This week, RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY profiles Grammy award-winning gospel singer and evangelist Shirley Caesar.

MAUREEN BUNYAN: A Shirley Caesar concert can be a religious experience. ...

That is because at age 62, with amazing energy, Shirley Caesar is not only a singer, but an evangelist.

SHIRLEY CAESAR: I want my songs to reach the hearts of men and women. I want to let them know, if there's a way into a situation, there is a way out of it.

BUNYAN: And Caesar has been singing gospel for over five decades, winning the praise of many -- and 10 Grammys -- more than any other gospel performer. And more than Barbara Streisand, Frank Sinatra, or the Beatles.

And performing over 100 gospel concerts a year and recording albums is not all Shirley does.

Caesar's day job is here at Mount Calvary Word of Faith Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. In just ten years, Pastor Shirley Caesar has shepherded this Pentecostal church from 14 members to over 1,200. Each Sunday, unless she's on the road, Pastor Caesar preaches with her usual intensity.

MS. CAESAR: He brought me out, He spared my life, He picked me up, He turned me around, God did it.

BUNYAN: Shirley Caesar grew up in Durham, North Carolina, the tenth of 13 children. As a child, Shirley was mischievous.

MS. CAESAR: I used to love to break out street lights, seems like the lights would say break me.

BUNYAN: But at the age of 7, after being punished by her dad for breaking a street light -- a tragedy.

MS. CAESAR: The following morning -- 2:30-3:00 am in the morning -- my father passed. And for years, I carried a guilt feeling about that, because I thought maybe that he'd beat me so hard that it caused him to have a stroke or something, I don't know.

BUNYAN: Within a few years, Shirley was supporting her family. She sang gospel music under the name "Baby Shirley Caesar." And as a teenager joined the popular gospel group the Caravans.

It was God, Pastor Shirley says, who called her to the ministry. She married Pentecostal Bishop Harold Williams, and they are now partners in both music and Caesar's outreach ministries, which help the needy in Durham. Caesar funds it with 50% of her earnings.

MS. CAESAR: And mom said to me, the people are depending on you, I'm depending on you, and God is depending on you, don't let us down. I will never forget that. I will never forget that.