The old gray-haired Bapto-Appalachian-American preacher just had a conversation on Facebook Messenger with a female ministry colleague I have known since very near the beginning of time. The subject at hand was a mutual friend who is, along with her pure sweet love for Jesus, a powerful singer.
She is one of those who needs no instrument to find and stay on pitch. She grew up in a Primitive Baptist tradition that doesn’t use any musical instrument other than the one God created.
The female ministry colleague would really love for this mutual friend to bring herself and her great big concert hall voice one Sunday to the church where she serves. Her hope is the singer would unleash the full power of The Voice in service of Jesus and the gospel in that small sacred space.
I suggested she call her.
I also commented to the female ministry colleague that the sister with the voice could teach some preachers how to project their voices. She could show them how to use the power of their voices without yelling and killing them.
My colleague and I grew up in churches where some didn’t think a man– and believe me, it was always a man– had preached unless he was hoarse and soaked in perspiration when he finished.
The sister with the voice arrived on the campus of Shorter College with the ability to sing quite well. Through her willingness to learn and improve her natural gift, good teachers, individual practice, and the practice of singing with other very good singers, she learned to sing even better than she did when she first landed on campus.
The sister with the voice knows how to unleash the power of her voice while maintaining a beautiful tone and not damaging her vocal cords.
She knows that the voice is a gift from God and that she has a duty to care for it as one would care for any fine instrument. She is eminently qualified to teach any current or aspiring preacher how to project his or her voice without absolutely killing their vocal cords.
Of course, that would involve a woman teaching men, which many of my Baptist brethren would consider heresy. I would note that Brother Paul never objected to Priscilla (who is usually named first) and her husband Aquila teaching Apollos “the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26, NASB).
If Brother Apollos had been yelling himself hoarse and Sister Priscilla had been a good singer, she would have taught the brother how not to kill his vocal cords.
Lamar Wadsworth is an old gray-haired Bapto-Appalachian-American preacher living near Rockmart GA where he was born and raised. A graduate of Jacksonville State University and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, he has served churches in Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, and Maryland.
