Karen Wheaton | |
---|---|
Birth name | Karen A. Harris |
Also known as | Karen Harris Wheaton Karen Harris Wheaton Towe |
Born | September 30, 1960 |
Genres | Gospel |
Karen Harris Wheaton Towe is an American Pentecostal preacher, gospel singer, and recording artist based in Hamilton, Alabama, whose career has spanned the late 1970s until the present. Wheaton has been identified among notable "internationally known praise and worship artists". [1] She has toured throughout the US, performing at events that also featured preachers and Christian artists such as Jim Bakker, [2] Jimmy Swaggart, Benny Hinn, and the Gaither Homecoming. Her singing voice is classified in the Mississippi Delta style, which is fused with blues, urban contemporary gospel, and bluegrass gospel influences.
She is the founder and director of The Ramp, a youth ministry located in the city of Hamilton, Alabama. The Ramp operates with the goal of "awaken[ing] a generation", holding Christian rallies, concerts, and conferences for different groups of worshipers. [3]
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement that emphasizes direct personal experience of God through baptism with the Holy Spirit. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, an event that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles.
Snake handling, also called serpent handling, is a religious rite observed in a small number of isolated churches, mostly in the United States, usually characterized as rural and part of the Holiness movement. The practice began in the early 20th century in Appalachia and plays only a small part in the church service. Participants are Holiness, or Pentecostals. The beliefs and practices of the movement have been documented in several films and have been the impetus for a number of state laws related to the handling of venomous animals.
Contemporary Christian music (CCM), also known as Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music, is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christian faith and stylistically rooted in Christian music. It was formed by those affected by the 1960s Jesus movement revival who began to express themselves in other styles of popular music, beyond the church music of hymns, gospel and Southern gospel music that was prevalent in the church at the time. Initially referred to as Jesus music, today, the term is typically used to refer to pop, but also includes rock, alternative rock, hip hop, metal, contemporary worship, punk, hardcore punk, Latin, electronic dance music, R&B-influenced gospel, and country styles.
Maranatha! Music is a Christian music record label which was founded as a nonprofit ministry of Calvary Chapel in 1971. The label is distributed by Capitol Christian Music Group, a division of Universal Music.
Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes. Including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace. Gospel music is characterized by dominant vocals and strong use of harmony with Christian lyrics. Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century.
Jimmy Lee Swaggart is an American Pentecostal televangelist.
The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is an international Holiness–Pentecostal Christian denomination, and the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. Although an international and multi-ethnic religious organization, it has a predominantly African American membership based within the United States. The international headquarters is in Memphis, Tennessee. The current Presiding Bishop is Bishop John Drew Sheard Sr., who is the Senior Pastor of the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ of Detroit, Michigan. He was elected as the denomination's leader on March 27, 2021.
Twila Paris is a contemporary Christian music singer, songwriter, author and pianist. Since 1980, Paris has released 22 albums, amassed 33 number one Christian Radio singles, and was named the Gospel Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year three years in a row. Many of her earlier songs such as "He Is Exalted", "We Will Glorify", "Lamb of God", and "We Bow Down", are found in church hymnals or otherwise sung in church settings. She was inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in May 2015.
Rebecca Jean Fink, known professionally as Rebecca Jean or Rebecca St. James, is an Australian American contemporary Christian singer, songwriter and actress. She began performing in Australia in the late 1980s and released her first full-length studio album in 1991. She was signed to ForeFront Records in 1993, releasing her major label debut the following year.
Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence and lament, and its forms vary widely around the world. Church music, hymnals, gospel and worship music are a part of Christian media and also include contemporary Christian music which itself supports numerous Christian styles of music, including hip hop, rock, contemporary worship and urban contemporary gospel.
P'ent'ay is an originally Amharic–Tigrinya language term for Pentecostal Christians. Today, the term refers to all Evangelical Protestant denominations and organisations in Ethiopian and Eritrean societies. Alternative terms include Ethiopian–Eritrean Evangelicalism or the Ethiopian–Eritrean Evangelical Church. Sometimes the denominations and organizations are known as Wenigēlawī.
