JACKSONVILLE (FBW)–America’s Music City is set to host nearly 500 Florida musicians from Daytona Beach and Tampa during the SBC in June. Florida pastors Bobby Welch and Ken Whitten will have the encouraging presence of their own church choirs when they speak at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 21-22 in Nashville.

The choir and orchestra of First Baptist Church, Daytona Beach, will perform with a combined choir during three Tuesday sessions, and alone Tuesday morning before their pastor, Bobby Welch, delivers the President’s Address. The Daytona Beach musicians also will participate in a mass Peoples’ Choir in the Wednesday evening session.

Four busses will transport most of the 259-member Daytona Beach entourage to Nashville, while others fly or drive. They will arrive in time to meet with the choirs and orchestras of two campuses of First Baptist Church, Springdale Ark. The choirs and orchestras will perform together beginning Tuesday.

The Daytona Beach musicians have prepared convention music under the leadership of Larry Black, interim minister of music. He, along with Buster Pray, minister of music at First Baptist Church, Springdale, Ark., and director of music for the 2005 SBC Convention meeting, will lead the combined choir and Peoples’ Choir. Black has served First Baptist Church, Daytona Beach, since retiring January 1 from First Baptist Church, Jackson, Miss.

“I was retired three days,” Black said. “I retired on the first and was here in Daytona on the fourth.”

Several years ago, while at First, Jackson, Black began working with Buster Pray, when Pray began playing drums in Black’s orchestra. The church eventually called Pray as full-time associate minister of music.

“We saw that he was good at everything,” said Black. “He still is.”

Pray is coordinating the work of the convention musicians, including not only the large Florida and Arkansas choirs, but also guest soloists and groups and a People’s Mass Choir composed of the choirs of at least 18 churches. The 1400-member mass choir will include the Daytona Beach and Springdale musicians, choirs from Tennessee and the mid-south region, and 70 voices from a Korean Baptist church in San Francisco. The mass choir will sing Wednesday evening.

Pray also is arranging to have large instruments in place for the visiting orchestras. Borrowed or rented harps, timpani, percussion and keyboards will await the musicians in the Gaylord Convention Center in Nashville.

Black and Pray spent several months preparing music jointly. Black visited rehearsals in Springdale and Pray will be in the May 26 rehearsal at Daytona Beach.

Although the volume of music that has to be performance-ready is challenging, Black said it will be “rewarding.”

The year’s advance notice of the trip has allowed not only time to prepare music, but also time for choir and orchestra to get time off from work and make travel plans, Black said. The Convention president’s home church choir traditionally sings before he presents the President’s Address.

Bobby Welch visited rehearsal May 11 to encourage his choir and thank them for their willingness to travel to Nashville, according to Black, who said Welch also told the musicians that convention leadership expects a large convention crowd.

Pastor Ken Whitten will have his Idlewild Baptist Church choir and orchestra with him as he delivers the Convention Message Wednesday morning.

The Wednesday morning performance by the 225- member traveling Idlewild choir and orchestra means a very early wake-up call. They are to sing a 15-minute concert beginning at 8 a.m. under the direction of Ron Upton, minister of family worship.

“We just love those 6:30 a.m. warm-up times,” Upton quipped.

The Tampa musicians also will perform in a five-minute “music feature” at 10 a.m. and immediately before Whitten’s address.

The choir and orchestra members will fly to Nashville in two shifts Tuesday morning and return to Daytona Beach Wednesday evening. Upton said the church is paying half of the transportation and lodging costs, making the trip less expensive for the musicians. He had hoped 150 would make the trip and was thrilled when 225 signed up.

“They are motivated to be there with their pastor, to love and pray him through his convention address,” Upton said.

According to Upton, Whitten has said previously that the Idlewild choir helps to “pastor” him.

Upton told Florida Baptist Witness he hopes not only to bolster his own pastor, but also to encourage all the pastors at the convention. “You never know what effect our music will have on these men and how they will influence our whole country.”

All of the music the Idlewild musicians have prepared for performance will be put away after the convention until the church moves to its new campus in mid-September. The repertoire will be part of the dedication of the new facility.

“They are very excited to have the music all ready for the fall,” Upton said.