When he was barely a teenager, VaShawn became the assistant music director of St. Mark Baptist Church, working closely with nationally renowned choir leader Lonnie Hunter.

For nearly a decade he served as Minister of Music at Bishop Larry D. Trotter’s Sweet Holy Spirit Church, setting the musical toneboth within the church walls and on the ministry’s top-selling recording projects. The youngest Minister of Music in that church’s history, he successfully merged the contemporary themes he composed with the traditional choir vibe that marked the church’s worship services.