James Pomeroy entered the Master of Divinity program at OCU in the fall of 2002 and shortly thereafter joined Earthlight as their new lead singer. James grew up in the small town of Ellsinore, located in the beautiful hills of southeastern Missouri. He began his solo career at the age of two in the aisles of local supermarkets while sitting in the cart as his mother shopped. She recalls that he "started singing before he could even pronounce the words right."
He began singing in church plays from the age of five at Ellsinore First Baptist Church and has continued to sing solos and with various small groups in his home church, Westwood Baptist Church in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, ever since.
James was also a member of his church choir for many years. Throughout junior high and high school, he was very active in chorus and small ensembles, being fortunate enough to advance to state music competitions every year and being selected for Missouri All-State Choir two years. It was in high school that James began to realize how important music really was to him.
In 1998, James graduated high school and accepted a music scholarship to attend Three Rivers Community College, where he began taking premedical courses. While at TRCC, James joined a southern gospel quartet based out of his home church called the Heartland Vocal Band, in which he sang primarily baritone. The group recorded one album and traveled occasionally, performing mainly at their church-related functions and the "Living Christmas Tree", a large annual production of Westwood Baptist, allowing them to share the gospel through song with literally thousands of local people. James left the group, however, a few months after beginning his junior year of college at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield in the fall of 2000. It was then that James was forced to focus largely on his premedical courses and therefore took a short break from his solo and group career. However, almost two years later, in August 2002, James graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biology with one year off before hopefully beginning medical school.
The desire to return to his music career had become increasingly strong as his time progressed at SMSU. While debating over how to spend his year off, a good friend of his mentioned Oakland City University and Earthlight, but James had only a matter of two or three weeks to decide whether or not to begin at OCU. After much prayer, he strongly felt the call of God to take the leap of faith and move to Indiana. The privilege of singing with a group like Earthlight is truly an answer to his many prayers.
The biggest highlight of James' life, however, is accepting Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior at the age of fourteen and the relationship that he shares with our living God today. It is James' utmost hope that God will use the talents that he has given him, through his role in Earthlight, to reach others for Christ.
If you would like to contact James you can reach him online at pomeroyjames@hotmail.com .
"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing." -Psalm 100:1-2 (KJV)
"Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." - Jeremiah 33:3 (KJV)
