A Growing Music Ministry… and YOU!

By Marshall Sanders, Director of Music Ministries 

We have exciting an exiting music ministry here at St. Andrew’s. I know that there are many musicians who are not plugged into our fine music program! Now it’s time for you to reveal yourselves and help us make some great new music for our Lord. Here are four opportunities where you might want to get involved:

1. An all-volunteer church orchestra. Our church is blessed with many fine orchestral musicians who simply need to be organized into a solid music machine! That’s why we are beginning to organize an in-house orchestra. First, we need to identify everyone (ages middle school and up) who plays an instrument, regardless of whether you think you’d be able to participate. The specific instruments we want are: violin, viola, cello, bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, harp, percussion, and timpani. If you play any (or all) of these instruments, please call or email Marshall Sanders today at 297-7201 (church); 797-7785 (home); or msanders@standrewspres.com. I look forward to hearing from you in the next few weeks!

2. Our handbell choir, the Wittman Ringers, needs four additional bell ringers. This wonderful small group of musicians meets at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays, and is hoping to expand and move into a wider range of music. Ringers must have some music-reading ability, but you do not need bell ringing experience. All ages are wanted, ages high school and up. To be a part of this unique music ministry, please call or email Arlene Sturm, the group’s director, at 887-8663 or A.L.Sturm@att.net.

3.The Chancel Choir looks huge, doesn’t it? These past several Sundays the choir loft has been full, in spite of our group being divided between the two traditional services. However, if you check out the construction site across the street, you will see the makings of a much larger choir loft. On the eastern end of the site, look at the floor for two angled pieces of channel steel. It extends from the south wall to near the center of the room. That is the beginning of a five-row choir loft that will seat over 80 singers! In order to fill that loft every Sunday, we will need 20 additional singers—either from our current congregation or friends who love to sing and need a church home. You can help us grow into our new choir loft by joining our choir now, or by sending other singers our way.

Someone asked me, “Why do we need to do more? Why can’t we just stay the way we’ve always been? Is more always better?” I have been pondering those questions ever since. To all of our church family, I say this: God has called us to do a great work here at St. Andrew’s and throughout Tucson. We have a mission to reach out, stretching into our community and creating an environment of love and hope that is irresistible. Christ’s love is contagious, and growth is a by-product of our enthusiasm. We aren’t growing our church or our music program to bring attention to ourselves. Instead, we do it to say, “Hey, Tucson, we love Jesus, and we want you to celebrate that love with us!” We can all get excited about that.

I hope to hear from you soon so that you can be a part of our expanding music ministry. If you can’t join us, simply add this to your prayer list and support our music programs with encouragement and joy!