Last year the East Cullman Baptist Association joined its choirs together for a concert, putting on a well-received event. This year the choirs have collaborated once again, but they have gone a step further by recording a CD.
“Last summer’s event kind of sparked the idea to record something,” said David Moore, music minister at First Baptist Church, Hanceville. “It was neat to see the whole community come together to work on it.”
The representatives determined a theme — hymns, using updated arrangements — and began planning for the recording process. They also had to plan how to distribute the funds raised from the sale of the CD.
“We decided to record the CD, but we didn’t think of it as a moneymaker right away,” said April Pearson, music minister at First Baptist Church, Fairview. “As people showed interest, though, we wondered what we wanted to do with any profit we’d make.”
As the organizers began discussing how to allocate funds raised from the sale of the discs, the idea of donating to statewide tornado relief came up as an option.
However, when Chuck Johnston, director of music ministries at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cullman, ran into the pastor of nearby East Side Baptist Church, Cullman, he realized they had found their answer.
“Their church was completely destroyed by the tornadoes last year, and so later on I got to thinking, ‘Why don’t we do this for a church right here in our community?’” Johnston said. “Everyone thought that was a good idea.”
And so with a beneficiary determined, choirs from 10 churches across East Cullman Association gathered at Northbrook Baptist in early March to record the CD. To facilitate the recording the association hired a Nashville-based engineer to run the show.
“Most of us had never been through anything like that, but he (the engineer) did a wonderful job and put us all at ease,” said Pearson.
Currently the CDs are available through Northbrook (www.northbrookbc.com) and the East Cullman Association (256-737-9918), and roughly 500 of the initial 1,000 CDs ordered have already been sold.
“I was in town just the other day and ran into a lady from East Side Baptist who had heard the CD,” Pearson said. “She said she’d really enjoyed the music, and it was great to hear that positive feedback.”
To complement and help market the CD, the 10 choirs will reconvene three times this summer to put on concerts in three different locations across the association. The concerts will feature the hymns from the CD, which are all “very singable” and “set to a good tempo,” according to Pearson. CDs will be sold at each event.
“The goal is to get as many people to the concerts as possible so we can share the idea behind this recording — to raise money to rebuild East Side Baptist’s facility,” Moore said. “We’re hoping for a big turnout.”
According to Pearson, the choir members are excited to reunite for the concerts. “I think everyone who’s been a part of it has had a great time,” she said. “We’re looking forward to getting together again for the three concerts, since the recording happened back in March.”
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