Allan Appel Photo
Pastor Valerie Washington frequently tells the story of how David calmed Saul’s agitation — some interpreters call it mental illness—with the playing of his lyre.
In a storefront church on Whalley Avenue, her little congregation is putting that into practice: making a big noise for God through a practical and spiritual ministry that comforts hurting people with the healing power of music.
The nine-year old Upon This Rock Ministries congregation, about 65 congregants strong, assembled Sunday morning at its house of worship at the corner of Whalley Avenue and Brownell Street.
As people gathered in their Sunday best, church keyboardist Devonne Epps, with his son Davionne on drums, kept a foot-tapping gospel rhythm. Click on the video for a taste.
It was a soaring sound, slow but also driven and yearning, as if James Brown had dropped down into the little church on Whalley, only with wings.
As the music directed them, Evangelist Estella Matthews and Sister Alexis Powell led a song of praise, a warm up of what was to come.
An usher in all white (including gloves) distributed tissues by the handful to the congregants she seated. As people stood, clapped, swayed, danced, and repeatedly raised their right hands at an angle to the sky in a gesture of acknowledgement to God, she estimated it would be a four or five-tissue box day.
“We ‘re a church of deliverance,” said Rosa McCoter, a former banker who serves as the church’s overseer. “We believe people should come up from poverty, from drugs, and from feeling bad about themselves.”
The church runs a twice-a-week clothing giveaway and on every third Saturday of the month a big food pantry. The most powerful arrow in the church’s quiver is music. It both draws people in and then helps worshippers to shed grief, anxiety, or pain through the almost ecstatic release of bad emotion in sweat-inducing song and dance.
“We don’t want them to come and stay the same,” said Washington.
As the pastor (pictured) walked in and took her place on the stage, she joined the chant: “Precious love, this is his praise.” Epps launched into a freelance combination of “traditional hymns, gospel music, and contemporary Christian praise music.”
Church music often illustrates or captions language; the reverse was true here. The music paused only for brief intervals, with the words always seeming to ride on the waves of rhythmic sound, as if driven by it.
To the rising cresecendo of Epps’s music, Washington called out, “Hallelujah, come in, worshippers! Let’s reach for His presence.”
“The presence of the Lord,” went the refrain, as Epps visually signaled to his son to up the tempo on the drums.
Epps (pictured) studied for several years at Educational Center for the Arts as well as playing at the Deliverance Temple on Congress Avenue. He said he doesn’t so much chooses the music, as it chooses him.
“I just ask God to lead me. I pour it into the atmosphere so that it serves what’s going on,” Epps said.
“The anointing of God is in the music. It’s scriptural,” Pastor Washington added.
“If I’m depressed … As a pastor I carry a lot, and then I hear Brother Devonne play, and I feel better. He knows it and he adjusts the music. The Lord will touch his heart to play certain tunes that help us. People are crying and hollering ‘I’m free’ and nobody’s touching them.’”
Because the church teaches that it should bring such deliverance to others, the doors were thrown open and an amplifier set up on Whalley Avenue as the singing surged.
“The presence of the Lord,” people sang out to the Epps’s music. Washington added: “The sick are made well.”
“The presence of the Lord!”
“The blind see.”
“The presence of the Lord.”
“On the street we need His presence. We are your people, we need your presence.”
“The presence of the Lord.”
“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Look to your neighbor and say, ‘I hope you came to bring some noise. We don’t mind you coming in one way but we won’t leave the same way,” she called out.
“Hallelujah, hallelujah,” the congregation returned her words.
“Joy, joy, joy,” Washington added. “This is the place you can scream and holler and you won’t be declared insane.”
Washington was a youth minister at Deliverance Temple on Congress Avenue in the Hill for many years until she established Upon This Rock Ministries. She said her musical band was small, but it played like a symphony.
Every Friday night her current congregants take their service right out onto the sidewalk. Once a month they evangelize through song at the housing authority’s McConaughy Terrace development on Valley Street.
During services, where the music never ceased, Washington called out, “Are you happy? Clap your hands. Say Amen!”
“We’re a little ole church on the corner, but we serve a big God. That’s why we keep our door open.”
The major of Black Churches are Failing the Black Community.Black churches are simply not involved enough in the communities in which they are situated for.The Black Church, as a whole, must return to advocating for social justice as it did during the Civil Rights Movement. Many churches are filled with lords and hireling not Servants of the Lord. Thought Jesus said the greatest among us is the greatest servant, not those who lord it over people and their wallets.Most have become huslers.Look at Pastor's Anniversary, Pastor's Birthday, Pastor's Wife Birthday, Pastor's Anniversary, Expensive Tickets for Banquets and endless cost to attend expensive Conferences, Pastor's Appreciation, Founder's Convention, The Church Building Fund where you had to pledge money to expand the bldg. plus Tithes and Offerings.People wake up.You can pray and read your bible at home.