Contemporary gosepl singer Sandi Patty returns to Oklahoma for concert
Concert Review: Talented ‘family’ includes Miss America

By Pat Gilliland Comments 0
Published: October 17, 2009

Music, laughter, praise and applause were the backdrop at Crossings Community Church as Sandi Patty and friends shared the joy that comes from serving the Lord.

Sandi Patty, left, listens as Miss America Katie Stam talks about her Christian faith. Photo provided

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Patty, an Oklahoma native who recently returned after spending most of her life in Indiana, is known as contemporary gospel music royalty. But Tuesday, crown-wearing Katie Stam, a former Miss Indiana who won the Miss America title in January while singing "Via Dolorosa,” a song most associated with Patty, matched her mentor note for note in their expressive, technically superb duet.

Comedian Anita Renfroe brought down the house as she hobbled onto the stage using a walker (she’d injured herself recently) and proceeded to say what most of the audience may have been thinking but wouldn’t say aloud. She hilariously but without a touch of malice commented on a video that showed the thigh-high slit in the gown Stam wore as she took her first Miss America stroll and also about the young woman’s slender physique, warning it would not last and providing examples from experience. Irresistibly funny were Renfroe’s musical renditions of "Momsense” and "Before I Eat,” a parody of Carrie Underwood’s hit "Before He Cheats.”

The talents weren’t limited to singers. Tom Ward’s gifts were highlighted in a video about his work to help neglected boys through a Piedmont home called White Fields, the concert beneficiary.

Even when Patty lived elsewhere, she’s seemed at ease singing in Oklahoma. That’s possibly because she can make any stage her home. But performing among friends and family at what is now her home church, she seemed to make everyone on stage and in the audience believe that by knowing and serving Jesus Christ, they can share that sense of belonging.

— Pat Gilliland