Singers in renowned Mormon choir revel in anonymity

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is on a roll this Christmas season, and some papers are featuring their local singers. Judging from a Casper, Wyoming article featuring one such choir member, it is better to blend in, to be part of the group. And oh what music that heavenly blend of voices make.

This particular Casper Star-Tribune reporter queries about their Wyoming choir member singing solo. It is such a natural query - when is our local boy going to get his chance to shine for the boys back home? We are a culture of individualism and individual heroism, probably accentuated by the Greeks and their Olympic games long ago.

When I worked with Nike in Asia-Pacific, our sports marketing team had a tough time persuading a Korean soccor team to join us. We wanted to sponsor teams but to highlight and give extra compensation to super star individuals -- you know, we wanted a Mia Hamm of Korea. Our Western sentiment and commercial savvy told us that people rally around individuals more than anything else.

The Korean point of view was that any individual that shined did so because the team made it possible for that individual's talents to be so brilliant. Each individual was only a part of the whole and their contribution alone could NOT create a win. Such notions were as silly to them as playing baseball with a one man team. No individual was greater than the team and so (here's the killer) all should receive equally of the benefits. There was a clash of perspective and culture. We wanted to create the Yao Ming (the Chinese basketball star) of Korean soccor but the Koreans were too collective in orientation. We wrestled with them for quite some time. Finally, the money, our efforts and our perspective won out but not after a long time of not being able to sign the team, much to our chagrin.

The Choir is an institution -- an organization of collective Christian voice and song. There is something of a clash of cultures here to the modern beat, albeit subtle. Nonetheless, we find ways to accomodate such modernity. The Choir accomodates the roar of us moderns by featuring individual world-class singers to let their voices shine, with the choir accompanying them. Yet, the choir and its very size is a testament to earlier days of supressing the individual to the needs of the whole body of Christ.

John 17: 21. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

In a lifetime of receiving one church calling after another (after all, our local clergy are all lay clergy of volunteers) many of us relate to this choir member's sentiments. To get a sense of how busy we members can get, think of your local priest or minister, besides their ministerial duties, think of them having another 40 to 60 hour a week job and a family to support. That's us and that certainly is our clergy. We are a church that has a church calling for everyone.

In a busy world, we all want to help but we also relate to the pleasures of doing it anonymously and with less of a hefty calling. Blending in can be a virtue.