On Saturday, Aug. 16, Pell City will play host to the first of what will hopefully be an annual daylong free concert featuring inspirational Christian performances covering a wide variety of artistic styles.
According to the event’s Web site, “Ignite ’08 is a one-day outdoor Christian concert/outreach event focused on bringing people in our community and surrounding areas together to worship Jesus Christ. Our goal is to ignite a flame of worship throughout Pell City that will bring glory to God and spread like a consuming fire through this state and ultimately this great nation. Our target audience is junior high through college and young adults, but all are invited to attend regardless of denomination, age or culture.”
Various area churches will sponsor booths providing free food and drinks for everyone in attendance.
The primary organizers of the event, J.J. Dubose and Kerry Hollis, are both musicians themselves and both harbored dreams of bringing their individual experiences at outdoor Christian concerts in other places back home to Pell City, according to the history section of the Web site.
“After many years of dreaming on their own, God finally put them together on the contemporary worship team at First Baptist Church in Pell City. Sharing the same ambition, they finally put their heads together and in April 2008 began the planning of the event. In their first official meeting, still searching for a name, their good friend Kenny Martin suggested a name for the event that has now become Ignite ’08.”
With the blessing of their pastor, John Thweatt, First Baptist Church agreed to take financial responsibility for the concert, and the planning in earnest got under way.
In addition to First Baptist, Victory Christian Center, Harvest Center, Cropwell Baptist Church, New Hope Baptist Church, Seddon Baptist Church, Abundant Life Family Fellowship, Lakeside Presbyterian Church, Eden Westside Baptist Church, the Epicenter in Odenville, Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church, Coosa Valley Baptist Church, Mt. Zion Baptist Church of Cropwell and Life Family Worship Center of Pell City are also sponsoring the event by providing free food and beverages.
The main entertainers for the event will be Floodgate, Short-Tee, Truth Force Strength Team and Soul Cry.
Floodgate should be well known to area Christian rock aficionados, as they have been touring the Southeast extensively for almost a decade and have played shows in the area before. They are also frequently heard on Christian radio and have released several CDs. They have collaborated with artists that include David Crowder, Big Daddy Weave, Skillet, Todd Agnew, Salvador, Phil Driscoll and the Newsboys, among others.
Short-Tee of Birmingham is “the ordained pastor of the Alternative Hip-Hop Church, a branch of the More Than Conquers Faith Church in Birmingham,” according to a press bio. His ministry involves rapping, dancing, singing and evangelizing, and he has performed everywhere from churches to prisons to housing projects to college campuses.
The Truth Force Strength Team is not a musical act per se, but rather a group assembled by Pastor Zac Clay that puts on “Massive demonstrations of strength that include crushing walls of concrete blocks with their arms, hands and heads, snapping baseball bats, ripping phone books in half, bending steel bars, squeezing soda cans until they explode and lifting with heavy weights up to 600 pounds,” according to their press bio.
Soul Cry’s bio states that the group has “a unique style that comprises technical play with unrefined rock. Lyrically, they pride themselves in writing songs that share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Soul Cry also performs a wide variety of praise and worship songs as well as up-date favorites.” The bands first single, “All I Want,” was recently released on Alexis Records.
In addition to the headliners, drama teams from First Baptist Church of Pell City, Victory Christian Center, Harvest Center, Cropwell Baptist Church, New Hope Baptist Church, the Church at Bradford Road in Springville and First Methodist Church of Pell City will perform as well. The dance team from Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Cropwell is also on the bill, along with musical performances by the White Brothers, Exit 158 and Seth Brasher.
Thweatt and Jeff Huey of Extreme Ministries in Pell City will be the guest speakers, and Christian radio personality Ronnie Bruce will be the guest host.
For more information, please visit www.ignitepellcity.com.
