This is not a Christian book " but it ought to be. This is Christianity with its sleeves rolled up.
Jonathon Welch started the Choir of Hard Knocks in Melbourne with a bunch of disadvantaged people. He didn’t wait for them to come to him " he went after them. He went to a soup van, then the Sacred Heart Mission, and left leaflets about the choir.
People with no hope turned up because it was something different. “They came from all walks of life, with a whole range of disadvantages " from mental illness to addiction, blindness to brain injury.” What they found was love and acceptance and encouragement and the assurance that they could do something.
Jonathon said: “As long as there’s sound and passion, I can always teach people to sing.”
The book, though small (it is 15cm square), makes interesting reading. There are two poems, also a photo and a small paragraph about 50 or more choir members. The book would make a good present for people who don’t like reading much.
I keep wondering where Jonathon, with his classical training as an opera singer, keeps finding interesting pop songs for the choir to sing.
By high musical standards they may not sound excellent, but they connect with the community. People are touched by them. They filled the Melbourne Town Hall twice and the Sydney Opera House three times.
I remember being touched myself by the televised ABC Opera House snippet where a young woman, with her daughter, sang a song. She told everyone she had been clean for three days. She sounded like a great jazz singer.
Jonathon started a choir because he is a singer. “Everyone has a talent. My talent is singing. But a talent isn’t something you should keep for yourself, it’s a gift to share with the world.”
What is our special talent that could be shared by people less fortunate than ourselves? It could be chess, mathematics, computers, drama, writing, cooking, chatting and so on.
In Matthew 22:8 it is written, “Then he said to his servants, `The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests."
Go and do thou likewise.
