SALT LAKE CITY — Debra Bonner has brought gospel music into the hearts of countless Utahns for decades, and now she’s headed home to Flint, Michigan, to do the same.
Bonner is the mind and heart behind the Unity Gospel Choir.
The choir has sung for the NAACP, at the popular Stadium of Fire, alongside musicians such as the Piano Guys, toured with Alex Boyé, and, most recently, at the Tabernacle at Temple Square for Palm Sunday. Bonner said the goal has always been to “transform the world through gospel music,” because it was gospel music that transformed her.
Bonner grew up in Michigan during the 1950s and 60s in what she described as a time full of promise. In fact, it was in Flint where she said she found her voice.
“Flint was a great place to grow up during that time because that’s where they built the first car,” she said. “It was booming. It was thriving. There were churches on every corner, and it was at church where I was introduced to gospel music, and gospel music saved my life.
“Had it not been for the choirs I participated in as child, I wouldn’t have learned how to read. It gave me purpose and self-worth,” Bonner said.
She credits her hometown for leading her and her eight children (and their growing posterity) on a path of “spreading God’s love through music.” She was the first of her family to graduate from college and met her husband at the University of Michigan after they had both received master’s degrees. Upon graduation, the two of them were called to become missionaries for their Baptist church in Liberia, West Africa.
“We went to Liberia for almost two years and we loved our mission,” she recalled. “We lived with the people in the village for some time and were baptizing a lot of people from different villages.” She said the Holy Spirit told her to resign from that mission, “and the day that we got on the plane was the day of the first gunshot from the coup. If we had stayed, we would not have survived because … the war was between the American Liberians and the Indigenous people.”
Time and time again, Bonner would follow what “the spirit” led them to do, which had a consistent theme: teaching people about Jesus through gospel music.
She believes in people. She’s always asking you what you feel God wants you to do, and she will help lead you to your potential.
–Lydia Afualo
“I taught children in inner-city Cincinnati, Ohio, for two years, working with kids who didn’t have much and it was a high-crime area,” she said. “I was teaching the kids about Jesus Christ and we would sing gospel music and … spirituals and it changed the life of those kids. Those kids who could have been statistics were now college-bound. Singing gospel music and knowing about Jesus Christ changed their lives.”
Bonner had a toddler and was seven months pregnant then, but she said the spirit again influenced her to leave and “go West.” She said she and her husband sold everything and left their car in Flint with her parents to “hitchhike” where the Lord had instructed them. They eventually landed in Las Vegas with $100 to their name and stayed with a family who belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“We went to church with that family that first Sunday we were in Vegas, and I’ve been going ever since,” she said. “It has been a wonderful, glorious experience, yet, it was very difficult because they didn’t sing gospel music.”
Bringing gospel music to Utah
With gospel music being so transformative to her as a child, and seeing how it transformed the lives of those she taught, Bonner sought to find a way to bring gospel music into the lives of her own children.
In the mid-1990s, the Bonner family moved to Utah, where she started a Genesis Choir in her own Latter-day Saint congregation. Not only was the choir well-received, but it was widely requested. She and her choir started traveling the state, singing at firesides. The choir grew and, in 2014, it became the Debra Bonner Unity Gospel Choir.
Longstanding choir member Lydia Afualo said the choir has done exactly what it set out to do.
“I started singing with the choir about 10 years ago,” she said. “Gospel music is rooted all the way back to days of devastation, of slavery, where they just sang these spirituals. They sang it out like a prayer. Gospel music doesn’t hold back. It’s unreserved, and I think that’s the way that we should be praising the Lord, and Debra taught that to me.
“Debra has not only been a choir director, but a mentor and friend,” Afualo continued. “She believes in people. She’s always asking you what you feel God wants you to do, and she will help lead you to your potential.”
Bonner has expanded her gospel music influence through several choirs in the state, including the Orem Youth Gospel Choir, Cache Valley Choir and Institute Choir. Her own family often sings together and has performed at many events, including the Kansas City Chiefs game and the Giving Machines unwrapping event.
Returning to Flint
It has been 50 years since Bonner has lived in Flint, but her heart has not been far from it.
Over the years, she has made many trips back to work with children in underprivileged areas, and she said it has broken her heart to see the city decline so rapidly.
“About 15 years ago, the Lord told me to return to Flint,” Bonner said. “Flint has gone through a lot of major trauma.”
In recent months, Bonner has been doing exactly what she did 50 years ago when she left Flint — selling all her belongings and going forward with faith, with the goal of helping rebuild that community through gospel music.
“I feel like it’s time for me to go home and give Flint what Flint gave me,” she said. “Flint gave me confidence and gave me joy and gave me the gospel of Jesus Christ through gospel music.”
Bonner and her husband plan to create a music program for underprivileged children in Flint and are hoping to raise funds to sponsor children who enter the program.
“I want to bring hope through gospel music because I know that I’ve seen lives changed for the better,” she said. “It changed mine.”
Afualo said that while she will miss Bonner’s leadership, she knows she will do so much good in Michigan.
Bonner and her family sang for President Russell M. Nelson on his birthday and “he told her that she was instrumental in the gathering of Israel,” Afualo said. “Whether she’s going to Flint or anywhere around the world, I know that she will change lives. If there’s anyone who can bring people back to God, Debra is the person who will do it.”
Bonner and her Unity Gospel Choir are holding a fundraiser* for what she is calling the Transformation Gospel Youth Choir Program in Flint, Michigan. There is a dinner at Tucanos in Orem on Friday, April 18, from 5-7 p.m., followed by a free gospel concert at East Chapel, 735 E. 800 South in Orem, from 7:30-9 pm. Proceeds will go to sponsor a child in the youth choir program in Flint.
For more information and to donate, go to unitygospelchoir.org/donate.
*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisors and otherwise proceed at your own risk.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
