Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 6, 1993 TAG: 9312070267
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
As the creator of The Roanoke Christmas Pageant at First Baptist Church in downtown Roanoke, Doyal Spence is as busy as any of them. But he took time last week to fly to Nashville to pick up an award. He was chosen the outstanding minister of music in large churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. Nominees came from at least two dozen states.
You might think a trip like that would present an opportunity to spend the weekend sightseeing and enjoying the town. But Spence, who was named Church Musician of the Year at the Virginia Baptist General Association Meeting in November, flew back the same day. His work and his life are in Roanoke. Especially around Christmas.
``It's kind of embarrassing to receive that other award and this one on top of it,'' he said.
Sunday, he celebrated his 28th year on the job. Spence's work involves oversight of First Baptist's 12 choirs and direction of the main choirs, the Alpha and Omega. They really are one group of some 200 singers. The Alpha sings at the 9 a.m. service each Sunday, and the Omega at the 10:30. But they rehearse together, and their members participate together in other musical activities.
Tuesday night, most of them will sing in the holiday pageant, which will be presented eight times through Sunday. Twenty thousand tickets have been distributed for the run, which has no admission charge. The pageant features 200 choir members, 100 on-stage performers, the church's 35-piece orchestra conducted by instrumental minister Charles Krause and about 30 backstage technicians.
Spence writes the script and the dialogue, changing about 20 percent of it each year.
Spence, 61, came to Roanoke with his wife, Martha, and son, Roger, in 1965. Born in Oklahoma, he had met Charles Fuller, the pastor, when both men were students and spent one summer working at Ridgecrest Baptist Assembly at Black Mountain, N.C. Spence was a busboy, Fuller a lifeguard.
Their paths didn't cross again until Fuller was searching for a minister of music in Roanoke. Spence's name was among many suggested to him. He was minister of music at a church near Norfolk at the time. But Norfolk seemed crowded compared with wide-open Oklahoma. Roanoke's mountains appealed to him, and so did the church. ``It was more like I had been used to in Oklahoma, as far as its conservatism and evangelical approach.''
At that time, First Baptist drew about 800 people to its Sunday school classes. Now, more than 2,000 go to Sunday school each week. Well over 3,000 worship at the Sunday morning services, to say nothing of those who attend on Sunday nights. The church has more than 5,000 people on its roll.
``It's one of the largest music ministries in the state,'' said Allen Brown, the state music director for Virginia Baptists, who nominated Spence for his\ national award. There are about 180 full-time ministers of music in Virginia's\ Baptist churches, he said, and Spence is one of the best.
It is a difficult but rewarding life, he said. ``You have to be completely sold on it, or it will just work you to death.''
``I could spend all of my time at the church if I wanted to,'' Spence said, ``but that would be foolish.'' He budgets his time and relies on volunteers for help. He also works closely with Fuller and Krause to keep the program organized.
To Spence, a music ministry is as spiritual as it is musical. He includes prayer time in the Wednesday night rehearsals and allows choir members to give testimonies and share their spiritual needs.
``He makes his choir rehearsals a worship experience, at least in part,'' Fuller said.
``We are almost a church within a church,'' Spence said. ``I think that's the way our people respond to me as one of our pastors ... . I do feel like I am an undershepherd to many of these people,'' a concept Fuller supports.
The pastor said Spence's emphasis on the spiritual undoubtedly contributes to the group's personal as well as musical harmony.
``It's amazing,'' says Dick Dearing, who has known and sung for Spence for 22 years. ``He has a gentle rehearsal, but he inspires people to work very hard . . . . We'll end up singing a song at the end of rehearsal without any music. It's almost like a prayer. You couldn't go to a church service and have a more worshipful time. You've been working like a dog for two hours, and you wind up and it's like being at summer camp as a kid. You get a warm, fuzzy feeling.''
Spence works to develop a personal relationship with each member, starting with what he calls a ``vocal interview'' with prospects. The 30-minute conversations cover the applicants' relationship with God and questions about their lives.
``I tell them what I'm looking for in choir members, and that is commitment to Jesus Christ, faithfulness to our rehearsals and what we are trying to do.'' He also listens to them sing. But he doesn't call it an audition, merely a way to learn about their voices and decide which section they'll be comfortable in. He discovers potential soloists this way, too.
He doesn't demand perfection, either vocally or spiritually. But he does want people who will struggle toward it. The singers' backgrounds run from degrees in music to a mere aptitude for it. The group includes plenty of ``leaners.''
``He considers us musicians, whether we consider ourselves that or not,'' says T.J. Pizzullo, the choir's current president.
To accommodate the variety of skills, he plans and rehearses anthems and hymns eight weeks in advance, meeting weekly with Fuller to discuss upcoming messages and selections. Spence said his singers are expected to lead exemplary lives, even if they struggle at times. When they sing, they are worship leaders, and their lives should not conflict with the words they are singing.
Choosing the music for a potential audience of 5,000 sounds like a daunting task, but Spence doesn't try to please them all. He offers a variety of styles, operating on the theory that, ``If you hang around long enough, sooner or later we're going to get to your style.''
He relies on his wife to help resolve the conflicts among choir members that inevitably, if rarely, occur.
``She has what you might call a gift of discernment,'' he said. ``She'll point out the details of a situation that maybe I didn't see ... . She has helped me grow in that direction.'' They've been married for 35 years. Roger, their son, works in Atlanta.
Spence ``totally depends on the strength of God to reinforce him,'' Pizzullo said. ``His schedule is jam-packed, yet he always has a smile and a kind word for everybody.''
The impact of that should never be underestimated, Dearing said.
``I walked out of choir one morning telling him how wonderful a certain lady was in our choir who had helped a lot of people,'' he said. ``I went on and on telling about this lady. He looked me straight in the eye and said, `Tell her.'
``I don't remember a word Charles Fuller said that morning, but I remember those words, and that was probably 12 years ago. That was the best sermon I've heard.''
The Roanoke Christmas Pageant at First Baptist Church is Tuesday through Sunday at the downtown Roanoke church. All performances are sold out, but there is a waiting list for each. 224-3300.
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB