Christa Rooks and Scott England have written and recorded Christian music independently for years, but the two have found more recently that they make a good vocal team.
The area artists are hosting a "Night of Worship" concert at 8 p.m. Feb. 28 at the Social Circle Theater in Social Circle to celebrate the releases of their latest EPs (extended plays), while hoping to use their talents to bring the local community together to support Covington-based ministry The Abiding Journey, which promotes the message of Christ across the globe.
General admission tickets for the event are $10 if ordered online through itickets.com and $12 the night of the event. VIP packages can be purchased for $20 and include a ticket, a gift bag with copies of Rooks’ and England’s latest EPs and a pre-event meet-and-greet with the two singer-songwriters.
The two are fixtures at Eastridge Community Church’s Covington campus, where they frequently lead worship, but they both said they wanted to find a way to bring together the wider Christian community.
"We wanted to do something for the community to get all the churches together outside of the walls of one particular church and get on some neutral ground and have a night where we can celebrate through song," England said Saturday.
Rooks is a native of Conyers who moved to Covington and most recently Madison, while England is planning to move from Atlanta to Social Circle and put down roots after spending increasing amounts of his time in Covington and increasing amounts of his money on gas.
The two decided the Social Circle Theater, 650 Ashley Drive, would be a great venue for the concert.
"It’s such an intimate space, theater in the round," Rooks said. "I think it will be a really intimate and sweet night of worship for people who are there. We’re really, really excited, and, hopefully we’ll get a draw from a lot of other churches."
The event will be kicked off with a couple of songs apiece by bilingual artist Crystal Padilla, the lead worship leader at One Life Community Church in Grayson, a new church plant, and Stephen Stanley, the worship leader at Orchard Hills Church in Newnan, who grew up going to his father’s church, CrossRoads Baptist off Ga. Highway 229 in Newton County.
Rooks and England will then play songs together from both of their EPs – her "At His Feet" and his "Redeemed and Brave" – with England’s band before ending the night with some intimate worship songs.
The event will be recorded live.
Doors open at 7 p.m., and employees of Square Park Café will be on hand to sell Jittery Joes coffee and a few food items.
Rooks said in the past she drew a lot of her musical inspiration from her personal time with the Lord through praise and journaling, but she’s also been focused on writing more scripture-based songs. Just recently, she said the Lord brought her and her family through a complicated period and she said she’s looking forward to the songs that experience will inspire. For more about Rooks and her music, visit christarooks.com.
England is a singer, songwriter and musician who works both on the large-scale worship side, writing songs that are "singable and catchy, but have meaningful and theologically sound depth and lyrics," while also writing songs about his personal experiences and how God moves "through the good times and the bad times, the struggles and faith." For more about England, visit scottengland.com.
Proceeds will support The Abiding Journey, a local ministry run by Chad Hambrick that works to equip ministry leaders in the U.S. and worldwide through individual mentoring and discipleship. For more information, go to theabidingjourney.com.
Though Hambrick and England have since become good friends, the two actually served near each other in Guatemala and never met at the time. England labels himself a "musicionary" – a missionary who uses music to communicate his message. He has worked and plans to work with The Abiding Journey moving forward.
