LEWISTOWN – Cathy Kelso, pianist and worship leader of First Baptist Church, Lewistown, was trying to pull together a community choir, and women from four churches in the Mt. Salem/Wyaconda Southern Baptist Association volunteered to participate in the choir.
But Kelso had a problem. “We needed men,” she said. Thankfully, God provided for this need through one of Kelso’s old friends.
“I’ve known Daniel Bock for years, and we’ve ministered together since his teens,” Kelso said. “He saw the (social media) posts for our community choir and said, ‘Our guys would like to do this.’” she said.
Bock is the servanthood director of the Men’s Recovery group at Heartland Recovery in Bethel.
“I’ve always thought that, for musical gathererings, whoever I have is who I’m supposed to have,” Kelso said. “The choir ministers to whoever is there. The music is just the means.”
Bock said only two of the 10 men from the group had ever been involved in a choir before. “We had good teaching times,” he said. “Most came from a non-church background. At the Sunday night rehearsals, they got to interact with people from other churches.”
With help from these men, a community choir with 20 members performed an Easter cantata, “Hosannas and Hallelujahs,” on Sunday, April 26, at the FBC Lewistown. The crowd in the church was near capacity.
It’s the first time since Christmas 2022 that Kelso could form a community choir.
Even though some of the men from the recovery center weren’t singers, Kelso enjoyed teaching them.
“They stepped up and did it,” she said. “The whole Easter story is about deliverance, and I told them, ‘Who can sing that better than you?’” They were wonderful. The Heartland men were a bonus. Otherwise we had a chick band,” Kelso said.
The men were able to get permission from group leaders at Heartland to attend the practices, the performance, and the sneak preview at a monthly hymn sing at Ten Mile Baptist Church near Monticello, April 14.
Kelso said the rest of the choir also enjoyed singing and fellowshipping with the men from the recovery center.
“They had a wonderful time. They enjoyed it and learned a lot. They were nervous performing in front of people, but we had a good type of nervousness. They calmed down a lot after the hymn sing.”
“They are ready to do it again,” she added.
Kelso said an ensemble like this choir involves more than singing.
“Singing is more than making a pretty sound, biblically. Music is warfare,” she said. “The musicians (in at least one Bible story) were the front line of warfare. But they were the first to proclaim the Lord. Things are supposed to change with the Spirit behind you. As a choir we worship on purpose, with a purpose.”
Bock shared a message at an intermission of the performance, highlighting aspects on the last week of Jesus’ life
Kelso said the men from the recovery center are ready to go again. Bock agreed.
“It was a positive experience for everybody,” he said. “I hope something else can be done in the future.”
