A Generation On Fire: How a Baton Rouge Youth Choir Won New Artist of the Year at the Stellar Awards
A Generation On Fire: How a Baton Rouge Youth Choir Won New Artist of the Year at the Stellar Awards
Ablaze, directed by Mark Ellis Jr., took New Artist of the Year at the 41st Annual Stellar Gospel Music Awards in Charlotte.
Three years ago, Ablaze was a handful of teenagers at United Christian Faith Ministries who wanted to sing loud and mean it. On Aug. 15, they stood inside Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, and heard their name called for New Artist of the Year at the 41st Annual Stellar Gospel Music Awards.
The Stellars are the highest honors in gospel music, and Kirk Franklin hosted this year’s ceremony under the theme “Feels Like Home.” For a choir out of Baton Rouge with no label behind it, the phrase landed a little differently.
“Winning New Artist of the Year means way more to me than just being able to say we won an award,” said Mark Ellis Jr., who directs the choir. “To me, it’s a win for the next generation of gospel music.”
Ablaze won the category as an independent artist, competing against Asaun Bynum, Bishop Charles Ellis & Greater Grace Worship Choir, and the United Music & Arts Conference Choir. The group also picked up a nomination for Contemporary Choir of the Year. It was part of a night that belonged largely to independent gospel, with unsigned and self-released artists taking six of the seven marquee categories.
The Stellars are the highest honors in gospel music, and Kirk Franklin hosted this year’s ceremony under the theme “Feels Like Home.” For a choir out of Baton Rouge with no label behind it, the phrase landed a little differently.
“Winning New Artist of the Year means way more to me than just being able to say we won an award,” said Mark Ellis Jr., who directs the choir. “To me, it’s a win for the next generation of gospel music.”
Ablaze won the category as an independent artist, competing against Asaun Bynum, Bishop Charles Ellis & Greater Grace Worship Choir, and the United Music & Arts Conference Choir. The group also picked up a nomination for Contemporary Choir of the Year. It was part of a night that belonged largely to independent gospel, with unsigned and self-released artists taking six of the seven marquee categories.
The Sound of a Room That Means It
Ablaze formed in 2023 at United Christian Faith Ministries, the Church of God in Christ congregation that Dr. Mark Ellis Sr. planted in 2006 on North Ridgewood Drive. What began as a small ensemble now numbers more than 80 young singers who lead worship for the congregation and, increasingly, for a national audience.
That audience found them the way audiences find anything now. In July 2024, a clip of the choir singing “My Soul Loves Jesus” crossed two million views and kept going, drawing in listeners who had never set foot in a Pentecostal service. The comment sections filled with people who had grown up in church, people who had left, and people who had never been.
What they were responding to was not polish. It was a room full of teenagers who clearly believed what they were singing.
“When we come, we’re doing a remix, maybe music changes, but it’s all for the glory of God all in our own unique way,” Ellis told Baton Rouge station WBRZ.
Choir member Joshua Ricard Jr. put it more plainly to the same station: “This is not just worship, this is also evangelism.”
Ablaze formed in 2023 at United Christian Faith Ministries, the Church of God in Christ congregation that Dr. Mark Ellis Sr. planted in 2006 on North Ridgewood Drive. What began as a small ensemble now numbers more than 80 young singers who lead worship for the congregation and, increasingly, for a national audience.
That audience found them the way audiences find anything now. In July 2024, a clip of the choir singing “My Soul Loves Jesus” crossed two million views and kept going, drawing in listeners who had never set foot in a Pentecostal service. The comment sections filled with people who had grown up in church, people who had left, and people who had never been.
What they were responding to was not polish. It was a room full of teenagers who clearly believed what they were singing.
“When we come, we’re doing a remix, maybe music changes, but it’s all for the glory of God all in our own unique way,” Ellis told Baton Rouge station WBRZ.
Choir member Joshua Ricard Jr. put it more plainly to the same station: “This is not just worship, this is also evangelism.”
