Never Say Never: A Gospel Journey with Merlan Mr. Bale

COLLEEN GREEN The Standard

For Merlan Bale, a lifetime devoted to gospel music can be traced back to three words, spoken with quiet certainty: never say never. Forged through fear, faith and perseverance, the phrase frames a journey stretching from a terrified child, on a church platform, to more than six decades of singing in churches, concert halls, camp meetings and even a barn.

“I want people to see what God can do through the journey,” Mr. Bale said. “He’s there with you the whole way. God doesn’t leave us.”

Mr. Bale’s musical story began at the Free Methodist Church, in Newmarket, when he was 10 years old. During Sunday school, his teacher, Elsie Gibbons, told him he had a nice voice and asked him to sing at the Christmas concert.

“I said, ‘By myself?’ And she said yes,” Mr. Bale recalled.

At the time, the church permitted no musical instruments. Ms. Gibbons used a small pitch pipe to give him the starting note. Standing in front of roughly 150 people, the young boy froze.

“Nothing came out,” he said. “Not a sound.”

Overwhelmed by fear, Merlan ran off the platform in tears and declared he would never sing again. In that moment, the decision felt permanent.

As he grew older, music remained present, though not in a way pointing toward a singing career. Mr. Bale enjoyed big-band music, dancing and social life, immersing himself in the wider world. Faith lingered quietly in the background. Memories of Sunday school and camp meetings at Pine Orchard, often attended with his grandmother, stayed close to his heart.

“I remember watching older people at those meetings and wondering why they were so excited,” he said. “Later, I realized it was God.”

Clarity arrived when Mr. Bale was 26 years old. One stormy February night, while watching a war movie alone at home, he experienced, what he described as, the unmistakable presence of God filling the room.

“I didn’t like going to the altar. I didn’t like being pushed,” he said. “But God came right into my house.”

Shaken and convicted, Mr. Bale phoned his pastor, Gerald Kemp, late in the evening.

“He said, ‘I’m in my pajamas,’” Mr. Bale recalled. “I told him, ‘God is here. I need you.’”

Pastor Kemp drove through the storm, in an old Studebaker, to meet him. The visit marked Mr. Bale’s born-again experience, a moment he described as a complete transformation of his life and direction.

Only weeks later, gospel music entered his life in a powerful way. Two men from his church, Earl and Elwood Hoover, invited him to play ball, then surprised him with a drive into Toronto. Mr. Bale did not know the destination, until they arrived at Massey Hall for an all-night gospel sing.

When the music began, the impact was immediate.

“I heard a trumpet echoing under the balcony,” Mr. Bale said, recalling one of the McDuff Brothers. “The acoustics were unbelievable. Southern gospel filled the hall and touched me deeply.”

From that night forward, gospel music became his calling. Mr. Bale has now spent 64 years singing the style first heard at Massey Hall.

From the beginning, his career focused on ministry rather than recognition. His first group, the Freeman Quartet, sang without microphones and often to modest crowds.

“We used to joke, we almost paid people to listen,” he said. “But we learned, we listened, and we sang wherever God opened the door.”

The group travelled throughout southern Ontario, in a bus donated by a trucking company owner, who loved gospel quartets. Along for the ride were wives and children.

“We had enough kids for Sunday school wherever we went,” Mr. Bale said.

Albums were recorded and sold for five dollars. At the same time, Mr. Bale worked as a meat manager at an IGA grocery store, where customers often left with a roast beef and a gospel album in the same visit.

“God used all of it,” he said.

One of the most meaningful moments in Mr. Bale’s journey brought him back to where inspiration first struck. Years after sitting in the balcony at Massey Hall, his later quartet, Jubilation, received an invitation to sing there, as one of the featured Canadian groups.

“Fifteen years after God changed my life, I was back on that stage,” he said.

When offered $1,000 for the weekend, the moment left him nearly breathless.

“I couldn’t even breathe,” Mr. Bale said. “I went out to my car afterward and said, ‘Yes!’ God has a sense of timing.”

Music also shaped Mr. Bale’s family life. His wife, naturally shy and raised Baptist, experienced her own turning point, during a gospel gathering in Boone, North Carolina.

“As a song about heaven was being sung, she suddenly stood up and shouted ‘Hallelujah!’” Mr. Bale said. “The whole tent erupted. She’s never been the same since.”

Later in life, stepping away from ministry proved difficult. When grandchildren began asking why they rarely saw him, Mr. Bale attempted to retire. Soon after, he awoke one morning, at four o’clock, with a clear sense of purpose.

“I felt God say, ‘Get some gospel music and fill a barn,’” he said.

The idea became Singing in the Barn, hosted at the Lakeview Arts Barn. Mr. Bale booked the venue, invited 13 groups and trusted in faith for God to carry the rest. Three hundred people attended the first event. Bills were paid, and proceeds supported children from broken families.

The ministry ran for four years and later expanded through a partnership with Elam Lodge, drawing busloads of people and growing beyond initial expectations.

Looking back, Mr. Bale recalled advice which shaped both his music and life. A gospel leader once told him, he did not possess a big voice, but a blending voice, one God would use.

Another lesson followed: “Never take a spotted lamb to the concert. Take your best, your purest.”

“That’s how I’ve tried to live,” Mr. Bale said. “Whether singing, ushering or giving. God gave us His best. We give Him ours.”

At the heart of Mr. Merlan Bale’s story lies obedience rather than applause. From a frightened boy, silenced by fear, to a man guided by faith in God into concert halls, churches and barns, his life carries a message, still guiding him today: Never say never, especially when God is in it.