On Monday, March 31, 2014, I had the privilege of presenting one of the breakout sessions at the Annual Meeting of the Baptist Church Music Conference. This entire conference was fantastic and featured great speakers, times of worship, and concerts by the Baylor University A Cappella Choir, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Ensembles, and the debut performance of the Fort Worth Children’s Choir.
My session entitled Transforming Communities Through the Arts: Developing a Community-Focused Arts Ministry examined the rationale and practice of developing a ministry that uses the arts to engage the local church’s surrounding community. I presented the theological and philosophical foundations for such a ministry and discussed the church’s historical role as a center for the arts. I demonstrated how community arts ministries have great potential to serve as evangelistic tools to build relationships between believers and non-believers.
The second half of the presentation examined practical matters associated with these types of ministries. I provided numerous possible ministries that a church could undertake and highlighted several churches who are doing a good job in this area.
David M. Toledo, Ph.D 
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