MUSIC
EXPERIENCING GOD'S PRESENCE
Music stirs the air, unseen, with melody, harmony, and rhythm.
It is a mystery that cannot be touched or understood as it stirs our hearts and spirits. It can also be knowable and comforting, sometimes reassuring us with its familiarity and occasionally challenging the understanding of our hearts and minds.
In so many ways its qualities reflect those of God who is at once unknowable and known, who is both comforter and challenger. Perhaps this helps to explain music’s capacity to guide us so powerfully through worship. Its very nature allows us to experience God’s presence.
The music program at SPC seeks to reflect the kaleidoscopic variety in God’s creation as well as the many facets of God’s nature.
Music in our worship services is selected intentionally to illuminate and supplement sermon themes, scriptural passages, and other relevant texts to create meaningful and cohesive experiences for the congregation every Sunday.
Stylistic variety reflects the vast array of people, stories, histories, and languages of God’s creation throughout time and across borders. In our worship, we sing old hymns as well as more contemporary worship songs. We hear the choir sing gospel-inspired pieces as well as historically impactful works by composers like Vivaldi or Rachmaninoff. We experience worship with organ and piano as well as with drums and guitar.
Who makes the music?
Everyone! Like Christian churches across the ages, we all sing together every week, lifting our voices in hymns and songs—both ancient and new—in collective acts of praise, prayer, and meditation. Interested members of the church and community are also encouraged to become involved in the organized musical groups of the church.
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Singers and instrumentalists who lead music at SPC are dedicated amateur and professional musicians who offer their gifts to the worship of God throughout the year at SPC. No matter the skill level of those who participate, theirs is a steady, shared effort toward growing musically together so that worship expression grows steadily in its depth and meaningfulness.
The Adult Choir
includes singers who range in age from their teens to their 80s, and their every-other-week rehearsal/singing schedule allows broad participation by those who are managing busy schedules. The Choir includes members whose experience and training is varied, and has attracted numerous members with professional training and experience. The Choir is directed by Robert Shoup, who also serves as Chorus Master for the Virginia Symphony Orchestra.
The Worship Band
features instrumentalists who lead worship monthly from September through May, and more frequently in the summer. Guitar, bass, drums, additional percussion, and other solo instruments can and do contribute to this component of worship at SPC.
Special musical events
are hosted at SPC throughout the year, including spiritually-focused experiences (like “Prayers without Words”) and as the focal point of fellowship events (like the Uphill Blues Band and Quadruba outdoor concerts). A joyful annual tradition at SPC is its Pentecost worship service with the Tomcats Toe Tappin’ Dixieland Band.
The Sentara Singers
are members of the congregation who gather periodically to sing for members of the community who are homebound in care centers, offering encouragement and inspiration through shared songs of faith.