Do you remember playing a game about church, using only your hands? Turn your palms up and interlock your fingers. Next, point them downward, saying, “Here’s the church.” Then, turn your index fingers pointing up, saying, “Here’s the steeple.” Finally, turn your hands 180 degrees and wiggle your fingers, saying, “Here’s all the people.” Our church IS its people. The people are housed inside its building; the people accomplish its ministry; the church IS its people.

We relish the stories told of our people, of lives well lived over the decades. Our pastors, our stalwart men like Clarence Clements, and our warrior women are all heroes from our past. Sometimes their work was merely steady, going about the business of church. Sometimes their work was spectacular.

Mike Burch, raised in First Baptist Church, and now living in Lubbock, shared his memories that span fifty years and include being the proud owner of one of the pews from the red brick building.

Barbara Weiss shared her memories of the team who shouldered financial accounting responsibilities over the years. “Many years ago when Killeen was a small town and First Baptist Church was one of the few churches in town, only one person was needed to handle financial responsibilities. In 1957 there was a little more money to account for and that led to Ruby Lee Wilson being hired in January, 1958, as our financial secretary. She held that position until her retirement in June, 1985, working with Maebelle Stubblefield and Marjorie Jean in the church office. Sometimes these three had the assistance of part-time helpers. As the town and church continued to grow, so did the need for help with this job. In the mid-1970’s, a money counters committee was established. They still meet on Monday morning to count and record tithes and offerings collected on the previous Sunday. Many sweet ladies and a couple of sweet men have taken on this important task.

Sunday School, now known as LifeGroups, has long been the backbone of our church and is a ministry populated by people of all ages. LifeGroups are small in number of members and focus on learning the Bible, growing as Christians, serving others together, and building connections among us. We currently have more than thirty LifeGroups, each different like variegated thread. Together they form a beautiful tapestry, like Joseph’s Coat of Many Colors, that has Jesus’s Name woven into it. Cherie Bostick Cockrell still has her mom’s 1960’s handmade-from-construction-paper handbooks for her Hope Sunday School Class. Their teacher was Willie Robertson; their verse, I Corinthians 13:30; their aim, to show love by their lives; their flower, the red rose; and their song “The Solid Rock.” Delores Williams and Ann Farris have provided us with insights into two other Life Groups. Sunday School matters -- past present, and future.

Cherie Bostick Cockrell’s mom, Janet Bostick, was among our warrior women. Her ministry was loving others unconditionally through cooking for them. Gwen Stewart’s mom, Lawanna Elliott Mills, grounded her family’s spiritual and social life in the church and opened her family’s home to accommodate congregational needs. One of her monumental achievements, collaborating with Raymond Smith and St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, was to establish the Killeen Food Care Center. Jesus said, “Feed my sheep,” and she took it to heart. Her love for the Lord and her work on behalf of the Food Care Center was memorialized in the elegant, private prayer room built in her name at the church on Fourth and Green Streets. Hanging on the wall just to the left of the door into the prayer room was a portrait of this elegant warrior. A third warrior woman was Ruby Lee Wilson, better known as Nonnie, who served as financial secretary for our church for almost thirty years, prayer warrior her entire life, and a late blooming javelin thrower.

Music has played a key role in our ministries, beginning with the 1909 purchase of Baptist Hymnal and Praise books and continuing with the purchase of our bell tower chimes, first heard on Thanksgiving morning, 1947.

We are really good at making a joyful noise to the Lord! Some, like me, are merely joyful; most are really talented. When I have worked with Blake Coffee and One Another Project in churches and communities internationally and tell people that I am from Killeen, Texas, I am often asked two questions: "Where are my cowboy boots and hat?" (I know where they are: in my closet at home) and "Do I know Cindy Berry?" (I know where she is, too, every Sunday morning: in our choir loft, front row, fourth person from the left). The first question they ask out of curiosity; the second, out of love for her and the music that she has written for the world. Cindy Berry’s works include more than 300 choral anthems for adults and children and about 35 piano collections. Among her beloved songs are “Sheep Without a Shepherd,” “Restore My Joy,” and “At the Name of Jesus.” She gifted us with an amazing present as we were relocating our church from Fourth and Green Streets to South W.S. Young -- an anthem, “Let Us Be Your Light.”

Music permeates our church building and the lives of our young people. Danielle Smith recounts our music program for children, First CREW, from 2011 until COVID season. The children’s first musical was “Down by the Creek Bank.” Their time together included building crazy set designs and creating planet costumes, learning to rap, and doing community service projects (collecting shoes for children) while experiencing endless joy and building lifetime friendships. Rebekkah Moon has taken up that gauntlet so that First CREW continues to flourish, post-COVID.

Providing another perspective, Judy Stubblefield Tyler shares her experience in the youth choir, including performing musicals like “Good News,” and “Purpose”, touring Louisiana in an old white, un-air-conditioned bus to perform “It’s the Lord’s Thing”, and going on tour with “Life” throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas. Paula Lohse and Jane St. John also shared their youth choir experiences, speaking of their love for and experiences with David and Linda Anderson, brought to us courtesy of the army. He served as both director of music and youth and she volunteered to lead the children’s choir at First Baptist Church from 1969 through 1977. David also served as the church’s chief administrator and planned a revival during the absence of a pastor. When they left our church, it was to pursue their calling as music evangelists and Christian entertainers; the name of their first music album was “God Is So Good.”

Most importantly, our music ministers through the years have done so much more than lead the music program. Years ago, the New York Times carried an article about Killeen and called us a “scruffy little town.” I maintain that the journalist’s thesaurus let him down. We are a SCRAPPY town. Rief Kessler, our current Minister of Music, is among the scrappiest! When COVID slammed the door shut on so many things including our church’s many ministries, Rief found a way. It was both hilarious and moving! I am certain that God laughed out loud and slapped His sides as He sang along with us on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020.

Onward, Christian soldiers!