With his upbeat personality, vibrant boyish grin, and smooth R & B chords, Pastor Dony McGuire has certainly won the hearts of countless people worldwide.
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the youngest of seven children, Dony McGuire was raised in a talented musical family. Quite the child prodigy, he performed his first piano recital at the ripe old age of five. Along with four gifted brothers, he spent his early years traveling on weekends and summers throughout the United States, performing in churches and concert halls. At sixteen, Dony left home to pursue a full-time career in Gospel music.
Almost immediately, he was embraced by some of the most popular singing groups of the day. For several years he performed as singer and keyboardist exclusively with the award-winning group, The Downings. Donys' abilities in the recording studio suddenly shifted his focus from traveling to virtually living in the control rooms of Music City. God had gifted him not only in performing, but in producing and arranging as well. He earned a legendary reputation for his unique chord progressions and heavy R&B feel. But that success came with a price.
The pressures and demands of his new lifestyle opened the door for new ways of coping. Relying on God took a backseat to alcoholism, drug addiction, and eventually dealing drugs. Nobody sets out to be an addict, Dony explains. For me it started with abusing cold remedies to drinking to smoking pot to popping pills to snorting to shooting up. You never believe your'e an addict until its too late. It took getting a D.U.I. and going to jail to begin my wake-up call.
When in 1980, Dony married gospel recording artist, Reba Rambo, he was well into his addiction, and she was oblivious to the extent of his disease. What appeared to be a storybook romance quickly became a nightmare. The insanity of addiction really does become a family disease, says Reba. I soon became as dysfunctional and sick as Dony. We both had already gone through the hell of divorce and now a second one seemed inevitable.
But God had other plans. Through a series of miracles (Biblical in proportion), Dony was delivered from his addictive lifestyle and their marriage restored. (You can read their amazing story in Reba's book, Follow the Yellow Brick Road.)
Having received recognition as a recording artist, writer, and producer for many compositions, the highlight of Dony's career was receiving the 1980 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Gospel Album for the musical "The Lords Prayer",which was written with his wife, Reba. Dony and Reba performed "The Lord's Prayer" at the 1981 Grammy Awards. They also received a Dove Award that year for the same project. Dony also received a Dove Award in 1984 for "Song of the Year" for "Upon This Rock," a song he co-wrote with Gloria Gaither.
Their albums have sold millions, their songs have been performed by some of the most famous artists, they are found in countless hymnals, and their recordings have garnered some of the most prestigious honors. In 1983, Dony and Reba broke from the concert hall circuit and began ministering primarily in churches around the world. They realized the need for the local church as a source of spiritual strength and felt compelled to minister to the wounded body of Christ.
While attending revival meetings in Florida in 1993, Dony and Reba heard God distinctly ask, Will you let Me interrupt your lives? and Do you have time for revival? They immediately abandoned their one service only mentality and began conducting extended revival meetings in churches around the nation, some lasting as long as 22 weeks.
After decades of traveling around the world in powerful, evangelistic ministry, Dony and Reba launched The River At Music City in February, 2001, a thriving young church in Nashville, Tennessee. With the love and support of their children and a dedicated pastoral team, they are successfully pastoring The River and continuing their lifetime vision of making disciples and thrusting them into marketplace ministries.
Dony has three children, Dionne, Destiny and Israel and one grandson, Dyson.
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