Gospel legend Reverend Clay Evans son of A. Henry and Estanully Evans, was born in Brownsville, Tennessee on June 23, 1925. As a child, Evans often sang with the family gospel group that his mother sang with and also played keyboard for.  After graduating from Carver High School in Brownsville, the Evans family moved to Chicago in the late forties. In Chicago he briefly sang with the Lux Singers before he joined an acapella group, the Soul Revivers, who often shared local bills with the Highway QC's during gospel's Golden Age. Clay Evans enrolled in the seminary school at the Chicago Baptist Institute, and later continued his studies at the Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the University of Chicago Divinity School.

In 1950 he was ordained a Baptist minister, and founded Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Chicago with three siblings and two friends as his first members. The name of the church was changed to Mt. Carmel and finally rechristened to Fellowship Baptist Church (or "The Ship" as it's know by parishioners,) the name by which it has become famous. With the help of his sister LouDella Evans Reid, Rev. Evans, formed a two hundred plus voice choir, and LouDella served as minister of music at the church. The church began broadcasting on an Indiana radio station, thus generating his fame throughout the Midwest and into the deep South. In the early sixties Rev. Evans began recording his choir on various labels, and releasing several solo sermon albums. His distinctive, raspy voice and gospel choir has earned them international acclaim, and they joined the legion of great choirs that emerged from Chicago during the Golden Era of Gospel. In the 1980's when the choir switched labels and began recording for the Savoy label, their albums starting gaining commercial success, and several made it to the Top Ten on the gospel charts. In 1996, his 1995 album "I've Got A Testimony" received a Stellar Gospel Music Award for album of the year. The choir continues to record, and has released a new album (the Best of Both Worlds) with their new Pastor Rev. Charles Jenkins, which won five awards at the 2013 Stellar Gospel Music Awards.
Fellowship's songs in seasons of joy and tribulation are fountains of hope and help to those who are in need. Their music fully enriches their lives so that it has become one of Fellowship's most powerful forms of witnessing to the glories of God.

From a 1979 album Everything Will Be Alright, "You Don't Know Me Yet," on lead Rev. Clay Evans.

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