Speaker – Rev. John Sterling Poole
Rev. John Sterling Poole was born and raised in Spartanburg, graduated from the College of Charleston in 2020 and taught high school English for two years before coming to Charleston Wesley Foundation (CWF) in 2022. John spent three years as the Youth Leader at a Charleston UMC before going into campus ministry. He has a deep passion for working with young people, and he really enjoys taking faith seriously and having a lot of fun. John is a student at Duke Divinity School in order to become an Ordained Deacon in the UMC. He lives in North Charleston with his wife, Hannah, their three cats: Huckleberry, Gulliver, and Bilbo, and their dogs, Zebedee and Mordecai. John and Hannah welcomed their son, James Dempsey, in December of 2024. John feels a deep call to ministering to college students and specifically to leading students into church leadership.”
Worship Leader – Phillip Gilchrist
Phillip Michael Gilchrist is a dynamic figure in the music industry, serving as the President and CEO of TrueScale Records. With an extensive background as a music label executive, Phillip has led TrueScale Records to great success, including securing a groundbreaking deal with Warner Music. His exceptional skills as a composer have not gone unnoticed, with his compositions being recognized by industry giants such as Disney, Paramount Global and Netflix.
Phillip’s impact as an entrepreneur has been duly noted, with Forbes acknowledging him as a young and up-and-coming business leader. His musical talents were further honored in 2022 when the South Carolina General Assembly recognized his outstanding contributions to the industry.
A product of Richland School District Two schools and a graduate of Spring Valley High School, Phillip pursued higher education at Brevard College in North C
arolina where he received a full scholarship in music. Furthering his education, Phillip had the privilege of studying under renowned marketer Scott Galloway, focusing on areas of business, branding, and marketing with some of the world’s top business leaders.
In addition to his
work in the music industry, Phillip serves as a member of the American Association of Independent Music, the Music Business Association, the American Society of Composers, Authors, Publishers (ASCAP) and the South Carolina Arts Commission, and in February of 2023, Richland School District Two honored him as their Black History nominee in the arts.
In 2024, Phillip founded the company Musicology, an Artificial Intelligence music technology company that received the attention from the Singaporean Government and recently established its international headquarters in Singapore. Musicology solves the copyright and licensing challenges faced by multiple AI tech firms.
He is music minister of music for two United Methodist churches, his home church St. Matthews United Methodist Church and Good Hope Wesley United Methodist Church. Phillip’s life motto is that I can do ALL THINGS through Christ who Strengthens Me.