louder (because we didn't need to hear me doing any solos!).  In the end, we had good participation and the kids seemed to have fun.  (And I'm pretty sure that the kids didn't notice when I fumbled a few of the lyrics in the chorus to "Called to Serve"--but I'm pretty sure that a few of the adults did!).  :-/

The Primary Presidency and my pianist were also so supportive and nice to me that I felt very welcome there.  Plus, I really felt like the Sharing Time lesson was so good.  I pulled some spiritual insights out of a very simple--but profound--lesson on prayer.

I may not be the world's best backup Primary chorister, but I can honestly say that I had a good experience doing it. And I would do it again if asked.