Bishop Kenneth C. Ulmer talks about all three in an interview before a musical tribute to the late Billy Preston
By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries
Great Western Forum, home of Faithful Central Bible ChurchINGLEWOOD, CA (ANS) -- The evening of Tuesday, June 20, was one that all those who packed into Faithful Central Bible Church's Tabernacle Worship Center in Inglewood, California, will always remember.
Billy Preston with Ringo Starr (AP Photo)They were gathered there to celebrate the musical legacy of Billy Preston, who died June 6 in Scottsdale, Ariz., at age 59. He had battled chronic kidney failure, received a kidney transplant in 2002 and had been in a coma since November.
At the event, Joe Cocker sang, Little Richard reminisced, and hundreds of friends and relatives gathered to pay tribute to the man that many called “The Fifth Beatle” because of his work with the Fab Four from Liverpool.
“He [Billy Preston) made that piano walk and talk," said Little Richard, who had discovered Preston, then in high school, and took him on tour in the early 1960s where he introduced the young prodigy to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
"There's nobody in this world who could play the piano like Billy Preston,” Little Richard told the crowd. “He never got the credit he deserved. He made other people look good."
Bishop Kenneth C. Ulmer
Earlier, Joe Cocker brought emotional shouts and thunderous applause when he sang the ballad "You Are So Beautiful," which Preston wrote but was made famous by the raspy-voiced British singer from Sheffield.
Before it all began, I was able to talk with Bishop Kenneth C. Ulmer, senior pastor of the Faithful Central Bible Church, about his friendship with Preston as well as the time he once played for Mahalia Jackson, the legendary black Gospel singer, whom I once had the privilege of interviewing in London, England.
Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior
Dan Wooding, in background, with Mahalia Jackson
“I was a musician for the Bethlehem Baptist Church in St. Louis, Missouri, which was pastored at the time by a renowned gospel singer by the name of Reverend Cleophus Robinson,” said Bishop Ulmer. “I was only about fifteen years old and Miss Jackson had come to St. Louis to do a concert and her musician was late arriving at the arena. She was about to go on and sing A Cappella and my pastor called Mahalia and told her that I could play for her. Miss Jackson looked at me and said, ‘Young man, can you play? I said, ‘Yes maam.’ She then said, ‘Let’s go,’ and I played one song, ‘Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior’ with Mahalia Jackson, which I guess was the highlight of my musical career.
“She was a great lady of gospel; a great lady of the Church; and she there was actually a period in her life -- in her career -- where she was accompanied and worked with Billy Preston whose funeral we are and life we’re celebrating now in Los Angeles. Billy played with her for a while and was on the road with her and worked with her for an extended period of time, while I only played one song.”
Bishop Ulmer then spoke about Billy Preston.
“Billy and I were friends -- actually pretty good friends -- through the gospel music circuit. I was a part of an organization called the Gospel Music Workshop Of America. Actually I still and I’m on the board of directors. Billy was in and out of that for many years. He was one of the musicians who played for the founder of that group, the Reverend James Cleveland. In fact, Billy Preston played organ and piano for just about every big name that you could mention in the sixties and seventies. But I knew him through the gospel music circuit.”
Bishop Ulmer described Preston as “probably one of the most gifted and talented musicians of our time.”
The Fifth Beatle
He went on to say, “I guess, like your life and mine, after being in the church, he moved into the secular world and, as you know, many have come to refer to him as the ‘Fifth Beatle,’ having worked with The Beatles on many of their recordings and particularly on the road and on their tours. He was a tremendously gifted musician.”
I asked Bishop Ulmer if Billy Preston ever sought his counsel when he was going through his difficult times.
“Not so much that,” he said. “We weren’t friends on that level, but I can remember one time when he had been through a bit of trouble and he came one Sunday just to worship. There was no fanfare or no requests at all. Afterwards, when we spoke, he said, ‘Man, I’m on my way back up. Please pray for me.’
“Like many of us, Billy was on the road walking with the Lord and he went through some turbulent and rough times, but he always bounced back and he never lost his love for the Lord even though there were times when it seemed as if he’d walked far from the Lord. He was a brother who loved the Lord and whose gift the Lord used in many ways.”
