We are a small choir of amateurs, with one staff singer per voice part to make sure there's an anchor. The rest of us are NOT professionally trained, NOT a concert choir, NOT beautiful voices.
BUT - with a good director who selects music within the ability of the choir, AND with a willingness to learn and concentrate, even a small amateur choir can sound very, very good. For example, we sing all the old Renaissance motets (especially the English ones) because they were originally intended to be sung with a small choir, by amateurs.
Our man has had charge of the choir for about 4 years now, and you can really hear the difference. Rumor hath it that the music is attracting people from all around the north side (probably a lot of renegade Episcopalians in that bunch).
We are going to make a recording soon, and then I can demonstrate how well we do sound! (I may have my husband the amateur recording engineer mike us up some time, just for grins. He's got all the equipment.)
Good music can attract people to the church. I loved singing in the choir growing up in the church. We put on a lovely cantata one Palm Sunday, but we don’t have a choir anymore. I do miss that. I sang in a number of choral groups in the past, too. They were lots of fun and the music was varied and wonderful. I especially liked the Messiah.