Cottage Hill’s Joy Singers see several saved on choir tour

A popular old hymn encourages listeners to “come, come, come,” but the senior adult choir at Cottage Hill Baptist Church, Mobile, has found that if the audience cannot come, the choir should go, go, go.
   
In the last few months, that’s just what the Joy Singers choir has done. 
   
The choir has presented a musical written especially for senior adult singers and audiences to at least 11 different audiences. As a result, they have seen lives touched and souls saved through the musical presentation of the plan of salvation. 
   
Ronnie McCarson, senior adult minister for Cottage Hill, said although the 50 or so members of the Joy Singers choir have been singing together for years, this is the first year the choir has taken on a full-length musical. 
   
The choir members enjoyed singing the program so much, McCarson said, that he decided to schedule several performances at local health-care facilities. The choir even gave an outdoor performance in Jackson Square in New Orleans during a recent missions trip.  
   
McCarson said both choir and audience members have been blessed by the response to the musical, “Bound for Glory” (LifeWay), which uses songs and dramatic scenes to tell the story of a Christian couple and a lost couple who meet in a train station. 
   
Through their conversations, the Christian couple explains to the lost couple that salvation requires more than works and more than just believing there is a God. 
   
The characters then clearly explain the plan of salvation, and the song selections reinforce the gospel message. 
   
By the end of the musical, the lost husband and wife have accepted Christ as Savior and are making plans to attend church the following Sunday.
   
At the end of each performance, McCarson gives an invitation and allows time for personal prayer and reflection, and several people have made professions of faith as a result.
   
“In our concerts so far, we’ve seen at least 14 people aged 70 and up saved,” McCarson said. “Our choir members are encouraged and excited about coming to choir and going out to sing because they want to see people saved.”
  
McCarson said the opportunity to present the gospel to older adults is important because so few people get saved later in life.
   
“For years, we’ve tried to figure out how we could reach that 55 and up population,” McCarson said. “Now we have a mandate. Sometime during the choir year, we’re going to be going out on choir tour, both to sing and to try to bring some people to the Lord.”
   
Sue Adams, who directs and acts in the drama scenes in the musical, said the musical has been good for their choir and those who have seen the performance. 
   
“If we really knew what the average church member feels, we would probably find out that they think if they do the right things and make their contribution, that is all that is required to get into Heaven,” Adams said. “They need to realize that it takes the blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, and this musical makes that very clear.”
   
McCarson said he would encourage other senior adult choirs to get out of the church and go into their communities to share the gospel with others. 
   
Even smaller churches could get involved by combining their efforts to present a musical in their area.
   
The one thing that should not be overlooked, however, is the presentation of the gospel.
   
“Make sure to offer the invitation to accept Christ,” McCarson said, “because we cannot assume that everyone in that age group knows the Lord. We need to not take [their salvation] for granted.”