Darlene Joyce Zschech is an Australian Pentecostal Christian worship leader and singer-songwriter who primarily writes praise and worship songs. Described as a pioneer of the modern worship movement, she is the former worship pastor of Hillsong Church and currently a member of Compassionart, a charity founded by Martin Smith.
Lanny Wolfe is an American Christian music songwriter, musician, music publisher, and music educator. He has written over seven hundred songs and fourteen musicals, and has recorded over seventy projects. He won two GMA Dove Awards in 1984, for Song of the Year and Songwriter of the Year, for his song, "More Than Wonderful," a song whose recording by Sandi Patti and Larnelle Harris earned them a Grammy Award. Wolfe has written over sixty Christmas songs included in eight Christmas musicals, including "Rejoice with Exceeding Great Joy," "No Room," "Cherish That Name," "Wise Men Still Seek Him," "For God So Loved the World," and "Seeking for Me." "Rejoice with Exceeding Great Joy" is used yearly in the candle lighting ceremony at Epcot in Orlando, Florida. Wolfe's song, "Greater Is He" was used as the official closing song of the Oral Roberts Telecast which aired on 120 stations weekly for six years. His song "For God So Loved the World" was selected to be recorded by the James Cleveland's Gospel Music Workshop of America in Houston, TX in 1982, where Wolfe directed the 1500-voice gospel choir. It was also included in the Gospel Music Workshop of America's 25th Anniversary CD project; and, for the 30th anniversary of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, was chosen as one of the top five songs that had been recorded out of 450 songs from the workshop's thirty-year run. He has also served as a member of the board of directors of the Gospel Music Association.
Philip Graham Ryken is an American theologian, Presbyterian minister, and academic administrator. He is the eighth and current president of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.
The Gospel Halls are a group of independent Christian assemblies throughout the world that fellowship with each other through a set of shared Biblical doctrines and practices. Theologically, they are evangelical and dispensational. They are a conservative strand of the Open Brethren movement and tend to only collaborate with other assemblies when there is doctrinal agreement.
Toronto Mass Choir is a Canadian gospel music group that incorporates contemporary gospel, traditional gospel as well as Caribbean music influences; founded in 1988.
Kimberly Bracken Long is currently the editor of Call to Worship: Liturgy, Music, Preaching, and the Arts, the liturgy journal for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She is also the pastor of two small United Methodist churches: Antioch United Methodist Church and Spedden United Methodist Church. She was ordained as a minister of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and a professor of sacramental and liturgical worship in the tradition of the reformed church at Columbia Theological Seminary. Her work has been influential in turning greater attention towards the meaning and place of sacraments and liturgical language in worship. Her most recent work focuses on the theology and history of marriage, with a particular emphasis on inclusive marriage liturgy. She is married to professor of preaching Thomas G. Long.
Black gospel music, often called gospel music or gospel, is the traditional music of the Black diaspora in the United States. It is rooted in the conversion of enslaved Africans to Christianity, both during and after the trans-atlantic slave trade, starting with work songs sung in the fields and, later, with religious songs sung in various church settings, later classified as Negro Spirituals.
John Drew Sheard is an American pastor and minister from Detroit, Michigan, who is the current Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ, a 6 million-member predominantly African-American Holiness Pentecostal denomination that has now grown to become one of the largest African American Pentecostal denominations in the United States. He was elected as the leader of the denomination in the denomination's first ever all-virtual online election, that was held virtually online due to the COVID-19 Pandemic on March 20, 2021. He is the first Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ from the state of Michigan and is the pastor of the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ, one of the denomination's largest churches in Michigan. He also previously served as a member of the General Board, the twelve bishops who make up the national Board of Directors of the COGIC denomination, and as the president of the COGIC International Youth Department, the auxiliary ministry department of the COGIC denomination focused on youth and young adults, from 1997 to 2001, and the International President and Chairman of the COGIC Auxiliaries In Ministry (AIM) convention from 2004 to 2012.
Protestant liturgy or Evangelical liturgy is a pattern for worship used by a Protestant congregation or denomination on a regular basis. The term liturgy comes from Greek and means "public work". Liturgy is especially important in the Historical Protestant churches, both mainline and evangelical, while Baptist, Pentecostal, and nondenominational churches tend to be very flexible and in some cases have no liturgy at all. It often but not exclusively occurs on Sunday.