Albin C. Whitworth 

Albin C. Whitworth is Director of Music and Organist, Artist and Composer in Residence at First United Methodist Church in Lexington, Kentucky. He is also Seminary Organist at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, where he was Professor of Church Music in the Lily May Jarvis Endowed Chair of Church Music for nineteen years. He is a native of Louisville, Kentucky and holds the A.B. degree from Asbury College, the M.Ed. and Ed.S. degrees from the University of Louisville and the Doctor of Christian Ministries honoris causa from Asbury College. He has done additional study at southern Baptist Theological Seminary School of Church Music, Eastern Kentucky University and the Royal School of Church Music, Addington Palace, Croydon, England.

For seventeen years he was on staff at the historic Walnut Street Baptist Church in downtown Louisville. Walnut Street Church was Kentucky's largest congregation with over 6,000 members and has ministered to thousands through the televising of their Sunday morning services. Dr. Whitworth was also Chairman of the Music Department, Choral Director, and later assumed an administrative position as Instructional Coordinator at Butler High School in Louisville. For seven years he was Assistant Professor of Music at Asbury College in Wilmore.

He served as President of the Jefferson District Music Educators Association and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Music Educators Association. He is a member of Kappa Delta Pi and Phi Delta Kappa, honor societies for educators. He has played for numerous music festivals and conferences as well as revivals and church related events. He has been the accompanist for the Kentucky All-State Chorus, the organist for Continental Congress on Evangelism, Washington, D.C. sponsored by the Baptists of the Americas, the pianist for the Second World Congress of Baptist Men, sponsored by the Baptist World Alliance, the pianist for the North American Section of the World Methodist Council at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina in 1979 and 1983, and the pianist for the 1978, 1979, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990 and 1993 Convocations of United Methodists for Evangelical Christianity. In May of 1978, he was invited to Washington to accompany soloist Russell Newport at a meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention Service Corps which included a White House reception and banquet at which President Carter was the speaker. In October of 1978, he and his wife were guest artists at a Christian Arts Festival in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico where they performed duo-piano works and Mr. Whitworth was accompanist and piano soloist. He served as accompanist of the Kentucky Baptist Chorale, and traveled with this group on a six country European Tour in May of 1979, as their accompanist and piano soloist. He provided the music for Roots of Faith, an internationally viewed television special produced by the World Methodist Council. He was guest organist for the Protestant Hour, an international radio broadcast heard by over ten million people throughout the world. He was the pianist and directed the choir for Mission to the Eighties, an evangelistic thrust for the World Methodist Council held in Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C. in February, 1980. He as been keyboard consultant and pianist for the Church Leadership Conference at Ridgecrest, North Carolina and has also played for Home Missions Week at Glorieta, New Mexico, as well as the Annual Meeting of the Women's Missionary Union of the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis in 1980. He has twice been guest artist on The Joy of Music, an international television show hosted by Diane Bish, former organist of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

He is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and has been awarded the Standard Panel Award every year since 1985, for "outstanding contributions to American music." He is listed in the 22^nd Edition of Who's Who in the South and Southwest and the 3^rd Edition of Who's Who in American Education.

He composed a hymn tune entitled "Centennial”  for the Centennial celebration of World Methodism which was held in Honolulu, Hawaii in July, 1981. He was organist for the conference of 3,500 delegates from 90 countries which was sponsored by the World Methodist Council. He has also served as Music Director and accompanist for the World Methodist Conference in Nairobi, Kenya in 1986, the World Methodist Conference in Singapore in 1991, the World Methodist Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1996 and the World Methodist Conference in Brighton, England, 2001. He concertized in Ecuador in 1994, in Taiwan and Hong Kong in 1995, and Estonia in 1996.

He has published more than 200 compositions with eleven publishers, including nineteen books of keyboard arrangements for church musicians, a book of descants for trumpet and organ, a piece for organ and handbells, and fourteen anthems for mixed choir. He has published in The Church Musician, Pedalpoint, and The Organ Portfolio, periodicals for organists. He has made four solo recordings, Majestic Sounds of Worship recorded on the 59 rank Austin pipe organ in Walnut Street Church, Joy to the World, a recording of Christmas carols recorded on the Miller Pipe Organ in Brentwood United Methodist in Nashville, and two piano solo albums. Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us and Amazing Love\

He is married to the former Kathryn Jane Rieke of Minneapolis, Minnesota, who is a retired elementary teacher of gifted children. She also served as Director of Children's Ministries at First United Methodist Church ofLexington. They have identical twin sons: Mark, who is Associate Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in Birmingham, Alabama; and Kent, who is Executive Director of the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort, Kentucky. He and his wife have two grandsons and two granddaughters.

Teddy Ray

Offerings Pastor

Missions Ministries