'I Consider Myself Tremendously Blessed'
'I Consider Myself Tremendously Blessed'
BY JERRI MENGES | JUNE 27, 2021
Chuck Trammel’s life is a testimony to the goodness of God.
For 45 years, he has led the congregation at Catawba Baptist Church in worship. That’s a lot of Sundays, a lot of Wednesday night choir rehearsals, and a lot of Thursday night worship band practices.
Almost everything significant in Chuck’s life has happened at Catawba. His parents moved to Rock Hill from Taylors when he was 2 years old and immersed themselves in the church. Thelma joined the choir, helped with Vacation Bible School and served as church hostess. Warren taught Sunday school, helped with the discipleship program and served as deacon.
Chuck accepted Christ as a 9-year-old at a Sunday night service in the old sanctuary, which is now the chapel.
“I could take you in that building, to about the spot where the pew was where I was sitting with my dad that night,” he said. “I had heard the Gospel in Sunday school and during preaching on Sunday mornings, and I had felt God stirring in my heart before. But on that night, I felt an overwhelming call. I knew it was my time to get saved. God was calling me to salvation now.”
Chuck met his bride, Patsy, at Catawba Baptist, and they were married in that same sanctuary in 1974. He was licensed and ordained into the ministry there.
On July 4, Chuck will lead the congregation in worship one final time as minister of music. The search committee hopes to have someone else in place to lead worship starting on July 11, while it continues to search for a permanent replacement. After today’s worship service, Catawba will celebrate with a special barbecue luncheon.
Chuck met his bride, Patsy, at Catawba Baptist, and they were married in that same sanctuary in 1974. He was licensed and ordained into the ministry there.
On July 4, Chuck will lead the congregation in worship one final time as minister of music. The search committee hopes to have someone else in place to lead worship starting on July 11, while it continues to search for a permanent replacement. After today’s worship service, Catawba will celebrate with a special barbecue luncheon.
It’s hard for him to believe this part of his life is coming to a close. It’s the end of an era for Catawba Baptist and, truth be told, some choir members are struggling.
“I am happy for him, but I’m so sad for us,” said Gayle Jones, who plays the keyboards for Unchained worship band. “Every time I see him, I say, ‘Are you sure you want to retire?’”
He’s certain.
“I’ve been thinking about retiring now for a while,” he said. “God’s been working it into my mind and in my thought pattern for probably the last three years that it’s getting close. I knew I couldn’t do it forever, and this is the right time. I’m still convinced of that.”
He’s as certain that it’s time to retire as he was that it was time to start all those years ago, although it was never part of Chuck’s plan to be in music ministry.
“I majored in math and minored in accounting,” he said. “The only music class I took in college I dropped. I wasn’t impressed with it.”
But like his mom, Chuck loved to sing. He sang in the children’s choir and youth choir, and performed his first solo before the congregation as a young teenager. He joined the adult choir during high school, and somewhere along the way, he preached a sermon on the Book of Jonah for a special Youth Sunday.
The church saw something in him, and in 1976 they asked if he would volunteer as minister of music. “God was fashioning me for how He knew I was going to spend most of my adult life,” he said.
Three years later, the church put him on the payroll on a part-time basis, and the pastor, Dr. Dale Tanner, began to encourage him to pray about becoming full time.
“He said, ‘I just believe God’s calling you to be a full-time music minister,’ and he encouraged me to pray about it, so we did. And I sensed God’s calling on me, that this is what He wanted me to do. I surrendered in 1981, and in 1982 the church asked me to go full time.”
Talk about the goodness of God.
“There aren’t many music ministers who can say they were able to stay at their home church for their whole ministry,” he says.
Chuck learned as much about music as he could from Patsy, who played the piano and organ. His enthusiasm was contagious, and people would join the choir because of his excitement.
“He always knew the direction the Lord wanted us to go,” said Fay Gibson. “Sometimes he would pick out a song and we would say, ‘Chuck, we don’t want to do this one.’ And he would say, ‘I’m sorry. This is how the Lord is leading me.’ And lo and behold, the sermon on Sunday would go right along with the song. And he had picked it out three weeks earlier.”
Chuck learned as much about music as he could from Patsy, who played the piano and organ. His enthusiasm was contagious, and people would join the choir because of his excitement.
“He always knew the direction the Lord wanted us to go,” said Fay Gibson. “Sometimes he would pick out a song and we would say, ‘Chuck, we don’t want to do this one.’ And he would say, ‘I’m sorry. This is how the Lord is leading me.’ And lo and behold, the sermon on Sunday would go right along with the song. And he had picked it out three weeks earlier.”
Pastor Ron Richardson can sense when the Spirit is moving in this way.
