Derrick Thompson is trying to decide what he’ll sing on Sunday, Feb. 25 at Sweet Briar’s annual Gospel Fest. When you’re “telling the word of God through song,” as he puts it, it’s serious business.

“Before I really decide on what I want to sing I look around and see what has taken place and try to find songs that will encourage anyone no matter what they may be going through,” the 21-year-old Lynchburg College student said.

Featuring Thompson and about a dozen of the area’s best gospel choirs and singers, the concert will begin at 5 p.m. in Memorial Chapel at Sweet Briar College. The public is invited and admission is free.

Sweet Briar’s chaplain’s office – more specifically, the Sweet Spirits – heads up the event, contacting choirs, organizing a reception and emceeing the concert. According to Chaplain Adam White, Gospel Fest is the service organization’s primary project after the winter break.

“It gives them an opportunity to be involved with the planning and orchestration of a public event [and] allows them to get experience in networking with faith communities and the musicians who serve those faith communities,” White said.

White also sees Gospel Fest as a “town and gown” event, a good opportunity for the Sweet Briar community to interact with people from the surrounding area. “It links what is seen as a cloistered, academic community with the broader community and its cultural expression and fuses them together,” he explained.

For Thompson, Gospel Fest also is an opportunity to thank God for his blessings. “Overall, to me, singing gospel music is my way of giving praise to God for what he has done and is continuing to do in my life because I know that none of this is possible without him,” he said.

It is the Amherst native’s fourth year performing at Gospel Fest, a tradition that began when his baritone crooning caught the ear of someone at Sweet Briar.

“My mother came home from the store one day and said, ‘I talked to a lady from Sweet Briar who heard you sing and she wants you to come sing for the Gospel Fest,’ ” he recalled. “I received the invite in the mail, accepted and made sure that Gospel Fest is something I attend every year.”

In addition to Thompson, this year’s program includes the Saint Mark Mass Choir, Youth for Truth, Spirit, Pearlie G. Sandidge, Ameka Cruz and Helen Cobbs, God’s Disciples, New Jerusalem Men’s Chorus, Pine Hill Male Chorus, Oak Hill Mass Choir, and Scott Zion’s Men’s Chorus.

The snow date for Gospel Fest is March 4. For more information, contact the chaplain’s office at richeson@sbc.edu or (434) 381-6103.

— By Suzanne Ramsey, SBC staff writer