New York—The choir from newly elected Southern Baptist Convention President Steve Gaines’ pastorate sang the gospel alongside Elvis hits in New York’s Times Square on Fox TV June 20 in advance of their concert at Carnegie Hall.

An Elvis impersonator with the choir said the Memphis, Tenn., group loves to sing of “the King.”

“We always want to sing about the King,” said the impersonator, one of two Bellevue choir members who impersonated the rock star on the live broadcast of Fox & Friends. “So, most times we sing about Jesus, sometimes we sing about Elvis. Whatever draws people closer to Jesus, man, that’s what we’re about.”

About two-thirds of the 250-member choir and 45 members of the orchestra were on a week’s mission trip in New York under choir director Mark Blair’s leadership. Their concert featured Grammy-nominated and Dove Award-winning gospel artist Natalie Grant in her Carnegie Hall debut, Grant has noted on her website.

Gaines, elected SBC president June 15 at the St. Louis annual meeting, gave his Christian testimony at the Carnegie Hall concert, according to Bellevue’s director of communications Jim Barnwell. Gaines also was slated to preach June 21 at Brooklyn Tabernacle during a 7 p.m. service featuring the Bellevue choir, Barnwell said, with both events planned months before Gaines’ SBC election.

At Carnegie Hall, the Bellevue choir sang selections from two of its published choir books and corresponding CDs “Holding On to You” and “Praise His Name” from Prism Music, with arrangements by Josh Stewart, who also arranged 10 selections Grant will perform at the event.

During Fox & Friends, Bellevue member Hannah Tetmeyer led the choir in a rendition of “Say Amen.”

“Yes there are bad things that happen, but God is greater,” Tetmeyer told Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt. “God is more powerful than anything that can ever come against us.”

In an earlier event, the choir sang in an outdoor concert and community outreach with a new church plant in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., the Living Water Church.

A total of 280 Bellevue members and friends made the trip, Barnwell said. (BP)