Chapel Choir Tour

Chapel Choir Tour

The older youth choir of First Baptist Church, Pensacola, has a long history of traveling to other places, sharing the Good News through music. Their annual summer tour certainly gives impetus to the rest of their year, even though their year is full of other significant events, as well.

Their tours always involve the different aspects of 1) spiritual, 2) musical, and 3) social.

SPIRITUAL
Bible Study, both privately and collectively, is a very important part of each day on choir tour. There are two tools used to encourage Bible study: 1) Daily Cells (private and directed quiet times on the bus each day), and 2) corporate Bible Studies, led usually by our minister of youth. In addition, the youth have opportunity to lead in devotionals, both with the full group and within their individual cell groups. The concerts themselves serve to strengthen the youth spiritually, as they strive to be lead worshipers , and at the same time, lead others in worship.

MUSICAL
The musical experience had in preparing and presenting the tour concerts serves as the musical apex for our youth each year. Their concerts are always variety oriented in style, ranging from classical to contemporary. Plus, the Chapel Bells and Surrender share in the Tour Concert. It takes a great deal of commitment from the youth to abide by the rigorous rehearsal schedule which occurs within the 3 to 4 months leading up to Tour, but their hard work always pays huge dividends in how they sing while on that trip.

SOCIAL
An important aspect of any trip is social, that interaction between all the participants. The long bus and plane rides give opportunity to make new friends, and to get to know your old friends better! Indeed, after you've gone through 4 - 6 years of Chapel Choir Tours, the friends you make and the things you experience are forever. One reason these friendships become so deep is that they are born out of the group working so hard toward a common, worthy goal: to be the best you can be in your musical praise of God.

TOUR DESTINATIONS
Each year sees the Chapel Choir traveling to different locales, both inside and outside of the USA. Every fourth year, the choir travels overseas . . . usually somewhere in Europe. Previous such trips include doing medical missions in the Dominican Republic in the early 70s, and working with four different high schools in Rostock, Germany, in 1996. Also on their 1996 tour concerts were performed throughout Germany, Austria and The Netherlands. Their 2000 overseas tour took them to Riga, Latvia, for their mission emphasis, as well as presenting concerts there. Concerts were also presented in London and Paris.

COST
As you might imagine, there's not only a time and musical commitment needed to participate on tour, there's also a financial commitment. The church budgets to assist each participant financially, but the bulk of the cost still falls on the participant. While the choir does not do any projects per se, the members can sell CDs and Cassettes of the Music Ministry groups, with the proceeds going toward their Tour accounts. We also promote a program called Choir for Hire, wherein choir members can do work (yard work, house work, etc.) for folks, with the payment going directly into their Tour accounts. Costs range anywhere from $550 per person on some domestic tours, to $2500-plus when going on overseas trips.

REQUIREMENTS
Choir Tour is to the Chapel Choir what a championship game is to a football team. And, while you would never imagine someone playing in a championship game without total preparation, neither would you think it possible for someone to participate in Choir Tour without meeting certain requirements. The TOUR GUIDELINE goes into effect in mid-October. It states simply that "no one may remain eligible for Tour if he or she has an absence unaccompanied by a written excuse with an approved reason listed . . . signed by their parent." This assures that everyone will know their music, and that everyone has made a real commitment to be a part of such an experience as Choir Tour. The Sunday the Tour Guideline goes into effect is also the Final Join-up Date for Tour eligibility.

HOME CONCERT
Each Tour ends with the Home Concert being presented to our home church on the evening we return . . . typically; the exception is the year we travel overseas. On those years, the choir presents a Pre-Tour Home Concert, due to the recoup time needed when returning from an overseas trip. Frequently, this Home Concert is made available on CDs and Cassettes .

PREVIOUS TOURS
To browse the current year's Tour Web Reports & Pics: Current Tour's Website
To browse the previous year's Tour Web Repots & Pics: Previous Tour's Website