“I like the way Chuck focuses on the Lord and focuses on God’s Word,” Pastor Ron said. “I appreciate not only his ability in music, but his character. It’s obvious Chuck loves God, and has an ability to connect with people. A lot of times, music directors have a big ego. They focus on themselves, but Chuck focuses on God.”
The choir sees Chuck’s passion for the Word almost every Wednesday night, as he opens the Bible right in the middle of choir rehearsal and reads a passage of Scripture and offers a brief lesson.
“It’s important that we do that,” he says. “It keeps us centered on why we’re there to start with. I mean, you take the Word of God out of it and why are we even doing this?”
Eric Moore, for one, has enjoyed those little nuggets of spiritual insights.
“His ability to pull from the Word and present it so clearly has benefited me more than anything else,” Eric said. “So much that I tried to talk my entire family into joining the choir.”
God is front and center for Chuck everywhere he goes—in his home and family, in church, on the ball field.
Greg Oxendine noticed the way he related to men on the softball team when they were playing in the church league in Fort Mill. He always had devotions and he made sure the guys knew that although they were playing ball, that this time was always about God. After several years, he asked Greg to take over the team.
“I was honored because of the standards he had set, and that he trusted me with them,” Greg said. “Chuck is a mentor. I’ve been in his choir ever since he started and I consider it a privilege. If we have a problem, we know we can go to him. If we need a favor, we know he will do it. Anything he asks me, I’m happy to do it for him because he’s Chuck. I knew his mom and dad. I grew up with his younger brother, Greg. I taught his son in RA’s, and later his grandson, Zander, so I feel like I’ve always been a part of his family.”
Plus, Greg says, anyone who owned a blue and white Ford Maverick Grabber at any point in their life had to be cool, and Chuck had one in high school.
Chuck has always given the choir his all, Gayle said.
“There’s never been a time when I felt like he didn’t enjoy what he was doing, or that I thought he would rather be somewhere else or doing something different.”
For Chuck’s part, he’s simply amazed that he has gotten to do what he does, at the church he loves so much, with the people he loves so much.
“Honestly, I think my greatest blessing is that I’ve been able to do what I do at home,” he said. “Patsy and I live in the home that we built when we got married. We’ve raised our two children, Scott and Marissa, here; and our two grandchildren, Zoa and Zander, are here. I haven’t had to move a single time.
“Why God blessed me that way, I could not tell you. I don’t deserve it.”
“Honestly, I think my greatest blessing is that I’ve been able to do what I do at home,” he said. “Patsy and I live in the home that we built when we got married. We’ve raised our two children, Scott and Marissa, here; and our two grandchildren, Zoa and Zander, are here. I haven’t had to move a single time.
“Why God blessed me that way, I could not tell you. I don’t deserve it.”
He could have built houses all his life, like he was doing when he started full-time with the church. But God had a different plan. And He made it obvious.
“It wasn’t like I came to a fork in the road and I had to decide which way to go. It was almost like God just gently made the road go this way, and I went with it. I have spent all these years here at the church. And I think I’m all the better for it. I know I am. I consider myself tremendously blessed.”
And he feels he has brought the church as far as he can bring it.
“It’s time for someone who can take it to the next step music-wise and worship-wise,” he says.
As for the immediate future, he’ll continue to work on a part-time basis, doing projects for Pastor Ron and the staff, and picking on people and getting in their hair like he always does. “Patsy says I’m the world’s greatest aggravator.”
And on Sundays, he’ll be a little bit more in the background. Perhaps he’ll serve on the soundboard, or just enjoy worship from the pew.
“My whole ministry I’ve been upfront, and when you’re up on the stage and you’re leading, sometimes you’re concentrating on so many other things it’s easy to get caught up in the mechanics of it instead of really worshiping. I’ll admit there’s been times when that has happened to me, but as I got older and wiser, I tried to focus on the worship more than the mechanics and let the mechanics take care of itself.”
And singing is not out of the question.
“Maybe I could sing a solo now and then and even sing in the choir occasionally,” he says. “I want to do that as long as God gives me a voice to sing.” And of course, Patsy will still sing in the choir.
And so, the full-time Chuck Trammel minister of music era ends. For the church, and for the Trammel family. “I really don’t know how to feel about Dad’s retirement,” says his son, Scott. “All of our lives have been centered around the church. Dad has always been at the church. But since God is calling him into retirement, I’m confident He has a plan, and it will be exciting to see what it is.
“Dad has been crazy passionate about worship, which is good since that’s what his calling has been,” Scott says. “I’m thankful that he had the opportunity to do it for so long.”
Daughter Marissa will simply be happy to hopefully spend a little more time with the dad she adores.
“He’s a great minister,” she says. “But he’s an even greater father.”
DESIGN BY REBEKAH RICKENBACH
PICTURES BY REBEKAH RICKENBACH, SHELLY BRAZZELL BUMGARNER AND MICHELLE BRAGG