Sign of the Times

Friendship Baptist Church still isn’t complete. Its members are waiting on a final piece — a pipe organ. Since 2002, the church’s members have been working to bring the sound they miss from their old sanctuary to their new place of worship at 2912 Pleasant Grove Road, in Lansing.

Last Sunday, the church sponsored a concert performed by the Earl Nelson Singers, an early gospel-style choir that often performs for free in order to support a cause.

People were invited to attend the concert and to give a donation to be put toward the church’s organ fund to help the church’s members fulfill their hopes of buying the organ soon.

“We just continue now to work toward getting it, so that we can say that now it’s complete,” said Claudine Walker, chairperson of the Friendship Baptist Church organ fund committee and an Earl Nelson singer.

It was creativity and collaboration that brought the singers to the church. Walker, along with the other members in the organ fund committee, came up with the idea to use the singers as a way to help raise money. Because of their efforts, the church is getting closer every day to the organ’s installment in the sanctuary, which could be in time for Easter Sunday, Walker said.

“I will be so happy. I just want to hear that sound once again,” she said.