Dr. Crystal Sellers has been singing gospel music practically her whole life, starting at the church founded by her grandfather in her native Columbus.

So it shouldn't be too surprising that she is now organizing a gospel choir in Bluffton, where she has joined the Bluffton University faculty as an assistant professor of music.

The choir is open to community members as well as university faculty, staff and students, who can earn academic credit for participating. There are no auditions for the group, which will practice from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Thursdays, beginning Sept. 2, in the Gilliom Room of Mosiman Hall on the Bluffton campus.

Sellers says she thinks the choir can create "a nice community network, a group coming together to sing for enjoyment."

The choir's debut is set for Nov. 13 at a Celebration of Gospel concert in Yoder Recital Hall. Other choirs will be coming to Bluffton for the concert, as will a rhythm section led by Sellers' brother Wesley, a drummer as well as pastor of their Columbus home church, Holy Temple Church of God.

Their late father, Eli, had also been pastor of the church, where his three children-also including another daughter, Tiffany-joined him in services and concerts. "I come from a very musical family," says Crystal, the youngest of the three siblings. "I grew up singing with them."

She earned her bachelor's degree in music performance from Bowling Green State University, where she was a section leader in the BGSU Gospel Choir for three years. Bowling Green is one of the few universities, if not the only one, in the region that has a gospel choir, she says, noting that community gospel choirs are also rare in northwest Ohio.

Sellers, who first came to Bluffton last year as a visiting assistant professor, earned her master's degree and her doctorate, both in performance, from Roosevelt University in Chicago and The Ohio State University, respectively. She is continuing her doctoral research on developing a healthy singing method for gospel singers, whom she says are prone to voice and throat problems due to the "full-tilt" effort they give.

Now working on a textbook on the teaching of gospel singing, she says her research factored into university and music department interest in formation of the new choir. "It wasn't a really long process," says Sellers, who hopes the group will attract prospective gospel singers from the area and provide a setting where they can connect.

"I just feel like it is a good opportunity to bring people together who might be interested in this," she adds, targeting next spring for the choir's first full concert of its own.