Five days of a Christian music concert series called “GospelFest” was a bridge built by the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s world session with residents of St. Louis. Held in Kiener Plaza, within the heart of the city, the concerts were scheduled during lunch hours of Tuesday, July 5, through Friday, July 8, and on Saturday afternoon.

“The Kiener Plaza Concert series was part of an initiative to involve more outreach by the church to the communities of St. Louis,” said John Torres, one of the concert’s organizers.

“The basic thing we wanted to share with the community was the diverse music groups that came from around the world for the world session,” Reger Smith, the world church’s public relations director, said.

The concert series included accomplished musicians from around the world, such as the Northern Caribbean University choir; the Cadet sisters, a quintet of five sisters from Utah; Eva Charlotte Roslin, a Swedish vocalist and violinist; the Oakwood College Choir of Alabama; professional recording artist John Stoddart; and several others.

Although the attendance was lower than organizers expected, the community’s response was positive. Donita Stone, an employee in the downtown area, benefited from the concert series. “I almost never eat lunch outside of the building I work in, but on the first day of the concert series, I was having a particularly rough day,” recalls Stone. “It was really weird. I felt a strong urge to go outside for lunch, and that’s when I heard the music at Kiener. After listening to the music I came back to the office in a much better mood.”

Stone’s comments, among others, serve as encouragement to those who have directly been involved with planning the concert series.

“I am sure Adventists desire to be known as good neighbors and friends of the people where they live,” Torres said.

Smith agrees. “I ran into someone who is here with his daughters,” said Smith. “He’s a rock and blues musician that got off the bus when he heard the music. He just loved it and said he was going to return the next day…. that’s the kind of results we’re looking for.”