Minister Sebrenah Phillips of DaySpring Baptist Church in NE Gainesville to host gospel concert

Cleveland Tinker, The Gainesville Sun
Updated ·2 min read

Minister Sebrenah Phillips will share her God-given talents with the community during a gospel concert to raise funds for a worthy cause.

Billed as the “Yielded to Minister: A Gospel Concert,” it will be held at 7 p.m. July 22 at Williams Temple Church of God in Christ at 628 NW Seventh Ave.

“It’s being held to minister to the community my spiritual and vocal gifts to render deliverance, healing for the soul, mind and body,” said Phillips, an ordained minister who serves on the clergy at DaySpring Baptist Church in northeast Gainesville.

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The concert will be free, but a love offering will be collected with some of the proceeds going to benefit the Positives Empowering Positives (PEP) Support and Outreach Group that was founded in 2005 by Teresa White, who was then the regional minority AIDS coordinator at the Alachua County Health Department.

“I’ve been supporting PEP for 10 to 15 years,” Phillips said. “I was previously an HIV/AIDS educator and counselor, and I was drawn to help people living with HIV and AIDS because they don’t receive a lot of love from others because of their status.”

People living with HIV/AIDS are human just like anyone else and have needs that should be met just like anyone else, “without prejudice,” Phillips said.

One of the people Phillips has helped with their journey living with HIV/AIDS is Marvene Edwards, longtime president of PEP who has lived with the illness since being diagnosed with it in 1987.

"I appreciate what she is doing very much," said Edwards, 67. "She was one of my counselors many years ago and she encouraged me to understand and respect the woman that God created me to be. She stands up for the little person in more ways than one. She will pray with and for you, feed you and do whatever she can to help you meet the needs that you need help meeting."

The Lord inspired Phillips to organize the concert because she had not been using her gifts in recent years, Phillips said.

"This is overdue for me," Phillips said.

The concert will feature singing, liturgical dancing, giveaways and a lot of praising the Lord, Phillips said.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Sebrenah Phillips to host concert at Williams Temple COGIC in Gainesville