Baldwin Association Baptists sang wall-to-wall patriotic music and delivered a lively children’s choir medley, flag-waving style, in an event that was interspersed with patriotic videos and recognition of retired and active servicemen.
A well-trained, 250-voice adult choir with soloists anchored two June 30 performances of “Patriotic Celebration — Sweet Land of Liberty.”
According to event coordinator Tom Noland, who is minister of music at Eastern Shore Baptist, Daphne, several thousand people filled the Daphne Civic Center for the two presentations at 4 and 7 p.m.
Ministers of music from several Baldwin Baptist Association churches took turns leading the choir of members from the 22 Baptist churches involved in the event.
“Everything we do has an evangelistic goal, but here it’s designed to be a celebration of God and country,” said Baldwin Baptist Association director of missions Larry Patterson. “We’re not giving an invitation, but there will be the idea of, ‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,’” he said, referring to part of Psalm 33:12.
He said all 60 Baptist churches in the association contributed financially to the event, including the renting of the Daphne Civic Center. Opened in December 1999, the center is part of the city’s municipal complex and offered a stellar place for the performance.
The presentation featured a video, “On the Front Line of Freedom,” narrated in person by a Baldwin County Baptist, Robin Cillo. It revisited audio from notable leaders from Gen. John J. Perishing (World War I) and former president Ronald Reagan to President George W. Bush, taking the audience through several eras of challenge for the United States, starting with World War I and ending with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“[Patriotic celebration] is an exciting thing for us; we just feel like we’re on the heels of Sept. 11, and this is an opportune time to proclaim Christ and to celebrate that God has brought us through what He has,” Noland said.
Near the end of the program, Patterson led the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag after brief commentary supporting the “one nation under God” phrase.
When the audience came to that phrase, their collective voices rose noticeably louder with enthusiasm that filled the center.
Earlier in the presentation, the choir sang the official songs of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines as at least 100 servicemen in the 4 p.m. presentation came to the front, where among them, hand-grips to shoulders and hardy handshakes were found.
One of those men was Willie Robison, an Eastern Shore Baptist Church member, who served in the U.S. Army from 1963–1965.
When “The Army Goes Rolling Along,” (c) U.S. Army 1956 (adaptation of “The Caisson Song”), began to flow from the choir, it brought Robison and others forward.
“It was like it is every time,” Robison said. “Once everybody is up there, and you hear the music, goose bumps start coming upon you and realize that, hey, we are free because there were people before us who gave their lives. They went to the battlefield and didn’t come back, and we’re the fortunate ones able to stand there,” he said.
“To me, when they call the branches of service forward, they’re not honoring us, they’re honoring those branches of service — that’s the way I look at it,” Robison added. “It’s an honor to have served in the military.”
Chris and Jason Westbrook, Natasha Wiggins and T.R. Lee, all JROTC members from Foley High School, presented the colors during the event.
“This is the first time we’ve had this kind of a patriotic celebration,” Patterson said.
He said it was the idea of Billy Neal, pastor of First Baptist Church, Foley, who presented it to the Baldwin Ministers Conference.
The ministers conference approved it and turned it over to the Baldwin Baptist executive committee, who approved it and asked ministers of music to implement it.
Noland said that already established relationships among Baldwin Baptist music ministers, partly due to a fellowship on the fourth Thursday of the month, contributed to the smooth organization of the event.
“We already had a warm fellowship, and we just pulled together,” Noland said.
Individual churches worked with their choir members for many months, and then the collective participants had two regional rehearsals, one rehearsal June 29 and another rehearsal with sound and lights June 30.
Baldwin Baptist churches providing adults and/or children to sing in the choirs were: Bethel, Eastern Shore, East Pointe, Eastwood, Faith, Fairhope Avenue, Fish River, Green Acres, Jubilee, Lagoon, Miflin, Southside, Vernant Park, Magnolia Springs and First Baptist Churches of Fairhope, Foley, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Robertsdale, Silverhill, Spanish Fort and Summerdale.
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