Experience 2013 is coming to the Platinum Lounge.
No, it’s not a hip-hop concert like what has packed the downtown Statesboro nightclub on the occasional Friday or Saturday night.
Rather, it’s a worship conference scheduled for 5 p.m. Sunday, March 24.
Silee Williams, 27, is a minister and life coach based in Atlanta, but he grew up in Statesboro — the first school he attended was Sallie Zetterower Elementary, then to Langston Chapel Middle and Statesboro High schools before he transferred to Windsor Forest High School in Savannah — where he graduated in 2004. He said Experience 2013 at the Platinum Lounge is his way of giving back to the community.
He also said the nightclub’s owner, Hayward Fields, opened the Platinum Lounge to the worship conference “out of the kindness of (his) heart.”
The nightclub has drawn unwanted attention – most recently when shots were fired while a large crowd had gathered outside the business shortly before 3 a.m. Aug. 19, killing Akeila Roschelle Martin, 32, of Statesboro, and wounding Sadondra Brianna Scarboro, 21, of Sylvania. Statesboro police have not announced any arrests in connection with the fatal shooting.
The worship conference “most definitely lines up with the message he wants for the Platinum Lounge as a whole,” Williams said of Fields. “I think maybe over the course of time, some negative things might have taken place there that didn’t necessarily represent, I guess, what he would want the place to be known for. So he thought this would be a great to opportunity to kind of really show that in a positive way. So I was really excited and most definitely humbled that he would allow me to do it.”
The event will feature several speakers, including Paul Johnson, the pastor of Spirit and Truth Worship Center in downtown Statesboro, along with some Atlanta-area inspirational speakers and Williams himself. There will also be music, and Williams said he hopes people will “come out and have a good time.”
He has written a self-published book, “The Makings of a Champion,” in which he combines biblical concepts with his own personal experience in an effort to inspire readers to overcome challenges they face.
Part of that story is that he’s a single father. He has a 6-year-old daughter, Jadah Williams.
“I kind of talk about that from the aspect of … that I understand the struggle of how it is to be a single parent,” Williams said. “But also, too, I kind of talk about it as far as putting those types of things in perspective when you may feel like you’re at a disadvantage, but how to broaden your horizons out of those situations and kind of look around you and see what you actually do have working for you.
“One of the things I talk about in the book is this. You can’t necessarily make up the things the kid doesn’t have, but what you can do is enhance what they have, and that’s you,” he continued. “So you can always become the better parent if you’re the father or the mother and continue to kind of grow in those aspects and try to maximize that. I personally believe you can’t play both roles, but you can be excellent at your role.”
Jason Wermers may be reached at (912) 489-9431.