Fox News Personality, Bright Family Singers, Local Clergy, Mayors & Businesses Unite For Common Purpose
By: Jeff Walker, Staff Writer
The Charleston Leadership Foundation recently held their 20th annual Charleston Leadership Prayer Breakfast (Thurs Nov 18th) at Seacoast Church on Long Point Road in Mount Pleasant. The nearly three hour event was attended by over 1000 people from right here in the low country, as well as several outside of Charleston. Those who couldn’t attend in person participated in the online option.
Founded in 2002, the goal of the Charleston Leadership Foundation is to unite local Christian leaders who will not only minister to one another, but in turn minister to the community with hopes of changing lives. As the organization’s website attests, the prayer breakfast is perhaps their premier fundraising event on an annual basis.
Assembling together men and women from all walks of life, with no regard to age, race, social status, or political affiliation, the prayer breakfast is more about creating unity, coming together with a shared love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Joining with like minded disciples of Christ, the ultimate purpose for the annual prayer breakfast is to corporately pray for our community, city, state, and national leaders, aksing God to protect and guide them in their personal and public lives, and in the decisions they make.
The guest speaker at this years event is no stranger to followers of Fox News. Shannon Bream is the anchor of Fox News at Night and Chief Legal Correspondent for the widely popular cable news channel. Bream is also the author of best-sellers ‘Finding the Bright Side’ and the newly-released ‘The Women of the Bible Speak’. More importantly, Bream is a professed born again Christian, not afraid to share her personal testimony of how faith and trust in God has helped guide her in Bream’s chosen profession.
Bream’s personal testimony captivated the audience for over 30 minutes. While she appears bright, beautiful and articulate, being in the limelight does not preclude her from facing fears and obstacles in her life. She shared how her trust in Christ ultimately lead her to Fox News, despite a former TV news executive saying she had no business being on television.
Her story on how she overcame a painful two year condition effecting her vision was equally moving, and proof God has a plan for faithful servants. Bream easily understands the great commission mentioned in the last chapter of Matthew 26:19-20, closing her address with a heartfelt prayer and an invitation to accept Christ.
Bream would stay after the program to greet and sign books for as many guests who wanted to thank her for participating in the event. She is a gracious host, and truly God is using Bream’s platform and prominence to further His purpose.
While Bream was the key note speaker she was not the only spokesperson taking part. Several high level sponsors spoke including Kristy Vasquez from South Carolina Federal Credit Union and Pamela Browning from the Post & Courier. Reverend Dr. Byron Benton from Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist gave an emotional invocation after which North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey lead attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance following his opening remarks.
Mayors Will Haynie (Mt.Pleasant) and John Tecklenberg (Charleston) spoke, wrapped around scripture reading (2 Corinthians 12: 5-10) from Darrin Goss from Coastal Community Foundation. Charleston Southern University President Dondi E. Costin offered up the community wide prayer, with Fred Whittle of Jupiter Holdings and Dave Bruner from East Cooper Baptist providing the closing remarks and benediction respectively.
The Bright Family Singers lead by patriarch Carl Bright provided the contemporary praise and gospel music that easily set the tone for the overall program. Carl’s own emotional declaration of how God lifted him, and his family out of homelessness and set them on right path was heartwarming. Their message that ‘God has something better’ was well received.
With three mayors in the crowd, and another thousand plus attendees from all walks of life, the Charleston Leadership Prayer Breakfast was both an inspirational networking vehicle, and an opportunity for like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ to lift up leaders on local, state, and national levels.
We need men and women in business, education, and government who are Christ driven and will conduct themselves in a manner that reflects the holiness of God. That is one of the main goals of the annual breakfast and the Charleston Leadership Foundation.
Among the corporate sponsors who partner with the Charleston Leadership Foundation on a regular basis are South Carolina Federal Credit Union, Charleston Southern University, Commonwealth Financial, Boeing, Banks Construction, Concept Builders, and the Post & Courier. To discover more about Charleston Leadership Foundation, the events they host, the good work they do, or to become a sponsor visit their website at https://www.clf1670.org/
