The Choral Singing Ministry of Our Seminary Students over the Past 59 Years

In Retrospect

Not every one called by God to be a seminary student is born with a good voice, but deep in their hearts there is usually a hymn of praise closely connected to God’s call. What characterizes the HKBTS choir and its church music meetings is its truthful choral singing.

Over the past 59 years, generations of seminary students, generations of God-called servants testify God’s faithfulness and grace together through hymns and songs. Their songs have become HKBTS perpetuating testimonies to the Christian communities and the Christian churches.

Generations of Seminary Students Generations of the Seminary Choir

　　HKBTS was founded in 1951. Before the completion of our Pok Oi Village campus, for a few months lessons were conducted in the bell tower of Stirling Road Baptist Church (the predecessor to Kowloon City Baptist Church). An alumnus who is over eighty years old reminisced about the situation at that time: “We were actually living in the bell tower. Sometimes early in the morning, we were led by Pastor Cheung Yau-kwong to sing hymns!” As time went by, the number of church music teachers increased so that in the 50s and 60s, the quality of our hymn singing and choirs improved and was highly regarded. There was small-group singing in the morning chapel. When Seminary Sunday was held in churches, not only the preacher but also a small choir or a singing group from the Seminary would take part in the program. Students volunteered to form an audio-visual or music evangelistic team under the leadership of the Rev. Victor Frank, and went far and wide to spread the Gospel.

　　Every student at the Seminary is a member of the Seminary Choir where they are trained in singing technique. They begin to recognize the significance of the singing ministry as they grow and build up the team spirit. The training received by generations of seminary students not only upgrades their singing technique, but provides the discipline of being God’s servants and develops their spiritual lives. This heritage of “all students being choir members” has been successful up till the present although the duration for students participating in the choir practice varies due to curriculum revision.

　　In the past, our Seminary Choir, one generation after another, not only offered to sing in the Christmas Service and Graduation Ceremony on campus, but the Choir also carried out their singing ministry in church music services and evangelistic meetings in local churches. Church music meetings were sometimes conducted off campus. The Choir was invited to sing at the Hong Kong Baptist Convention and the Billy Graham Crusade Rally. They could be found singing Christmas carols in a shopping mall or conducting an evangelistic meeting outside Hong Kong.

　　Today, in the 21st century, most of the Baptist churches have their own choirs and no longer depend on the singing ministry of the Seminary Choir. However, God continues to use our choir just as He did in earlier days. Whether singing in a small church which has no choir or going on a short term mission in a far-away place, this group of singers, called by God to be seminary students, continues to be used by God to touch many souls.

Annual Concert Church Music Revival Meeting

　　In 1956, five years after the birth of the Seminary, an evening church music service was conducted at Stirling Road Baptist Church. This was the first open church music meeting ever recorded in the seminary history. For more than a decade, owing to certain constraints, there were no large-scale open church music meetings. Then, in April 1972, a 30-member choir led by Dr. Yip Wai-hong performed at the City Hall, presenting the message of the passion of Christ before an audience of 1,300. The evening’s theme was “The Call of the Cross,” and under God’s leadership the choir sang extraordinarily well. The performance made headlines in local newspapers and served as a curtain raiser and a sign of God’s grace for the Seminary’s other open church music meetings to follow.

　　In 1976, the 25th Anniversary Celebration Concert took place at the City Hall; in 1982, there was the Church Music Evangelistic Meeting at Tsim Sha Tsui Baptist Church; in 1986, the 35th Anniversary Thanksgiving Music Celebration was held at the Academic Community Hall.

　　In 1986, the Church Music Department was set up with Mr. Stanley Cheng as the head. Mr. Cheng made a great effort to promote church music training for students and established music as a minor program. In 1988, he organized the “Hill Singers” and continued to conduct the Seminary Choir. The “Hill Singers” was a group of gifted students devoted to the choir ministry under the leadership of Mrs. Helen Wan. The first anniversary concert of the “Hill Singers” was held in 1989 to share with local churches the music they had learned and to make the churches more aware of the Seminary. That year, the Church Music and Praise Meetings were respectively held at Hong Kong Baptist Church and Tsim Sha Tsui Baptist Church.

　　Following the “Hill Singers” Anniversary Concert and the Church Music and Praise Meeting in 1989, the Seminary decided to establish the Seminary’s Annual Concert for the public and it takes the form of a concert of praise and celebration with church music. It would feature the “Hill Singers,” the Seminary Choir, and occasionally choirs from local churches would join. Five years ago, the Alumni Choir joined the concerts and last year the Faculty Men’s Choir also joined. The venue for our early Annual Concerts was the City Hall and it was later changed to the Cultural Center. During that time, besides the Annual Concert, people were impressed by Mr. Cheng who translated the lyric of Handel’s Messiah into Chinese and the debut performance was held with a 270-member choir formed by choir members from different churches. We were honored to have Dr. Richard Lin as the conductor.

　　In 2009 and after 20 years, HKBTS’s Annual Concert left the stage of the Cultural Center and moved back to the stage of the local church under its new name “Church Music Revival Meeting.” The recent meeting was held on April 23 at Kowloon City Baptist Church with the theme “Be Strong and of Courage, Dare to March on the Road Ahead.” This marks a clear direction: we hope to send a clear message to our audience that the annual concert is more a service than a music appreciation concert. Not only do we long to offer praise to the Lord, but we also want to present a challenging message, inviting brothers and sisters to join us in serving God full time.

　　Looking back over the past 59 years, we thank God for His continuous leadership in the Seminary’s training and ministry in church music and for His provision for the Seminary a group of outstanding music teachers. Although we cannot mention their names one by one, we would like to express our gratitude for their faithfulness in their teaching ministries so that the choral singing of these generations of Seminary students continues to be a perpetuating testimony.

　　May all the glory and praise be to the true God in the highest through the singing ministry of our Seminary!