God Puts Everyone In Our Life For A Reason
What does lineage mean to you? Honoring our lineages, familial and non-familial, is one way we can express sacred gratitude for the people God has put in our lives. Who in your lineage inspires you?

Many people call Thomas Dorsey the “father of gospel music.”
Although Dorsey deserves his flowers, so does the man whose music so deeply inspired him. Charles Tindley, the “grandfather of gospel music,” was born in 1851. He was an orphan by the time he was five. By age 17, he had taught himself to read. Soon after he accepted a position as a janitor in a Methodist church in Philadelphia.
Tindley began composing his own hymns while studying for the ministry. In Philadelphia. Dorsey first heard Tindley's music and was inspired.
Moved by Tindley’s hymns, Dorsey began composing his own, blending hymns and Negro spirituals with somber blues notes and exciting jazz riffs. This became gospel music.
During the Great Migration, when our people asserted their agency and faith, Tindley’s congregation grew to over 10,000. When Tindley died in 1933, he left behind 47 of gospel’s original hymns.
His song “I’ll Overcome Someday,” would inspire the civil rights anthem, “We Shall Overcome.”
When asked to discuss his impact, Dorsey always credited Tindley as a major influence in his musical lineage. Naming our lineages, familial and non-familial, is such important legacy work.
Who in your lineage inspires you? Be sure and credit them in ways that preserve their legacy for future generations.
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