How Coral Gables plans to bring Taylor Swift into our minds and souls in 2025
Coral Gables just may be holy ground for a double shot of Taylor Swift this spring and fall.
No, the superstar isn't retooling the Eras Tour for a Miami concert reprise.
But Swift's spirit, her messages and her brand are going to be felt within a few miles of one another in the City Beautiful — the first set inside a church and the next in the higher education halls of academia.
Think of it as food for your soul and for your brain, Swiftie style.
Swift in church and university
The first shot of Swift, open to all, is 'The Gospel According to Taylor Swift,' a 60-minute sermon using her music as a theme at Coral Gables Congregational Church on April 27. The sermon will be led by the Rev. Laurinda 'Laurie' Hafner, who has become a community star for her imaginative sermons that blend tradition with the not-so-traditional.
'It seems like the right time to lift Taylor Swift up and to celebrate her music as there is probably not a more timely musician who speaks to the many issues that are confronting us as individuals and even as a nation these days,' Hafner said. 'Issues such as loneliness, community, creating strong young women, courage, truthfulness, grief, changes and love.'
The second appearance is in late August when Alyse Lancaster, the University of Miami's vice dean for academic affairs, brings back her popular Mastermind of the Taylor Swift Brand class to UM. Last fall, her initial STC 290 class used Swift's career to teach marketing, advertising and the use of social and traditional media. The class filled nearly 200 seats and was featured on two episodes of Peacock's recent docuseries 'The Swift Effect.'
Lancaster's first Mastermind class capitalized on the excitement surrounding Swift's Eras Tour that played three sold-out shows at Miami Gardens' Hard Rock Stadium. Even without a mega tour as a lure, Lancaster is confident the second semester this August, which is open to enrollment for all majors, should do well. Swift certainly has something exciting planned for 2025, Lancaster said, laughing, even if it's just the release of the oft-discussed 'Reputation (Taylor's Version)' album package.
Sharing Taylor's message
Hafner's annual 'The Gospel According to ...' themed sermons utilize the sounds of pop music to spread the gospel, but we're not exactly referencing the catalogs of contemporary Christian pop stars like TobyMac, Chris Tomlin, MercyMe or even yesteryear's Amy Grant.
That would be too obvious.
Rather, it's the secular music of Jimmy Buffett last year and previously tapped bodies of work from Dolly Parton, Lady Gaga, Gloria Estefan, Fleetwood Mac and Elton John that inspire Hafner's all-ages sermons.
Here's how the church flier is touting this year's attraction:
Get out the friendship bracelets and your finest glitter clothes and join us for Sunday worship filled with music by this extraordinary storyteller whose honest lyrics provide powerful sermons about loving, losing, grieving, changing, and growing up.
'Many of her songs are inspiring and meaningful sermons in their own right and while she doesn't necessarily write 'religious songs,' many of her songs hold the values, morality and hope of our faith tradition,' Hafner said.
And, like UM's Lancaster, she has seen the allure of Swift in person and can capitalize on her brand to feed the mind and the soul. Both women took their daughters to last October's Eras concerts at Hard Rock Stadium.
'I have never received so many requests from our congregation's young people than I have about doing 'The Gospel According to Taylor Swift.' I usually do music that comes from my life — '70s and '80s music because I know and love it best — but Taylor transcends generations,' Hafner said.
'The fact that my 70-year-old self was with my 26-year-old daughter at her concert and we were surrounded by folks of all ages in between and beyond, talks about Taylor's appeal and ability to speak to common issues confronting people of all ages.'
If you go
▪ The Gospel According to Taylor Swift sermon is at 11 a.m. to noon, Sunday, April 27, inside the sanctuary at Coral Gables Congregational Church, 3010 DeSoto Blvd., and will stream online at gablesucc.org/live. There is no charge.
▪ Mastermind of the Taylor Swift Brand enrollment has begun for UM students. The fall 2025 semester begins Aug. 18.
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