First Posted: 3/24/2015
LIMA — When Claytonia Logan performed at an event put on by Buku Entertainment, her powerful performance caught the attention of Reginald Keller. Keller, the owner and founder of Buku Entertainment, said that it was not just Logan’s singing ability that caught his attention.
“She’s very, very powerful,” he said. “Her mindset. Her drive. Her passion for the Lord. Those were the main things that caught my attention. Her singing was icing on the cake.”
The two began talking and soon were working together. Logan and Keller just returned from Tennessee, where they shot a video for Logan’s first single “He is God.” Once the video is edited and ready, the single, along with the video, will be released at the end of March.
“The single will be on iTunes and some mom and pop shops here in Lima,” said Keller. “The video will be available on all the major video sites, too.”
Logan’s album, “Finally” contains six original songs written by Logan with the music created by Keller. Logan said she named the album “Finally” because she finally gets to share her music with the world. The album’s release date has yet to be determined.
For Logan, it has been long and twisting road to reach this point. While she became a believer at the age of 13 and felt a call to ministry, Logan became a drug addict and did not return to God until almost seven years ago.
“I was called to preach when I was very young,” she said. “I got addicted to crack cocaine and spent years out on the street, but the Lord kept calling me. Finally, I was sitting on the floor of a crack house and I told God I would preach if He would take away the taste for crack.”
Logan bought more drugs but said she could not get high.
“That’s when I said I would go where God wanted me to and say what He wanted me to say,” she said.
Since that time, Logan has been involved in a number of ministries — including a street church she held on the corner of Main and Third streets every other Sunday evening starting in June 2014 through the fall.
Logan is currently one of the pastors at New Life Christian Ministries, where she does not hesitate to speak the truth.
“They call me the renegade pastor,” she said with a smile, “because I am known to say what no one else wants to say. I don’t sugar coat things.”
The reason for that is Logan’s own life experiences.
“I need people to understand what God has brought me from,” she said. “He saved me out of a homosexual lifestyle. He saved me from crack and alcohol addictions. God loved me enough to call me out of my sin.”
Logan is not just about speaking the message of God, though. She is also about singing it, as well. Although she has been writing songs for a while, it was not until recently that she felt God telling her the time was now to produce an album.
“I did it now because God said now,” said Logan. “I do things when he says to do them. I don’t do anything until the Spirit directs me to.”
While Logan does not have formal training or a degree in either music or ministry, she said a degree is not necessary to be qualified to sing or speak God’s message.
“I was qualified on the cross,” she said. “I have a degree of life. God is the one who called me and ordained me.”
It is those life experiences that make Logan’s songs so powerful, and she is not shy about sharing her life experiences through them.,
“I want people to look at me,” she said. “I want them to gossip about me. I’ve done way more than they can even imagine in my life. God deserves all the glory for what He did in my life. I don’t want to hide my testimony. I want people to know that God loves you regardless, even in your mess. Even if you are a lost cause or everyone tells you that you are a lost cause, God loves past all that. He is the restorer, and He sees us in our finished state.”
The main message of her songs portrays this message: “I want people to know that no matter how many mistakes they have made, no matter how far away from God they have traveled,” said Logan, “He is able to love you and that God is no respecter of persons.”
No matter how far her songs go up the charts, though, Logan hopes her listeners will take away this lesson: “If God did that for her,” she said, “and she was jacked up — He’ll do it for me too.”
