Jennifer Holliday doesn't take credit for pulling together a new CD project with the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church.
She gives credit to God.
"God gave me the vision," said the two-time Grammy-winning Holliday, who proposed last year that the two collaborate on an inspirational project that would use his sermons and put music and Holliday's vocals around them.
The result is a 10-track project titled "Goodness and Mercy," which is being released this week on Holliday's Euphonic Records label.
Holliday listened to many of Warnock's sermons. On planes. Before sound check. As she put on her makeup. Before going to bed. "I listened to them pretty much all the time," said Holliday. "I really enjoyed them. I was able to soak in quite a bit."
His sermonettes include "The Lord Is My Shepherd," "Faithfulness in a Desperate Time" and "Hope on Trial."
The two wanted the project to be relevant to people who are "unchurched" as well as those who fill the pews every Sunday, said Holilday, who is a member of Ebenezer and is best known for her role of Effie in "Dreamgirls," the Broadway show that earned her a Tony Award. They hope the project will inspire people as well as provide practical teachings for daily living and to help them get through the down times.
"Jennifer is a secular artist, but she is a Christian woman," said Warnock, in explaining why he decided to participate in the project. "What I've tried to do in my ministry is embrace our artists" whether they're sacred or secular.
"People are speaking to God in their own voice," said Warnock, a graduate of Morehouse College who came in 2005 to the historic church once pastored by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. "Unlike Jennifer Holliday, many have no roots in the church."
"God is good news," said Warnock. "He is relevant today." Warnock's sermons are taken from those he actually delivered in church. He never went into a recording studio. Some sermons, though, were combined or tweaked.
Holliday joined the church in 2009 after watching Warnock on television. She called him and said she wanted to be a member. "I was humbled that someone of her stature called me to say she had been watching me on TV and that she was coming to join," he said.
Working on the project has made Holliday, who has experienced health struggles and battled depression, stronger in her faith.
"I also had to do a lot of study and talking with God myself," she said.
It was also hard for Warnock, whose 93-year-old father died as the project was nearing completion.
He said now that the "project was guided by the Spirit" and that the spirit of his father, a Pentecostal preacher, was watching over them. "Because of him, I am," Warnock writes in the liner notes.
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