Worshiping Our Lord on 88 Keys

A few years ago, First Christian Church lost its music director. We decided to take some time and think through exactly who we needed to look for to flesh out our worship team, and pray about it. Meanwhile, we would keep our eyes out for someone who might join us in that role, but found no one. Rotating volunteers led congregational singing, until Mike Lewis stepped into the job. We decided to designate organist Bobbie Mitchell as music director, and that what we really needed was a piano player. Meanwhile, our vintage pipe organ was failing, and we turned our attention to that.

Bruno and Frances Heinss had spent many years living in California and Tennessee, and in 2018 moved to Corbin to be near family. They settled in, made friends, and went to church. Frances likes to swim, and did so at the Corbin Wellness Center. Lee Ann Strunk goes there for Silver Sneakers classes. One day, Frances admired a bag Lee Ann was carrying, they struck up a conversation, and became friends. Lee Ann mentioned that her church was looking for a piano player, and Frances told her that she played piano, and had for many years. Lee Ann invited Frances to come and visit FCC.

We, of course, were delighted to meet Frances and Bruno, and welcomed them as we would anyone new. Most of us didn't know why they chose to attend our church, but they did, and that made us happy. See, Bobbie was playing piano for our worship services at the time because the organ wasn't working. The Heinns had been attending another, much larger church that worshiped in contemporary style. As Bruno said, there's nothing wrong with that, but they felt more at home with FCC's more traditional style.

Then one day Lee Ann mentioned that Frances plays piano, and those of us who didn't know rejoiced- it was like an answer to a prayer! As soon as the organ was ready to be played again, Frances took to the grand piano for worship services. That's when we realized that "Frances plays piano" was a vast understatement, because Frances plays piano magnificently. She was there for our highly-anticipated Homecoming service and made quite an impression. Frances also joined the bell choir. When December rolled around, her piano music was one leg of our musical trinity offering for the annual Christmas organ concert, along with the organ and bell choir all playing together.

Bobbie is extremely happy to have Frances on the team. She says they are like soul sisters, and are so in sync that they don't even have to practice to mesh the organ and piano music together. Bobbie admires Frances' energy and her lifetime of dedication to her music. We are all happy to have both Frances and Bruno as part of our family!