Music Director & Organist
May 2019 – Present
I accepted this position at Spilman Memorial Baptist Church after three months serving an interim position at an Episcopal Church in the Diocese of East Carolina. Spilman is a wonderful congregation with many members who either know my parents or knew my grandparents. The choir and leadership consistently display a desire to work outside of their comfort zone in musical concepts, collaboration with area churches and artists, and in performance during worship services and concerts.
2019 Christmas Concert
The 2019 Christmas Concert was my first large-scale event hosted at Spilman. It involved three months of rehearsals (Wednesday evenings and occasional weekends), collaboration with multiple churches and East Carolina University and much planning on the part of hosting a concert/event. The evening was well-attended and well-received by the congregation and attendees.
2020 COVID-19 Crisis
Spilman Memorial was one of the churches that chose to place all worship and gatherings on a hiatus until the stay-home order was lifted. During this time Interim Pastor, Dr. H. Powell Dew, compiled “private worship packages” for every member of the congregation. These were mailed out on Wednesdays, reaching most members by Friday. I would follow up on Sunday mornings with a live stream musical offering during our normal worship service time. These videos would include a prelude, hymns listed in the private worship bulletin, any responsive readings that accompanied the bulletin and an occasional additional musical offering. Up to 25 people would join us during the live stream, while about 300 more would watch during the week after the video was published. Efforts were made to reach members with limited or no access to technology through mailed CDs.
The video below is a clip from one of my Sunday morning live stream music services and features Albert E. Brumley’s Turn Your Radio On.