Annual Report 2004

Music Ministry – Norita Hoegel

I continue to be impressed by the many gifts and talents represented here at Bethel and inspired by the ongoing commitment that so many have made to make our music ministry one of great quality.

New to our music talent at Bethel is The House Band! The band leads the music for our Wednesday night worship the first Wednesday of each month. This very talented and enthusiastic group led music for the southern California Junior High youth gathering in November with over 500 students! They did a fantastic job and impressed those who attended by what could come out of a Lutheran church! I think they made Bethel proud.

The Worship Team continues to lead quality, sensitive and inspiring worship for our Sunday morning worship services. This group of very committed volunteers is to be commended for their excellence in worship. Please help me in acknowledging the following people: Clayton Johnson, Chris Hedgecock, Chris Trytten, Katlynn Hoegel, Maggie Emmert, Scott Norman, Tom Hoegel, Mary & Brett Deutscher, LeSonia Leimer, Rhonda Nyberg, Wendy Horsley, Liz Barton and Jill Denny. Our job as worship leaders is to bring people to an awareness of God. My hope is that as this group leads the congregation in singing that we do our job in fulfilling this role.

Our Celebration Choir has had a great year with outstanding music offerings. This group continues to impress me with their willingness to stretch beyond what feels comfortable and take a risk at doing music that is above the ordinary. The Christmas Eve presentation of “The Story” is perhaps one of the most memorable things we’ve done in our 15 years of existence as a choir. A little trivia about our choir: The Celebration Choir currently has 35 regular singers, 24 of whom are related to someone else in the choir! That’s 2/3 of the choir that is “family”!

The Kid Connection music team has been continuing to lead music for the opening of the 9:45 worship service. Special thanks goes to Katlynn, Rachelle, Karen, and Jenny. Also, “thanks” goes out to Molly Schrey who coordinates the drama volunteers for that service.

Our church sadly had to say “farewell” to Barbary Grant who has provided beautiful worship music for us over the past two years. Barbary brought a spirit of cooperation, excellent musicianship and warmth to our worship. She will be missed.

In closing, the worship planning has certainly been interesting over the past few years with our pastoral staff changing so frequently. I feel privileged to work alongside of the Bethel staff and I am grateful to all of the singers, players and worship leaders who make Bethel such an awesome and exciting place to do ministry.