SWU Gospel Choir extending its ministry
Patrick Hampton directs as SWU's Gospel Choir leads worship during a September chapel on the campus in Central. The Gospel Choir is planning a mission trip to Haiti for spring break in early 2016. Hampton is a secondary music major from Spartanburg.
With an energetic, urban gospel vibe, the Southern Wesleyan University Gospel Choir ministers God’s love wherever they go.
According to Dr. Justin Carter, associate vice president for student life and an advisor to the choir, God continues to open exciting new opportunities for the choir.
Carter has seen the Gospel Choir reorganized as its members experience spiritual growth.
A few years ago, SWU student Chynna Rae Douglas sought to bring the choir back. Betty Walker, a university admissions counselor who passed away a few years ago, led an earlier gospel choir.
Carter helped grow the choir from a discipleship group to an official student organization. He said the choir began with just a few singers and no musicians – and they knew one song, which they sang a capella in chapel. Douglas soon found musicians willing to accompany the singers. A couple of times a year, the choir would go and sing at the home churches of choir members. They would eventually be visiting a different church nearly every Sunday. During Spring Semester 2013 the Gospel Choir had their first concert at Folger Fine Arts Auditorium, which attracted about 50 people.
“God opened doors for the choir. It’s not like we’ve done any sort of promotions or advertisement. We just are presented with opportunities when we go out and sing,” Carter said.
In early 2014, Rev. Joe Moss, a member of Central’s town council who also conducts a prison ministry, invited the Gospel Choir to lead musical worship in a Sunday worship service at Pickens County’s correctional facility. About a hundred prisoners attended, and two of them gave their lives to Christ.
As the choir members minister, they are blessed also.
“For me, Gospel Choir is a way to mix having fun with praising God and I get to do it with some of the coolest people,” said Miranda Hill, a religion major from Goldsboro, N.C.
Danny Hall, a special education major from Seneca, plays keyboard and serves as the choir’s musical director. He says the Gospel Choir is like a “second family” and is a welcome escape from the pressures of his studies.
“We’re coming here, we’re having fun and we’re praising God – that’s two things I love to do,” Hall said.
Shy’Keya Wimberly, a criminal justice major from Smith Station, Ala., loves coming to Gospel Choir practice after dinner, saying “before I came here, I ate. I’m physically full. Now I’m coming to get spiritually full.”
Curtis Burkhalter, who was raised on the mission field in Brazil, says being in the Gospel Choir gives him a “neat experience” exposing him to a uniquely American form of worship and culture.
“I get a lot of joy and fun out of singing different kinds of music with different kinds of people,” said Patrick Hampton, a secondary music education major from Spartanburg who is the choir’s voice director.
Carter and Rev. Dave Tolan, SWU’s missions mobilizer, are currently organizing a trip that will take the choir throughout Haiti. They are currently raising support for 15 choir members’ travel expenses plus the purchase of musical instruments and sound equipment they will donate to a local church. SWU’s Sigma Delta chapter raised more than $300 at a car wash in September, and Carter said choir members plan several fundraisers and a letter-writing campaign to raise additional funds.
For details about the SWU Gospel Choir or to donate, contact Carter at (864) 644-5144 or email .
Southern Wesleyan University is a Christ-centered, student-focused learning community devoted to transforming lives by challenging students to be dedicated scholars and servant-leaders who impact the world for Christ. For details about degree programs, go online to swu.edu.
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