Don’t use church language, mom,” Dawn Kelley warned as her mother, Retta, began to answer another question about the upcoming Glorybound Jubilee in Blue Hill.

Retta Kelley paused, presumably searching for words that don’t fall under her daughter’s definition of “church language,” while trying to answer the question just asked: What is the most important thing people should know about what the Kelleys are trying to do?

“It’s for everyone,” she said.

Dawn, 22, and Retta, 59, as well as father and husband Rick Kelley, 59, are the Hampden-based Southern gospel group Glorybound.

They are also organizers of Glorybound Jubilee, the largest Southern gospel sing in Maine. The Kelleys started their annual extravaganza in 1999. This year’s jubilee starts Thursday and winds up Saturday at the Blue Hill Fairgrounds.

Dawn’s desire for her mother to keep her language in the secular realm is representative of the greater challenge facing the group: How do you attract non-Christians to a gospel festival whose primary focus is spreading the word of God through music?

Although solidifying their Christian fan base is important to the Kelleys, they say what’s more important is bringing the message of Christ to those who have not properly heard it or accepted it.

Dawn Kelley said she wrestles with the paradox of what her family is trying to accomplish. She has been the lead singer for Glorybound since she was 15. That gives her slightly more perspective than her parents on the contemporary non-Christian audience the group is trying to reach.

“You need to make it known that [the Glorybound Jubilee] is not just for Christians,” Dawn Kelley said. “We do want pre-Christians hopefully to come. We want to use this as an evangelistic thing. I don’t know how we can do that in a way that kind of gets away from using ‘church talk’ that will scare away non-Christians.”

A yearly gospel festival in North Carolina, led by a group called the Greens, inspired Rick and Retta Kelley to organize a festival of their own in Maine.

“We went down … and what a blessing it was because they were having four nights at that time, and there was anywhere from 8,000 to 13,000 people under the stars, praising and worshiping the Lord and listening to good Southern gospel music,” Rick Kelley said.

“I thought to myself, why don’t we do a gospel sing in Maine?”

The Kelleys say the Blue Hill jubilee is getting bigger every year. “We haven’t broke even yet. We’ve got a lot of money tied up of our own, about $70,000, but there’s been souls saved and good Christian fellowship, and I believe this year we’ll meet the budget,” Rick Kelley said.

Rick and Retta, who have been married for 39 years, started singing during suppers at their pastor’s house. Soon their local church started a music night where they were fixtures. Eventually they were answering requests to sing at churches throughout the area, always finding demand for their Southern gospel sound.

They perform throughout New England and parts of Canada on the weekends, and have three major tours through the South every year.

“One tour lasted 26 days, and we had 19 concerts. We enjoy going out and working for the Lord,” Rick said.

It’s that desire to work for the Lord that Glorybound makes sure the other groups at the Jubilee share.

“We screen the groups over pretty close. We make sure they are in it for ministry, not money or fame or something like that,” Rick explains. “There are some groups that are just in it for the money.”

The first jubilee brought only 300 or so people to the Blue Hill Fairgrounds, but Rick Kelley was consoled by the Greens, who persevered through a lack of early interest in their North Carolina festival.

“We’re praying for it, praying for good weather … I’d like to see busloads, like they do down at the Greens’, but we’ve got to keep going,” said Rick Kelley.

There is, after all, nothing else like it in Maine.

“It’s more like a ministry to us. People will come and listen to gospel music when they won’t come and listen to a preacher preach; they won’t come to a church,” Rick said.

“The message is in the songs that we sing. We can work on hearts and change lives.”

Glorybound Gospel Jubilee

Where: Blue Hill Fairgrounds, Blue Hill

When: Thursday-Saturday, June 24-26, 7 p.m.

Admission: $15 per concert night, children under 12 free, discounts for groups of 20 or more