by Calvin Terrell
(excerpted from the March 2009 isse of Sister 2 Sister magazine) 

Ever since I’ve known about him, he has been the truth. That’s what I have to say about Pastor Hezekiah Walker. How cool is he? Well, when S2S Publisher Jamie Foster Brown first asked me to write a gospel column for this magazine, she wanted to know the real deal in gospel. I cannot forget her words: “What really goes on in the lives of these people, Calvin? I know they sing and pray and all that, but don’t they have s$@# that happens in their lives and things that go wrong? How do they deal with that?”

It was funny, but just like Jamie, it was real. I can say the same about Pastor Walker. He was among the first to pull me to the side and ask me to put down my ink pen and my camera. He was among the first to invite me to his home and say I want you to chill and just hang out! I never forgot his compassion. I also cannot forget that when it comes to singing about the glory of God, Hez’s motto is, “You can’t be too cute.”

Pastor Walker and his Love Fellowship Choir have a new CD called Souled Out. It is Hezekiah’s 13th in more than 20 years in the recording business. “We’re trying to keep choirs alive,” Hezekiah said. “Everyone’s trying to do away with choirs, but you can’t delete choirs. As long as there’s a church, there’s always going to be a choir.” That may sound fancy, but sometimes it ain’t. Pastor Walker will get downright ugly and ghetto with it. I’ve seen him lead his choir in church, but they couldn’t see him, so he stood on one of the pews and directed the choir like nobody’s business. “In this day— with high gas prices, the mortgage crisis, job problems, the economy—a lot of things can really hold people back from giving themselves to God and to the church,” he said. “We decided that regardless of what we go through, we’re still going to remain ‘souled out.’” And why not? Why not try God? It seems like we’re willing to try other things: drugs, that girl or that guy or … . “We’re going all the way with this Jesus thing,” he proclaimed.

When Hezekiah was 8 years old, he was listening to some of the music his mother was playing and it brought tears to his eyes. He said, “I made up in my mind from that point that I was going to sing music that was going to touch people like that.” And he has! His discography includes the hits “I’ll Make It,” “Second Chance” (shout-out to Monique), “Jesus Is My Help” and “I Need You to Survive.” That’s just some of Pastor Hez’s hits. His latest disc was recorded at the Love Fellowship Tabernacle in Bensalem, Pennsylvania and contains the hit “God Favored Me.” “That’s the story of my life,” Pastor Walker said. “And the story of most people’s lives—that the favor of the Lord is on our side. Because of God’s favor, we have reached heights unknown and undreamed of.” Other songs on the CD include “O Give Thanks,” “Keep Moving On” and “All of My Help.”

When Pastor Hez isn’t preaching at Love Fellowship in New York or Pennsylvania, he can be heard on WLIB in New York. “I realized that I’d been limiting the world to the circle that I’m accustomed to,” he said. “The Lord has been teaching me that the world is much bigger.”

Pick up the March 2009 issue of Sister 2 Sister magazine to read about Gabriel Hardeman's battle with interstitial fibrosis.

Photo courtesy Zomba Gospel