Pianist, organist fill Brent’s Bethel Baptist Church with 50 years of music

As the familiar notes of “Silent Night” filled the air, the Dec. 5 Sunday service at Bethel Baptist Church, Brent, held memories of a service 50 years ago.
   
On Dec. 5, 1954, “Miss Minnie Ward” Griffin and “Miss Jean” Goodson combined the sounds of organ and piano to begin half a century of volunteer service to both their church and the central Alabama community.
   
“[Their service] lets you know two things,” said Pastor Reuben Compere. “One, they love the Lord, and two, they love Bethel.”
   
Compere, who has served at the Bibb Association church for 29 years, said the two women have served the church selflessly, donating their time and energy not only to playing, but also to serving within the church. “You don’t just call on them to play, you can call on them for anything,” he said.
   
Griffin, who is 83, grew up in Bethel Baptist Church. She began playing the piano at age 8, when her brother Joe Bamberg began to teach her. He played the piano for Bethel, and Griffin would fill in for her brother when he couldn’t play.
   
Although she left Brent for college and then moved to Birmingham, Griffin never forgot her church. In 1950, she returned to Brent with her husband, Pratt Griffin, and returned to the church she loved.
   
“This is home to me,” she said. “It’s my church home, just like my home up the road is home.”
   
Griffin continued to play the piano for the church, learning to play the organ along the way.
   
Goodson grew up in Brent as well. When she met and then married John Goodson in 1953, she also “married into Bethel.”
   
As a 4-year-old, Goodson learned to play the piano by placing buttons on the keys to learn the names of the notes. She too, lent Bethel her talent as the church needed, especially at summer revivals.
   
But the day the two women began playing together was a special day in the church.
   
That was the first weekend the church had an organ available for its service. Brought in the weekend before for a church member’s wedding, the organ stayed for a trial run and never left.
   
Goodson — on the piano — and Griffin — on the organ — played “Silent Night” together that Sunday. When they finished, there “wasn’t a dry eye in the place,” according to Hugh Edmonds, a deacon in the church.
   
And the two have been playing together ever since, refusing to take any money for their services and establishing a legacy of harmony that is legendary.
   
“When one is not there, we feel like nearly half the church service is gone,” said Compere. “They have been immeasurably important to the worship atmosphere of the church.”
   
This comes from putting emotion into their music, explained Goodson. “I feel like I’m doing my service to the Lord,” she said. “I try to make my fingers say what I feel when I play.”
   
But their contributions are not limited to playing during services.
   
Danny Russell, the church’s bivocational minister of music, said the two have mentored him during his 16 years at the church.
   
“They make my job so much easier,” he said. “They’ve been extremely helpful to me to understand the congregation’s (musical) tastes.”
   
The community has benefited from the pair, too. They have played for weddings, funerals, and community events, spanning generations with their music. Of the many marriages they have played for, Griffin said, “We’ve traveled across the county helping people get in ‘trouble.’”
   
The church recently honored the pair with a celebration service and luncheon, bringing in family and longtime friends.
   
They gave Griffin and Goodson bouquets of 25 roses each, memory books filled with letters from loved ones and placed a plaque on the wall of the fellowship hall, the last sentence of which reads, “Your music lifts us heavenward.”
   
“It’s been wonderful,” Griffin said. “I wouldn’t want to play with anyone else.”
   
“We’re very fortunate to have both of them,” Russell said. “We hope they’ll be able to play another 50 years.”