Leitchfield — First Baptist Church of Leitchfield is hosting a free conference for part-time, bi-vocational, and lay-led worship/music leaders on March 4, 9 a.m-noon.

The conference, open to church leaders in the Leitchfield area and beyond, features speakers such as Dale Fields, associate pastor of worship at Walnut Street Baptist; Dennis Cook, pastor of worship and discipleship at First Baptist, Leitchfield; Jason Stewart, Kentucky Baptist Convention’s worship and music consultant, and others.

Because around 85 percent of Kentucky Baptist churches have music ministries that are led by a part-time, bi-vocational, or lay leader, the idea for the conference sprung out of the “responsibility” full-time ministers in the church have to assist those leaders, said Dennis Cook, organizer of the conference.

“We want to gather a bunch of leaders to share the wealth. We want to basically say, ‘These are tools that we use every day to make our job easier as full-time ministers. We want to share that information with you, because we know your time is limited, your pay is limited (if there at all), and we want to help you make what you do better.’ That’s kind of the passion behind this,” Cook shared.

“Most bivocational guys don’t have the time or the resources to invest in attending conferences. The ability to come to a conference like this where there are men in the field to invest in fellow music ministers is unique,” Fields added.

He continued, “I pray it’s going to be a source of encouragement for their ministry.”

Fields will be presenting a session titled, “Tools of the trade for the worship choir.” His session will cover tips and techniques for choir rehearsals, tools for effective choir planning, and preparation tools for discipling choir members.

Matt Pinkston, minister of media at Walnut Street will be leading a session on audio visual tools. He will share some resources available for videos, how to use video in worship, other technical tips, and how to minister to the volunteers in the media ministry.

“A lot of times when you’re doing audio or video or on a tech team, it’s difficult,” he explained. “That was an adjustment for me. I’m not ministering to people like I was when I did student ministry. I want to help people see the importance of that, because these things enhance the service. God uses that that and blesses that.”

“This is an example of what we want to happen,” Stewart said. “I want churches to do the very best with what God has blessed them with. One way to do that is to continually be on the lookout for resources, songs, material, that can help them in their situations.

“If they want resources, we’ve got resources to show them to,” he said. (WR)