CUEnotes
YouthCUE's blog on topics of youth choir ministry, leadership and professional well-being
The Gift of Imperfections
The current pandemic has me feeling quite imperfect these days. New routines to learn. New information to absorb. New skills to master. New emotions to wrangle. In Navajo culture, the custom is for rug weavers to leave little imperfections along the borders. In Japan,...
The Danger of Worshiping Normal … by Anna Marie Pavy
I have a lot on my mind. We all do. So here is some of it in a very long (Facebook) post. First off, I believe that the recommendation to push forward in-person classes for schools until the end of September is absolutely the right thing to do. I have five kids. Two...
Just a little rain …
Throughout July and August in South Texas, it only takes a few days for the soil to dry out and vegetation to transition from green to brown. Adequate irrigation is essential for farmers as well as those hoping to keep their lawns green and their flowers blooming. The...
YouthCUE National Honor Choir Meets the Dallas Street Choir
It's been four years, but the memory and its effects are with me as if it happened yesterday. In mid-July of 2016, fifty high school juniors and seniors and eight adult counselors converged in Dallas for the YouthCUE National Honor Choir Texas Tour (NHC). The six-day...
How are you doing? Part 2
I dropped by the church office this morning to pick up some things and to check my mail. In my mailbox, there was a printed Church Membership Directory dated August 2020. Our church provides monthly updated directories for all its members so we can stay in touch with...
How are you doing? Part One
Here we are in July 2020, at a place none of us could have fully imagined this time last year. It’s not just the pandemic itself that is difficult; it’s also the seemingly countless areas of fallout caused by the virus: Isolation. Unemployment for some. Uncertainty....
SHELTER IN PLACE, MY FRIENDS … PLEASE SHELTER IN PLACE!
In mid-May, I began noticing threads on social media which have been both disturbing and heartbreaking. And the more I consider them, the more concerned I have become. For sure, we’ve all seen the horror stories on related to COVID-19 illnesses and deaths. Many of us...
The greatest message in the world mobilized by the greatest art
Since we are now looking at an Easter where no church gatherings will take place - can you imagine … well, yes you can - it will do us well to consider the power of the gospel, even when we cannot celebrate it to the fullest extent. Please think about this for a...
Adults providing leadership to teens, your work has never been more important than it is right now!
As we are all in the process of helping our students deal with COVID-19, we have a super-important job to accomplish! At a time when the population as a whole is feeling insecure and scared, when public discourse has often degenerated into childish name-calling, when...
Lord, (please) make your children one
Forty years ago this fall, I completed my masters and immediately began serving as minister of music at First Baptist Church in San Antonio. My first Sunday morning there, I was in for a most pleasant and powerful surprise at the end of the service. For several years,...
