Christian music concert, featuring Phil Wickham, seeks to bring people together

One of the biggest names in contemporary Christian music is making a tour stop in Raleigh.

Phil Wickham is performing at Crossroads Fellowship Church on March 16. Wickham is a singer-songwriter who grew up in a family of Christian musicians and released his first independent work in 2003.

“Artistically he is someone, if you are in and around Christian music at all, you’ve heard him through 'This is Amazing Grace' and 'Your Love Awakens Me,'" said Jason Wall, co-founder of Little Flower Events, a High Point-based company that promotes contemporary Christian music.

“He is very much a worship artist and very much loves leading the church into worship," Wall said. "It’s a really awesome experience to see him in a live setting, because he’s so good at drawing the audience into a moment to encounter and have that moment with the Holy Spirit.”

Wickham will be joined at this appearance by Micah Tyler, a former youth pastor who has decided to pursue Christian music full-time. Dana Catherine, a singer, songwriter, speaker and youth pastor in Raleigh, also will perform.

“Today’s Christian music is current and relatable, and it gives people an opportunity to come together and worship as one, to be one body and fulfill what Christ hoped, for us all,” Wall said.

Wall and his wife, Rachel, created Little Flower Events, as a way to promote contemporary Christian musicians and get them and their message in front of audiences. Little Flower Events is named after Saint Therese de Lisieux, a 19th century French nun who joined the convent at a young age and is honored for her steadfast devotion to Jesus.

“Music, and the arts in general, have always been a mechanism for trying to express the greatness and the glory of God,” Jason Wall said. “In a world where we are constantly separated from one another by cell phones and Facebook and all those things, we are more connected and yet more disconnected at the same time. These opportunities to come together in fellowship and worship together through this music we can all relate to, is critical to our expression of what it means to be made in God’s image.”

Tickets for the concert are available at  crossroads.org/phil-wickham or at the church’s front desk. The concert is at 7 p.m. at Crossroads Fellowship Church, 2721 East Millbrook Road in Raleigh.

Hayes Barton recital

Hayes Barton United Methodist Church in Raleigh is featuring its own Stephen Aber in recital on Sunday, March 18. Aber is a recitalist, accompanist, conductor and composer who promotes the use of the pipe organ in modern-day music.

During the recital he will play the church’s 3,000-pipe Buzard Organ along with a Steinway Grand Piano as he performs Lenten hymns, organ monuments and mashups of music scores.

The recital is free and open to the public on March 18 at 3 p.m. A reception will follow. Hayes Barton United Methodist Church is at 2209 Fairview Road in Raleigh.

This story was originally published March 13, 2018 at 5:23 PM with the headline "Christian music concert, featuring Phil Wickham, seeks to bring people together."