Here's the Steeple

Church, it helps you. And The Bible too [helps you]. But preaching helps you learn how to understand different things about God or how different things about the world and how it changes. Some things may be hard to explain or understand, like the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Like trees and the sun, thunderstorms and rain, nature—it [the Bible] tells you where it all came from, where it all began. Mary and Joseph and the Wise Men and the story and birth of baby Jesus is one story we can all understand.

Certain things that happened, like how Jesus died on the cross and rose again or how God made people or even the Earth [“The Great Creation”] might be harder to understand though. The preacher helps.

In church, we sing songs or hymns... There are different ones in the hymnal, some we know and some we don’t know. They help you read and sing, the words to a lot of them come out of The Bible and then people put the music [to the words]. Some have scripture from The Bible and others are just about it [The Bible]. When I was in the Wayfaring Chapel, they [Brandon] would print the hymns out for me and blow them up so I was able to see and read them better.

We did some children’s stories and when we had church at the Wayfaring Chapel, we got to do the Puppet Bears; Mom, Dad, Brandon, Kristen and I had these [stuffed] bears we used as puppets to tell nice stories that teach lessons. Brandon wrote them, [Brandon corrects John] I thought for sure, but I didn’t realize it was Mom and Dad. Some [of the bears] liked to talk and some liked to listen. I was the one who just listened (and moved).

We [the members of the Wayfaring Chapel] would take turns in whoever got to talk [present a homily or message] and then others would help with Children’s Church.

What’s my favorite thing to do service-related for the church? Holding the cross. I don’t do that now but when we were in the church before the Wayfaring Chapel [Grace], I got to do it all the time. But I like to sing with the people in the choir. Some of my favorite people go to church. We hang out and talk. Sometimes when we have certain events, we like to eat at church but other times we go out to eat together.

We celebrate the holidays; there’s music for every holiday. Maundy Friday (for Easter) we used to do at the Chapel and we still call it that at North Charleston United Methodist Church, we do patriotic music like for the Fourth of July and Christmas music too. Sometimes we do plays at the church, like an Easter play or “Down at the Creek Bank” for Christmas or something like that.

I love singing though. When I think of church, I think of choir and hymns. We sing all different kinds of hymns, from Baptist, Methodist, and then other choral arrangements. Sometimes the Baptist or Methodist versions are so similar it was hard to know which one is which and which one we were doing. We’ve sung “The Messiah”, “Notes from Paul” (a Baptist Hymn), “Seven Last Words”, “Springs in the Desert”, and many more. There are some old ones like “Amazing Grace” and “Holy, Holy” that I really enjoy.

I’ve been singing in the church choir since I can remember. I lost track. I think I was 2 years old when I first sang, I think at Citadel Square downtown. Then we moved to North Charleston before Brandon was even born, around 1976 and we went 1986-1991 Grace. And then we were at The Wayfaring Chapel from 1993-2000. Well, you get the picture, I’ve been to a bunch of churches throughout my life, there’s so much in my head right now...

But singing-wise, I sing on Sundays in the choir; I sing Bass with the men. No one makes you sing; you just decide if you want to do it. On Wednesday evenings, we sing what we’re going to sing on Sunday, they call it choir practice. Then some Mondays we would sing at different nursing homes.

If I were able to talk to people with different abilities like me, I’d say... You can learn songs, learn how to sing. How to go up and high or down and low. If it’s A flat or D... how to read music. You should open your jaw when you sing... exercise it. Try not to mumble your words. That’s what I do.

Music’s helped me... Joining a choir might help you to not be nervous. I wasn’t nervous when I started. But, just see if you know how to sing... If you have a good voice, you can sing. If you don’t have a good voice and are trying to sing, then you could always get some singing lessons... Don’t be upset with yourself. If you’re nervous, do your best. It’s ok to be nervous, but don’t be too nervous to not try to sing.