Greater Baltimore Church Heats Things Up

The summer sun wasn’t the only reason for the hot temperatures during this past weekend’s African American Heritage Festival; the Greater Baltimore Church of Christ (GBCOC) played a major role in heating things up.

Attracting more than 300,000 people in the first year and over three million people over the past seven years, the African American Heritage Festival just keeps getting better with time and the GBCOC is becoming a strong contributor to that success. The 8th Annual festival took place July 3-5 at Oriole Park in Baltimore, MD. In addition to the new and inspiring educational exhibits, interactive children’s corner, ethnic foods and art, the festival showcased it’s first time ever regional talent competition (orchestrated by the GBCOC) and a Sunday afternoon praise and worship service (also orchestrated by the GBCOC) for the local and national festival attendees.

While past national headline artists have included Patti Labelle, India Arie, Charlie Wilson, Fantasia, Erykah Badu, Brian McKnight and Chuck Brown, this year’s event featured Anita Baker, Teena Marie, En Vogue, Raheem DeVaughn, and Tony, Toni, Tone as well as a slew of other well known local and national performing artists: Kevin McFadden, Michelle Bonilla, The N Result, Jamonne Driver, Bobby Quintin, Demerris Johnson, Dallas Church of Christ, Leslie Moore and Jerome Collins from the Chicago Church of Christ and CJay Phillip from the New York City Church of Christ.

GBCOC answered the AAHF call last year to provide a time of worship on the last day of the festival. Doug Lambert, Senior Evangelist, and Tony Martin, Artistic Worship & Encouragement (A.W.E.) Ministry Director of the GBCOC, saw the importance of the church taking a more active role in the community and are continuing their partnership with the AAHF this year. “It is an honor and a privilege to be a part of this premier event,” says Lambert, “we had people come from all over the country – we didn’t have to pay them anything – they just wanted to donate their time and talent to make this a great event.” When asked what impact GBCOC wants to make as a result of participating in the festival, Lambert responded without hesitation, “We just want to help people have better lives, better marriages, and better families.”

Tony Martin, who has worked for 15 years in the Washington DC Metropolitan area as a musical director and producer, has taken the lead in organizing the praise & worship service the last two years. Martin is skilled in planning multi-sensory worship -- designed to engage worshipper’s spirit, soul and body. “I strive to involve worship participants in heart, soul, mind and strength. It can best be described as worship that is experiential, participatory, image-rich and connective.”


This year’s service featured an inspirational message preached by James Campbell, Evangelist of the Greater Philadelphia Church of Christ, and a special HOPE worldwide Baltimore award presentation.

HOPE worldwide Baltimore, in partnership with the Greater Baltimore Church of Christ presented the first ever Community Service Award to LaRian Finney, the AAHF Foundation committee chairman and festival organizer. Finney was recognized for his many years of distinguished service and contributions made to the Baltimore community at large. "Our mission is to bring hope and change lives in Baltimore City. We could not find a more deserving person for whom we feel best shares our commitment to helping the disadvantaged," said Al Essien, Executive Director of HOPE worldwide Baltimore. LaRian Finney has worked tirelessly year after year to produce the African American Heritage Festival, an event that supports direct services and programs related to health and wellness, financial empowerment, and education.

One piece of advice Finney wants young people to remember is that “…it’s about integrity and commitment to excellence. At the end of the day our youth have to realize it’s not going to be easy and that they must be willing to make the sacrifice and commitment to succeed.”
Another “first” for this year’s AAHF was the talent competition. Tony Martin, in consultation with LaRian Finney, birthed the concept of a talent contest to showcase up & coming artists. This was the first time AAHF has ever featured such an event during the festival. Interested artists were instructed to select a song that was inspirational, profanity free and family friendly and submit a 30-second to 3-minute audition video. The talent contest was centered on theme of “Faith, Hope and Family”. Ten finalists were selected with the help of a public online voting process and performed live before three music industry judges during the festival. The first place winner, a local artist named “Lyndre”, won $500 and the opportunity to perform as the opening act for Anita Baker.

Though the AAHF is only once a year, it is quickly becoming a spark that ignites the year-round community service focus of the GBCOC. Doug Lambert and the GBCOC are dedicated to heating things up in Baltimore and participating in this annual event. “It gives our church the opportunity to show a real commitment to bringing the city together.”