BUIES CREEK — Three public inspirational concerts will be a part of OASIS: Renew for the Journey Church Music Conference at the Campbell University Divinity School on July 15-17, 2013, beginning with a Carnegie Hall reprise concert that includes church choir members from North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
The “Carnegie at the Creek” concert will be on Monday, July 15 at 7 p.m. in Butler Chapel on Campbell’s Buies Creek campus. It will feature hymn anthems based in American folklore and traditional hymnody accompanied by local blue grass musicians. The music is celebrating the Appalachian roots of composers Pepper Choplin, the minister of music at Greystone Baptist Church, in Raleigh, N.C., and Joseph Martin, a native of Rutherfordton, N.C., who lives in Austin, Texas, and serves as director of Sacred Publications at Shawnee Press. Choplin and Martin were invited to direct the concert at Carnegie Hall by Distinguished Concerts International New York.
Choir members from the following churches performed in New York and are participating in the concert in Buies Creek: Greystone, Hayes Barton, Swift Creek, and Trinity, all Baptist churches in Raleigh; Mt. Sylvan United Methodist Church in Durham; Kernersville First Baptist Church; Wilson First Baptist Church; and West Jefferson First Baptist Church.
On Tuesday, July 16 at 7:30 p.m. in Butler Chapel, Martin and Choplin — nationally-known composers, arrangers, performers, and humorists — will be in concert. Beginning on the lighter side with stories and songs, they will move into a worship service using their own songs, congregational singing, and piano arrangements.
On Wednesday, July 17 at 7 p.m. in Butler Chapel, the North Carolina Baptist All-State Youth Choir will begin their state choir tour at Campbell. Some 80 youth from Baptist churches across the state will be sharing inspirational music and will provide an exciting worship program. The Baptist All-State choir is sponsored by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and is directed this year by Dr. Philip Morrow, director of choral activities and associate professor of music in the fine arts division at Campbell University.
OASIS 2013 Church Music Conference is an affordable opportunity to learn new music, gain new ideas and worship without having to plan, and it’s a place for worship leaders to quench their spiritual thirsts.
In addition to Choplin and Martin, the music conference leaders include Randy Edwards, founder of YouthCue, and Mark Wingfield, associate pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church, in Dallas, Texas, and author of “Staying Alive: Why the Conventional Wisdom about Traditional Churches is Wrong.”
For more information and registration for the entire church music conference, go to http://divinity.campbell.edu.