Songs of Praise: Uniting Sedalia Through Community Worship and Music

For neighbors who have wondered what it looks like to step beyond Sunday-morning habits and share prayer across denominational lines, Songs of Praise offers a slow, gentle invitation — and the opening chapter of a multi-year effort that already has Lutheran, Episcopal, Baptist, and nondenominational congregations at the same table.

What to expect on the evening

Songs of Praise runs from 6 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19, at the shelter house of Bethlehem Baptist Church, 31015 Wingate Road in Sedalia. The event is free and open to the public, regardless of church membership or denomination. Attendees are asked to bring their own chairs; water will be provided. The hour is built around music, with scripture readings shared between sets to thread worship and reflection through the evening.

For many of us, the first impulse when approaching a new gathering is to treat it like a performance — sit back, observe, evaluate. The planners invite the opposite posture. Jay McMillin, who is coordinating the Songs of Praise series and performs with the band Cohesion (composed of members from three churches), put it this way: "There is something powerful about making music together outside church walls. When voices from different congregations and traditions blend together, you can hear what unity sounds like. That's what Songs of Praise is about, and I can't wait for our community to experience it."

Where this came from, and where it is heading

The evening is the first in a series of community fellowship events organized by the Psalm 133:1 Committee. The committee grew out of a small, almost accidental practice: nearly three years ago, Christ and Trinity Lutheran Church, Calvary Episcopal Church, and Burns Chapel Free Will Baptist Church began rotating joint worship services on fifth Sundays. What started as an experiment in shared liturgy gradually took root, and members began asking whether the effort could scale up.

The answer became One God. One Worship., a community-wide worship service planned for 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 2, 2027, at the Mathewson Exhibition Center on the Missouri State Fairgrounds. Seven congregations have signed on as charter members: Bethlehem Baptist Church, Broadway Church, Burns Chapel Free Will Baptist Church, Calvary Episcopal Church, Christ and Trinity Lutheran Church, First Christian Church, and The Rock Church. Between now and that autumn evening, the committee plans more Songs of Praise worship nights, additional joint Fifth Sunday Services, and Voices of Prayer gatherings, with details announced as they are confirmed.

Rev. Anne Kyle, pastor of Christ and Trinity Lutheran Church and Calvary Episcopal Church and a committee member, framed the work in the verse that named it: "What started on a fifth Sunday in a small sanctuary has grown into something none of us fully anticipated. We kept coming back to Psalm 133:1, 'How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.' That's not just a verse to us. It's a description of something we've already experienced and believe our whole community deserves to experience."

How to take part, and what to watch for

If you can go, the path is simple. Mark Saturday, Sept. 19 on the calendar, bring a chair, and plan to arrive early enough to settle in before the first set. For questions about Songs of Praise, McMillin can be reached by text at 660.221-3931 or at [email protected]. In the event of bad weather, updates will be posted on the One God. One Worship. Facebook page rather than sent individually to attendees.

A few things worth carrying with you. First, this is worship, not a concert — the music is the vehicle, but the listening and the singing alongside neighbors are the point. Second, denominational labels matter less than they usually do on a night like this; the planners have intentionally made room for traditions that do not often share a stage. Third, the Sept. 19 hour is one evening in a longer arc that runs all the way to October 2027, so if the night surfaces something in you that wants more, more dates are on the way.

That is the quiet shape of discernment in our part of the world right now. A shelter house, a stack of folding chairs, shared water, and voices from traditions that rarely converge choosing to converge anyway. We do not have to decide yet what it will become. We only have to show up, sit down, and let the singing do what singing has always done.