By CAROLINE CARMICHAEL / Staff Writer

Southern gospel Emmaus Road Quartet is rolling into Clanton on March 4 for a free concert at Walnut Creek United Methodist Church, beginning at 11 a.m.

“Music touches souls sometimes different than the spoken word can,” Pastor Leonard Howard of Walnut Creek UMC said.

Emmaus Road Quartet is a part-time traveling musical group based in Dalton, Georgia, according to its website. The group has a slight local draw for central Alabamians — its lead vocalist Chris Walton resides in Calera.

Howard said he encountered the quartet several times prior to his leadership at Walnut Creek UMC.

After serving almost three years as pastor to the Walnut Creek UMC congregation, Howard said he believes the Emmaus Road Quartet would be a good fit for entertaining church and community members.

“We’re trying to offer this as a way of reaching people who are not churched, but they still enjoy southern gospel,” Howard said, “as well as just a time of renewal for our own membership.”

The performance on March 4 will be incorporated into the church service.

A love offering will be collected at the conclusion to the service.

According to Howard, the Emmaus Road Quartet concert was rescheduled from an initial October 2017 homecoming program, and was postponed after a quartet member required a medical procedure.

Howard said Walnut Creek UMC is reportedly over 200 years old, although it stands in new shoes after the original church building was demolished and rebuilt several years ago.

The church is located at 317 County Road 458 in Clanton.
For more information about Emmaus Road Quartet and its members, visit emmausroadquartet.com.