Community & Business
27 September, 2023
The Musicians of Norwin
On a bend in the Toowoomba-Cecil Plains Road, you’ll hear music playing on a Sunday morning.
Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Norwin is a small rural church set in the corner of a paddock, with nothing but farmland around it.
Despite that, Bethlehem has a baptised membership of around 90-100 people, with at least 60 of those considered regular attendees.
Over a third of that number are in the worship team. On any given Sunday you could find up to 18 people playing or leading the singing, and that number has recently swelled to 23.
In fact the contingent of musicians has become so large that a roster has been created organising the group into five separate bands.
And word about the musicians of Norwin is spreading: the “Norwin Crew” (Norwin’s mostly youth band) led worship at the region-wide Christian Life Week youth camp at Highfields in the winter holidays.
Pastor Ken Schultz looks after both Norwin and Oakey’s churches, which are part of the same parish.
He says the demographical differences between the two are stark.
“My wife Lyn and I are among the youngest at Oakey and among the oldest at Norwin,” he said.
“I was telling the children about these five bands and was promptly corrected by a grade five girl. ‘Sorry Pastor Ken, there are seven bands!’.
“When I asked her what she meant, she told me that I’d forgotten to include the youth-only and combined bands in the count.
- Rachel Koopmans
