The Reverend Edgar L. Vann Jr. accepted the position of pastor at Detroit's Second Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1977; just 21 years old at the time, he assumed control of a church that had missed its last 31 bank payments and which claimed only 66 members. During his first year Vann accepted no salary, supporting himself instead as a bank teller; over that 12-month period the church emerged from debt, and slowly its congregation rose to over 2,000 members. The youngest-ever leader of the Baptist Council of Ministers (a national group representing some 350,000 churchgoers), Vann also co-founded the charitable group Project Restoration; in 1998 he and the Second Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir -- including Minister of Music Michael E. Fletcher, organist Curtis Pearson, guitarist Eugene Wright and percussionists Michael Journey and David Reed -- released the album Live in Detroit. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
