It wasn’t a musical concert, but a special Men’s Day Service that brought Bishop Marvin L. Winans of the famed Winans family and The Winans group of Detroit to Pittsburgh.
The invitation was extended by the Council of Christian Men of Pentecostal Temple COGIC Church in East Liberty.
He presented a classic gospel message entitled “Preach,” taken from the New Testament book of Titus in the Holy Bible. In his sermon, Bishop Winans stated that though this is a society filled with information derived from multi-media, he cautioned Christian believers not to trade googled facts or politically corrected and government legislated acts for the revelation of God’s Word. He further stated that as followers of Christ, one cannot allow themselves to succumb to the pressures of acceptable ideologies of sin and though the methodology of preaching may have changed, the gospel message should not be compromised.
Quoting from the sixth chapter of the Epistle of Galatians,Bishop Winans emphasized that Jesus told his disciples to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” and that we should continue to preach “sound gospel,” the message of salvation, mercy, healing, abundance, blessings, wealth, etc., and that believers must allow the Holy Spirit to give the revelation of the truth of the gospel so that the world might see God’s word manifested. He ended his sermon to a spiritually exuberant crowd as he challenged and deputized all believers present to “preach the word!”
Soloist
The expectant audience was filled with anticipation, hoping for just a chord or two from any one of the gospel songs he’s known for serenading, however, the focus and purpose was the spoken word and Bishop Winans would not be dissuaded.
Winans founded the Perfecting Church in 1989 in Detroit and grew it from 75 to more than 5000 today. However, he’s better known as one of the most powerful gospel singers and writers in the history of gospel music as well as one of the most successful. As the lead singer and composer for the group that included his siblings Ronald, Michael, and twin Garvin he became one if not the most noted singers in gospel music during the 1980s and 1990s.
Master of Ceremonies
(Ulish Carter contributed to this article.)
