December 7, 2022
A Note from Debbie Detrick
Dear Friends,
This past Sunday, we shared the announcement that I’ll be retiring on January 8 as the organist/pianist/accompanist at HUMC.
I’m sitting here at my computer and thinking about many things I would like to say.
I have loved my time here at Hilliard Methodist Church.
Thirty-seven years ago, I was invited here as a substitute organist when the former organist was on vacation.
When he resigned and I auditioned for the permanent position, I had no idea what kinds of changes were coming to my life.
I remember during my audition that I told the hiring committee I was looking for a church home. I didn’t want to be here a year or two and then go on to a different church.
A Place to Grow
Not only did I find a warm and loving church home, but I was encouraged to learn and grow and KEEP learning and growing.
I remember Charles Hill (a former pastor) asking me one night after a worship meeting if I needed anything to help me in my job, and I remember telling him that I would love to have a better piano in the Sanctuary. Our piano was a much older studio piano that had long passed its lifespan.
So together with Marsha Graham, who accompanied our children’s choir program started and led by Carolyn Christianson, we started looking at pianos. Encouraged by Charles to look for a grand piano, Marsha and I started a friendship that will go on forever. We found our beautiful grand, given to us by Margaret Latham, and there’s actually a plaque inside it that says it’s given in honor of her husband, Clarence. I have loved this piano a long time, and I challenge all of you to keep it in pristine condition.
Praise & Worship Team
Our traditional music was going along pretty well, and along comes this new movement of contemporary worship! Wow! Jim Riggs, our associate pastor at the time, encouraged me to take on another job, and after auditioning to be the director of our contemporary worship, my life again changed.
I still played the organ and accompanied the choir, directed by John Gabriel, and now had to learn about new, contemporary music! Big learning curve here, because it was so new that not much music was available in print.
I got a computer program and started listening and transcribing my favorites, attending workshops and directing the Praise and Worship team.
This small group became family. Each one of our members became friends for life. We shared our love and concerns, and our covenant group helped each other in good and bad times.
We knew it was a God thing.
In one of those music workshops, I heard an amazing Christmas Cantata, and Marsha encouraged me to take it on. Another growth spurt happened, and we had a wonderful time that year. I’ll never forget the beautiful experience that was. (I know it was a God thing.)
Then a men’s quartet happened, and time went on and a ladies’ quartet formed, and here we are.
God has been with me every time.
God has been with me every time, and my encouragement to all of you is that you keep yourselves open to new possibilities.
Get involved in what you’re passionate about and watch your life change and grow for the better.
Get into a small group and learn to love and trust and share.
I am looking forward to seeing what will happen now. I’m loving life and I’ll continue loving my dear, dear friends. I’ll be back when I need to be, and I’m really looking forward to not getting up so early on Sunday mornings!
I’m pretty sure this, too, is a God thing.
Much love,
Debbie
Debbie Detrick
Organist/Pianist