Carrying It Forward
The numbers have followed. Ablaze has passed five million streams, built a social following above 350,000, and released a debut album. In 2025, Black Christian Influencers named the group Gen Z Influencer of the Year. The choir has performed at youth conferences and gospel festivals across the country, and Ellis has become a recognizable voice for young worship leadership well beyond Louisiana.
But the argument Ablaze keeps making is older than any of that. The mass choir, a fixture of Black church life for generations, had been widely written off as something the young were leaving behind. Ablaze took the opposite position and made it stick.
“We’re not just keeping the choir culture alive, we’re bringing young people back to it all around the globe,” the group told Rolling Out.
That is the part of the win Ellis keeps coming back to. The trophy matters less to him than what it signals to a teenager deciding whether faith and creativity can occupy the same life.
“It shows young people that you can be creative, love music, have so much fun, and still be completely set apart from the world,” he said. “I want ABLAZE to be proof that God can use your gifts in ways you never imagined when you give them back to Him.”
For his father, the Stellar Award reads as an answer to a prayer prayed two decades ago.
“When we planted this ministry in 2006, we prayed for young people who would carry the gospel further than we could,” said Dr. Mark Ellis Sr. “God answered that prayer, and He answered it in our own house.”
The numbers have followed. Ablaze has passed five million streams, built a social following above 350,000, and released a debut album. In 2025, Black Christian Influencers named the group Gen Z Influencer of the Year. The choir has performed at youth conferences and gospel festivals across the country, and Ellis has become a recognizable voice for young worship leadership well beyond Louisiana.
But the argument Ablaze keeps making is older than any of that. The mass choir, a fixture of Black church life for generations, had been widely written off as something the young were leaving behind. Ablaze took the opposite position and made it stick.
“We’re not just keeping the choir culture alive, we’re bringing young people back to it all around the globe,” the group told Rolling Out.
That is the part of the win Ellis keeps coming back to. The trophy matters less to him than what it signals to a teenager deciding whether faith and creativity can occupy the same life.
“It shows young people that you can be creative, love music, have so much fun, and still be completely set apart from the world,” he said. “I want ABLAZE to be proof that God can use your gifts in ways you never imagined when you give them back to Him.”
For his father, the Stellar Award reads as an answer to a prayer prayed two decades ago.
“When we planted this ministry in 2006, we prayed for young people who would carry the gospel further than we could,” said Dr. Mark Ellis Sr. “God answered that prayer, and He answered it in our own house.”
What Comes Next
Ellis is not treating Charlotte as a finish line.
“As for what’s next, we’re just ready to keep creating, keep being on fire for Christ, and keep reaching people through our music and ministry,” he said. “At the end of the day, the awards are amazing, but winning souls to Jesus will always be the real win for us. And we’re just getting started.”
The 41st Annual Stellar Gospel Music Awards airs on The Stellar Network on Saturday, Aug. 29 at 8 p.m. ET, on BET on Sunday, Aug. 30 at 8 p.m. ET, and in broadcast syndication from Sept. 5 through Sept. 27. Ablaze ministers at United Christian Faith Ministries on Fourth Sundays in Baton Rouge and is available for bookings at ablazeyc.com.
Ellis is not treating Charlotte as a finish line.
“As for what’s next, we’re just ready to keep creating, keep being on fire for Christ, and keep reaching people through our music and ministry,” he said. “At the end of the day, the awards are amazing, but winning souls to Jesus will always be the real win for us. And we’re just getting started.”
The 41st Annual Stellar Gospel Music Awards airs on The Stellar Network on Saturday, Aug. 29 at 8 p.m. ET, on BET on Sunday, Aug. 30 at 8 p.m. ET, and in broadcast syndication from Sept. 5 through Sept. 27. Ablaze ministers at United Christian Faith Ministries on Fourth Sundays in Baton Rouge and is available for bookings at ablazeyc.com.
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