Bishop Ulmer went on to say, “Billy was a great example of both the potential, and the danger, of being gifted in a world that is often insensitive to the person who has ‘the gift.’ He lived in a culture that exploits the person in order to benefit from ‘the gift.’ I think that he, many times, was a light shining in darkness and there were times when the darkness maybe overcame his light and his light flickered, but his light never went out.
“He is a testimony of how a ‘gift’ can be used in various circles and yet that there are dangers that go along with that.”
The Great Western Forum
Bishop Ulmer then spoke about the purchase of the 17,500-seater Great Western Forum in Inglewood. “About four five years ago, our church was led by the Lord, and the Lord made the way, for us to purchase the former home of the Los Angeles Lakers -- the Great Western Forum,” he said. “We have our services there every Sunday morning and the Lord is moving in a mighty way. It was really a part of what I believe is God’s call on our church, and our ministry, to move into and to be an influence, we pray, in the entertainment industry.
“We bought the building, not to turn it into a church physically and put a steeple on top of it, whatever, but to have worship there and also to use it as a commercial entity to provide entertainment and concerts, but most of all as a venue and an opportunity to move into the entertainment industry.”
Bishop Ulmer said that although the Church in America is still often divided along racial lines, he believes things are changing and he hopes that the services at the Great Western Forum can play a role in this.
“When we bought The Forum, we felt, and we still believe, that part of purchasing that building and its location relative to southern California; its accessibility to the various the main freeway arteries; moved us further into God’s call and mandate for our church to be more and more multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural.
A church like that on the Day of Pentecost
“As we speak, this is an ongoing prayer, that God would make our church more diverse; that we might demonstrate to the world what the church looked like on the Day of Pentecost when those who heard the Gospel were from countries from all over the then known world. Actually, we struggle with it because I don’t really know we don’t really know how to do it and we’re trusting God to open doors, and we’re trusting God to honor our heart to display the diversity within the unity of the body of Christ.”
I concluded by asking Bishop Ulmer what his prayer needs were at this time.
“I really would appreciate much prayer because I believe that our church is standing on a mighty powerful opportunity,” he said. “When we bought The Forum, we did not buy it to turn it into a physical building of a church per say, where people think of a church building, but it is merely a tool to reach this community and also to reach into the entertainment community and to serve economically our community.
Light in the darkness
“So I would really like that people would pray for me for wisdom…we allow secular acts to come in that building and we’ve taken a lot of hits on that; a lot of criticism, because many do not understand the call that we have to enter into that industry.
“But I believe that rather than curse the darkness and throw rocks, we are called to be light in that darkness. Every act that comes into that building is on our prayer list.”
With that, Bishop Ulmer had to end the interview, to go into his worship center to introduce the musical tribute to Billy Preston, and that’s where I believe we came in…
Note: I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.
Dan Wooding is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. danjuma1@aol.com. (Photo of Dan Wooding: Raul Gonzalez)
** You may republish this story with proper attribution.
Send this story to a friend. ASSIST News Service is brought to you in part by Gospel for Asia (GFA). Gospel for Asia's passion is to plant churches among the world's most unreached peoples - those who have never heard a Gospel message. More than 15,000 native missionaries are now on the field with more than 29,000 churches planted in 10 Asian nations. You can help sponsor a native missionary for less than a dollar a day. Gospel for Asia is currently working to relieve the poverty and hopelessness of the Dalit communities by reaching out to Dalit children with food, clothing, and an education - all through the love of Jesus Christ. To learn more about GFA and their work among the Dalits (Untouchables) of India please go to their website at www.gfa.org or in North America call 1-800-WIN-ASIA.
ASSIST News Service is brought to you free of charge and is supported by friends like yourself. If you would like to make a donation (tax-deductible in the US) to help us continue this service around the world, you can do so by logging onto our website -- www.assistnews.net -- and making the donation by credit card or by sending a check to ASSIST, PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA .
>>Visit http://www.PrayForSurf.net for more "stuff"
No comments:
Post a Comment