Disneyland gets the best in Bishop Marvin Sapp

The Disney experience has been an integral part of the lives of Bishop Marvin Sapp and his children. Sapp and his family have made annual trips to the Happiest Place on Earth for the greater part of more than two decades. The magic never gets old for the longtime minister and veteran gospel singer. 

“I’m a Disney fanatic,” Sapp said during a video conference interview. “ For the last twenty-seven years, my children and I have gone to [Walt] Disney World [Resort] twice a year. We go every August, and we go every Christmas. And that has been our thing as a family… to the point that my daughter…she has Disney stock.” 

“So the fact that they thought enough of me to invite me to be a part of such an amazing event, I’m just honored. I’m just ready to get there, hit the stage, and give my very best, and hopefully, you know, people will be blessed by that which they hear, we share, ” he added.     

This year, Sapp, the recipient of 24 Stellar Awards and 13 Grammy nominations, was invited to participate in the Disneyland Celebrate Gospel mega event, which features local and well-known gospel choirs. 

Sapp, along with Tasha Cobbs Leonard, are the headliners as Disneyland incorporates the sound of gospel music into the theme park as part of its Black History Month homage. 

Known for his gospel-tuned megahits “The Best in Me” and “Never Would Have Made It,” Sapp’s adoration for the Magic Kingdom is not about the rides. What has made the Disney touch come alive for the “My Testimony” singer is the entire ambiance of what Disney is about, he said. 

“Whenever I go to Disney, I look at things different than most people go,” Sapp said. “I can count the number of rides that I’ve ridden on the last twenty-something years. But whenever they’re doing a re-model or they’re building something, they always put plaques of you know, things that Walt Disney had said or different statements. When they have their parades or when they do their shows, they always have a message that’s in there that’s positive, that talks about what you can do and what you can accomplish.” 

“And honestly, as a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you know, that environment in itself, you know…I go there just to retreat and to be around that environment and literally forecast for my future and forecast for my church’s future. So we can say that it’s a magical place. I choose to think that it’s an empowering place that gives you…For me, it ignites the fire on the inside of me that allows me to go back home and do great exploits.”           

Sapp is one of the greatest gospel singers in the world. Disneyland and its guests are blessed to have this phenomenal singer and minister in their presence. The month of February is celebrated worldwide in recognition of all the contributions Black Americans have given to the United States and worldwide. 

From slavery to the Reconstruction era to Jim Crow to today, at the core of the existence of the Black American experience has been the gift to sing our hearts out. My grandmother and mother used to sing those old hymns around the house all week and on Sunday mornings when we attended church. 

The sounds of gospel stalwarts like Mahalia Jackson, The Jackson Southernaires, Rev. James Cleveland, Gospel Keynotes, Mighty Clouds of Joy, Dorothy Love Coates and The Gospel Harmonettes, Shirley Caesar, and Sam Cooke resonated throughout my house as I grew up. It was always present. You could not escape it. 

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That generation of gospel music gave way to individuals like Sapp, Edwin and Walter Hawkins, Yolanda Adams, Kirk Franklin, Andre Crouch, The Winans, Donald Lawrence, Fred Hammond and Commissioned, and John P. Kee and The New Life Community Choir. Today’s gospel music has shifted to a more Hosanna sound that features more praise and worship.     

Sapp and Cobbs Leonard are both throwbacks to an era of gospel music that this writer grew up with whereas the more contemporary sounds of William McDowell and Tye Tribbett are ushering this tradition into the future. The genre of gospel music may have shifted, but the tie-in to Black History Month is one of the same, said Sapp. 

“Gospel music is Black history,” Sapp remarked. “That’s just fact. You know, even when you go back to the time, you know, of individuals in slavery. The songs that they sung, from Harriet Tubman until now, it was a call. There was a response. It was a message of hope and help. And I think that, you know, gospel music still is that. It’s the good news of Jesus Christ, but it’s also a message of help. It’s also a message of hope that says that no matter how difficult or challenging life may seem to be, that there is a way out. And that way out may not always be physical, but it’s definitely spiritual.”      

Bishop Marvin Sapp is the pastor of The Chosen Vessel Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Top Image Photo Caption: Grammy Award-Winning Recording Artist and Pastor, Marvin Sapp speaks during the Global United Fellowship Press Conference at the Omni Hotel and Resort on July 7, 2015 in Jacksonville, Florida. Established in 2013 under the leadership of Bishop Neil C. Ellis, Global United Fellowship (GUF) is a cross-denominational fellowship of spiritual leaders and churches united to strategically plan, implement and execute transformative and generational impact, and expand the Kingdom of God to all the nations of the world. (AP Photo/Don Juan Moore)