Reverend Clay Evans Dancing and Stepping in the Holy Ghost
Evangelist and civil rights leader Reverend Clay Evans founded the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago in 1958 and was the founding national board chairman of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity, later changed to People United to Serve Humanity) in 1971.
Rev. Clay Evans was born in Brownsville, Tennessee on June 23, 1925. After graduating from Carver High School, Evans attended seminary school at the Chicago Baptist Institute and later at the Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the University of Chicago Divinity School. In 1950 he was ordained a Baptist minister and eight years later founded the Fellowship Baptist Church (or "The Ship"). His popular sermons were broadcast on radio and television, generating his fame throughout the Midwest and into the South.
In 1965, Rev. Evans joined Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., to promote the civil rights movement then emerging in Chicago. In 1971 they founded Operation PUSH, which encouraged black self-help. Between 1971 and 1976, Rev. Evans served as chairman of the organization and currently serves as its chairman emeritus.
Rev. Evans is also the founding president of the Broadcast Ministers Alliance of Chicago, organized in 1975 by a group of leading pastors who sponsored weekly radio and television broadcasts. The group is socially active in the areas of healthcare, voter registration, and religious protection. In 1990 Rev. Evans released the first of a series of successful gospel and inspirational recordings. His 1995 recording I've Got a Testimony earned him the Stellar Gospel Music Award for Album of the Year in 1996.
In 2000, Rev. Evans retired as pastor of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church after 42 years as its principal minister. Upon his retirement he was honored by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin during a formal ceremony in the U.S. Senate. Rev. Evans and his wife, Lutha Mae, live in Chicago
Since 2000, Pastor Charles Jenkins has been pastor of the historic Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church that was founded by Rev. Clay Evans in 1950. Since its inception, the church has been noted as much for its joyous best-selling gospel choir albums as for its stirring sermons. This Memorial Day weekend, the church will build upon its stellar legacy with a live CD/DVD recording entitled Pastor Charles Jenkins and Fellowship Live: The Best of Both Worlds -- the first Fellowship CD with Jenkins at the helm.
Over the last five decades, Rev. Clay Evans, who ordained Rev. Jesse Jackson, has recorded three dozen sermon LPs and best-selling choir albums such as 1996's #1 smash I've Got A Testimony. Jenkins is continuing the musical work Evans began back in the 1950s and it represents a Passing of the Torch -- musically -- from the 84-year old Evans to the 34-year old Jenkins. "The Best of Both Worlds is a celebration and presentation of the traditional gospel, CCM, and praise and worship music. This project is a hybrid of music we sang in the past, and music we are singing now in black churches," Jenkins says. "The record is stuff you can sing on Sunday morning."
As a musician and songwriter, Jenkins founded Chicago's own Joshua's Troop, and has collaborated with a stellar array of producers and artists. He also wrote "You've Been A Friend" on Israel & New Breed's Grammy-winning Live in South Africa CD. The recording will take place Sunday, May 30, 2010 @ 6:00 p.m. at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, 4543 South Princeton Avenue, Chicago, IL 60609. Admission is free.
Through the years, Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church has become known as The Ship because of Evans' longtime quote: "Its a friendship, its a kinship, its a relationship, what a fellowship, all aboard come on let's go to the other side." Now, after nearly 10 years of new leadership and 9,000 new members, The Ship reemerges and introduces a new generation in gospel music for all to enjoy
27 окт 2024
