Lamar Drummonds is entering his twenty-fifth year as the Director of Music and Worship at First United Methodist Church of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A native of east Tennessee, he holds degrees in Sacred Music and Choral Conducting from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Lamar oversees all facets of traditional worship at First United Methodist (design, clergy involvement, acolytes, lay readers, communion stewards, etc.). He directs the Chancel Choir and the handbell ensemble, the Woodland Ringers, and oversees the children’s music ministry. An overarching goal of his ministry has been connecting the church to the larger Baton Rouge community by providing opportunities for musical and spiritual enrichment. In order to support this goal, Lamar began Music Shelters the Soul, a concert series providing free musical performances supporting local non-profit organizations in the Baton Rouge community. Some recipients include the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, the McMains Children’s Developmental Center, Habitat for Humanity, the One Thousand Club, and Friends of the Animals. The series has generated over $250,000 for these, and other organizations. In addition, Lamar has developed a connection with the Louisiana State University School of Music, hosting a variety of concerts, recitals, and events for both faculty and students. His expansion of the long-standing Scholarship Singer program continues to nurture undergraduate and graduate music students from local universities, providing opportunities for intergenerational collaboration and music-making. First United Methodist also hosts events for the Music Club of Baton Rouge and the Baton Rouge Symphony on a regular basis, offering a space to support the musical contributions of these long-standing Baton Rouge organizations. Lamar was instrumental in visioning and promoting the renovation of the sanctuary at First United Methodist, completed in 2020. Following a decade of planning, the church ambitiously undertook a multimillion dollar renovation of the sanctuary which included acoustical, aesthetic, and accessibility improvements. A benchmark of the project was the installation of the new four manual, 57- rank organ built by Casavant Fréres of Quebec, Opus 3932. Furthering his goal of community connection, Lamar continues to design musical offerings providing opportunities for area churches and high school choral programs to collaborate on choral masterworks and communal hymn singing. Recent events have included a concert promoting works by Black composers exclusively, an ecumenical hymn festival for area churches, and a choral festival combining the First United Methodist Chancel Choir, the Baton Rouge Magnet High School Choral Program, and the LSU Choral Department, featuring guest clinician Lynne Gackle, a prominent music educator in the United States.