Was pastor Kim Burrell being a diva during church service? Or was it all in good fun? A hilarious video of the “Working For Your Good” singer and songwriter asking someone in her church congregation not to sing while she is singing is making the rounds of the internet, and Black Twitter has some thoughts.
In the clip, Burrell is leading the closing of a sermon, and she begins to sing the hym, “Thank You Lord”—one of the most popular songs of the Black Church because it allows everyone to join in and sing the easy to follow words. But for Burrell, that moment was a solo.
When a woman in the congregation begins to loudly sing with Burrell, she announced, “It’s a solo. God’s using me. Don’t sing with me right now.”
The woman singing must have been deep in her praise, because she just kept on singing. Then Burrell got stern.
“I’m singing along now. Ma’am, ma’am, with that mask … Let that mask work for you,” said Burrell. “I’m singing alone. I’ll call you when I’m ready.”
Whew!
Well, it didn’t take long to for social media to weigh in. Commentators called Burrell a “menace,” and someone questioned why Burrell continues to get a place in the pulpit—despite some very controversial views and behavior.
“She’s wrong because if my spirit is telling me sing 🎶 so be it. Please,” wrote one commentator on X.
Yet here today Burrell stands still leading Black churches in praise of the Lord, and she released a video response to explain why she said what she said during that service.
“I’m thinking that I’m in a solo, and you always got that one, that one that has to join ‘ya,” said Burrell. “And I heard her, y’all, and she was singing, and I was just going for it … ’cause I’m operating and things of the spirit — sometimes when I operate publicly, everybody doesn’t understand the dispensation of what I operate in.”
She added, “I’m the preacher. I’m the person with the gift of prophetic … but anyway…” Then Burrell get’s into what happened after she actually called the woman up to sing with her.
“I pulled her up, and she went a dancing,” she said. “What a time we had.”
Lastly, Burrell wrapped up the video by encouraging everyone to wear masks. “COVID is starting to rise again,” she said, explaining that’s why she told the woman singing over her to “let that mask work for you.”
In another video from the same service, Burrell does indeed invite the woman to sing with her and lightly chastises her for singing with her and not getting the cue to stop. But was it really that serious?
See what Burrell says to the woman below.
