In 2006, the South Carolina Baptist Convention is commemorating 50 years of music ministry through the convention’s music office.
A special celebration service is planned for Nov. 28 at Lexington Baptist Church.
Tom Westmoreland and Jim Gill, the convention’s only two music office directors during the 50-year span, are planning the service, which will look back at the history of church music in South Carolina over the last five decades.
Westmoreland and Gill are writing a series of articles that recount their impressions of the evolution of church music since 1956, when Westmoreland took the helm as church music director. The articles can be found at the convention’s website, www.scbaptist.org/worship.
“We’re going to try to give a picture of the broad scope of church music and its changes,” said Westmoreland, “so that people might have a greater appreciation of what has occurred during those years.”
Carlisle Driggers, executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, asked Westmoreland and Gill to plan the celebration. “I believe we will experience a grand time together in the coming months,” he said.