Sampson Gospel Sing endures

The annual Sampson County Gospel Sing will be a little different this year, changed to a Facebook Live event to ensure safety during a COVID-19 world.

People can visit the Facebook page and listen to Southern Gospel music live this Saturday, Sept. 26 starting at 5 p.m.

The Annual Gospel Sing will hand out the Sampson County Gospel Music Hall of Fame Award before the Dixie Travelers kick off the slate.

The lineup this year also consists of The ViewMasters, Carolina Tradition Classic Gospel Group, Kingsway Quartet, the New Bethel Quartet, the Marksmen Quartet and His Voice. Each group will be brought in individually on Thursday and Friday and they will be filmed performing their set ahead of time.

According to Gospel Sing board member Robin Owen, there is an older crowd that enjoys coming to the event and the board wanted a safe option to still be able to provide the event so they thought of the idea to put it on Facebook Live.

“The groups will be filming at Zoar PFWB Church,” Owen stated. “However, we will not be having an audience. We’re just looking forward to being able to share the music again this year due to this severe pandemic we’ve been going through this year.”

The board member explained that they will be filming on the days leading up to Saturday. Once she gets everything filmed, she will take it into production, set it up and get it ready to air on Saturday on Facebook.

Owen stated that there are not many events out there that have endured for more than a century. She added that it is one of the only events that has been a long-standing Gospel music event.

“It’s just a joy to be able to spread God’s word,” Owen added. “One way of spreading God’s word is through music.”

This year will be the 102nd Gospel Sing event. The sing has actually been around for longer than that, starting in 1915.

W.F. Sessoms began a county-wide sing, where he invited several choirs to come out to the Baptist church in Clinton. The sing moved locations over the next few years, eventually taking place at the Sampson County Courthouse. The sing was kept there for the first 35 years, with the exception of 1940. The sing was even known as the Sampson County Courthouse Sing.

The annual sing became known as the Fleet Sessoms Sing from 1960 until 1968, although it was still held at the courthouse. In 1968, the sing was moved to the Roseboro-Salemburg gym but was moved back the following year.

The Gospel sing moved locations several times, calling Clinton High School, Roseboro’s Fellowship Tabernacle, North Carolina Justice Academy campus, and the Clinton-Sampson Agri-Exposition Center home at one point.

Owen explained that not many things have stopped this event over the years except for some hurricanes. She stated that the board wasn’t going to let a pandemic get in their way.

“We still wanted to bring that joy and spread God’s word to people like we do every year through the Southern Gospel music,” Owen commented. “And we felt through the times changing that bringing it to the internet, Facebook Live, would be our next step to be able to carry on this year through this pandemic.”

The board member added that some people have not been able to go to church through this pandemic and social media has been one way they have been able to continue to get God’s word.

Board members had been planning this year’s event before the pandemic hit but they have been taking it day by day. They determined this month that they were going to host the event on Facebook Live since Owen stated the board felt it was still unsafe for people to get together for an event.

“We just sort of went day by day,” Owen stated. “Every month that it grew closer, we were talking to the board members and getting their input on it and what we were gonna be able to do. We were either gonna have to do it on Facebook Live or we were gonna have to cancel it and we did not want to have to cancel it. So we said we were going to social media.”

The board held their first meeting in March and contacted previous singers to see if they wanted to perform again this year. There will be a memorial service that will honor past board members who have passed away.

“We’re just honored that we’ll be able to at least live stream this event to get it out to others instead of having to cancel it,” Owen stated. “We’re trying to do the best we can and still do the activities that we need to do with the Gospel Sing.”

Owen is hoping that the family members of the older generations will help them get on social media to view the event. Owen’s main goal is to gain a large following for the event on Facebook on Saturday.

Millard T. Owen III, the president of the board, might make the closing remarks of the night. Last year, the board recognized Henry Peyton Lee, former president of the Sampson County Gospel Sing.

For more information, call Robin Owen, at 910-742-8023. View the live stream on https://www.facebook.com/sampsoncountygospelsing.