"Rehearsed and Ready"

e-pistle from Bishop Mike

February 6, 2005

"Rehearsed and Ready"

Last Sunday when I preached at Congress Street UMC in Lafayette, Indiana, they also had the Purdue Glee Club offering music for the service. This world-famous all-male singing group does an outstanding job (it should be noted that as a Purdue graduate, I may be slightly biased).

During the dinner afterward, I had a chance to visit at length with Brian Breed, their director, and I had a chance to learn more about their group. For one thing, I wanted to know if it is true that the singers don't know which songs they will be performing or who will be singing solos until the actual time of a concert or presentation. Brian replied, "Absolutely. No one knows what we will be singing, not even me, until I am in the midst of leading a program. We want that kind of flexibility to be spontaneous and to react to the audience. So all of our young men are ready to sing any of about 100 songs in our repertoire, and they are also ready to sing solo parts when I point to them."

Feeling somewhat amazed about that, I asked how much they practice. Brian replied, "We don't practice, we rehearse!" He was quite emphatic about that motto, and he explained "Practicing implies that we aren't quite ready, while rehearsing means that we prepare until we get it right. We are always rehearsed and ready."

I believe that idea of being "rehearsed and ready" should apply to our Christian life. We go to church to rehearse our Christian faith, so that all week long we are ready to live our lives as full and complete followers of Christ. I don't see hypocrites on Sundays in our churches, I see people who are rehearsing on Sunday the way they want to live their lives all week. Church is the place where study, worship, prayer, and sharing help us to rehearse and be ready to live our faith at home, at school, or at work. Church is a place to rehearse until we get it right, and then we are ready to respond in faith whenever we are called upon.

Rehearsed and ready. May that be our motto, too.

from Bishop Michael J. Coyner

Indiana Area of the United Methodist Church
"Making a Difference ... in Indiana
and around the world"

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