By Sym Posey | The Birmingham Times
For Michael Mays, Minister of Music at New Hope Baptist Church in West End, inheriting a music department with a long and stellar history in the state of Alabama is not only a privilege but an honor.
Earlier this year, New Hope was named the nation’s best choir at the highly competitive Sound Awards in Dallas.
“It was truly a blessing,” Mays told the Birmingham Times. “Over 25 choirs across the nation hand selected by the Sound Awards competed [and] New Hope’s Choir was the only choir from Alabama selected for the Church of the Year category.
“To just be acknowledged and as the only choir in Alabama, then to go on and win the whole entire thing, with some prestigious churches and music ministries that was nominated as well. That was truly a great honor to receive that,” Mays said.
Before becoming music minster at New Hope in 2022, Mays played the piano and drums after joining as a member in 2008 under the legendary Dr. Prince Emmanuel Yelder, who served as music minister at New Hope from 2001-2017.
“I learned a lot, just already being in the House, just being a musician,” Mays said. “… [Yelder] showed me a lot of ways how to do music ministry and handle a whole mass choir. And to be able to come back and actually be the minister of music, I already knew how this House worked, I already knew how Pastor Clarke worked.”
Yelder said Mays was always a quick study and energetic. “He brought his excitement to the worship experience, often dancing and engaging the congregation in popular tunes.”
Yelder remembers when Mays’s mom would bring her son to rehearsals when she was a member of Birmingham Mass Choir, which Yelder directed. “Mike, as we call him, would be at the rehearsal and finally got up the nerve to ask me if he could play the drums in our rehearsals. I told him ‘yes’ and he began to play.
“A few years later, I was doing a recording with the Jacksonville State University Gospel Choir as their producer and there was Mike singing with that choir as he had started attending school there. He had begun to play keyboard instruments and direct. I saw growth and potential in him. I pulled him aside and offered him a position as musician at New Hope.”
“Magnetic”
Dr. Gregory L. Clarke has served as the pastor of New Hope Baptist Church since 1986 and in 2022 selected Mays for the role of Minister of Music, making Mays just the third person to hold the position under Clarke.
“Over 39 years I’ve only had three ministers of music,” Clarke said. “So, I have had stability when it comes to the choir. Mike is an extraordinary musician, but he also brings passion with whatever he does. His passion and his gifts are contagious. That is what spreads across to all the members of the church and in the congregation, whether it is this congregation or we are in front of another.”
Clarke describes Mays as “magnetic.”
“It takes a special type of anointing to do the quality of music that we are talking about,” said the pastor. “As the minister of music, he is not only over the mass choir, but also over our praise group, ‘Spirit of Levi.’ He also has a male chorus, and he also has all of our dance teams that includes mimes, youth, and adult praise teams.”
On Sunday, August 3, Mays celebrated his third anniversary as the Minister of Music. “And it has been a blessing,” he said. “We went from about 15 to about 40 choir members. We have a full band. It is exciting to be a part of.”
Natural Born Musician
As a Birmingham-native, Mays, 36, said his passion for music began at an early age.
“I think I I was born to do music,” he said. “Even when I was two years old, I would just pick up anything just to make a beat, and then it just started going from there. I wanted to learn how to play the piano, so I started taking piano lessons and it just [grew] from there.”
He attended Huffman High School where he led the band as drum major in 2006 and a member of the drumline in 2007.
Mays not only lends his gifts to New Hope Baptist Church but always to several high school marching bands. “I work out with Birmingham City School Marching bands. I have worked out with Ramsay High School, Clay Chalkville, and I have worked out with Minor High School,” said Mays.
Every first and third Sunday, the mass choir performs at New Hope Baptist Church.
“Usually, we meet on Tuesdays at 7 o’clock,” said Mays. “When we are getting ready for a concert, like one that we usually do in October called, Music and Cultural Arts Ministry (MACAM) concert. Usually when we are getting ready for that, you can catch us rehearing every week as we are preparing for that. “
MACAM is New Hope’s annual concert that celebrates the whole music culture arts.
“This year we’re doing the fourth Sunday in October. So we’re going to close out here in Birmingham, of course, we do the [Magic City] Classic weekend, which is that Saturday. We’re going to close it out that Sunday by doing our concert.”
Mays said his main goal overall is to continue the legacy set before him.
“Hopefully I can keep the mantle going so I can pass it down to the next person, and the legacy keeps going about the New Hope Choir,” he said.
For more New Hope Baptist Church, visit the group on Facebook at: https://thehopebham.com/media/
