By Nathan Prewett
For the Tribune
TRUSSVILLE – For Trussville resident Richard Hitchcock, combining music with religious faith is a powerful thing. A lifelong musician, Hitchcock was recently picked as the interim music minister at Briarwood Presbyterian Church, which was a founding church of the Presbyterian Church in America.
Richard Hitchcock is the interim music minister at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.
“I have been a musician all my life,” he said. “I started playing the piano when I was five or six, kept it up through college and by the time I was 30 I felt that it was right for me to go to seminary to be a music minister in the church.”
In the late 1970s, he attended a seminary in New Orleans, LA. He received a master’s in music before taking up full time music ministry at First Baptist Church of Dothan and then First Baptist Church of Trussville. He eventually returned to work as a financial planner but continues to do music ministry part time.
“The gospel of Jesus Christ is the most powerful force in the world,” he said. “And music is number two. And so, the privilege of combining or sharing the most powerful with the second is very powerful combination: To take the gospel of Christ and bury it inside a medium that effectively gets into the psyche of people.”
Briarwood Presbyterian Church was started in 1960. The main building currently spans 325,000 square feet and is attended by more than 4,000 members. In the 1970s, Briarwood was the site of the founding of the Presbyterian Church in America, also known as PCA.
“Briarwood as the distinction of being the founding church of the Presbyterian Church in America, which is a more conservative brand of the Presbyterian faith,” he said.
Although he is Baptist by denomination, Hitchcock was more than glad to help when Briarwood reached out to him to fill in as interim music minister after their previous minister stepped down and resigned. Prior to this, Hitchcock was involved in singing at Briarwood and other churches.
“It’s an honor,” he said. “It’s an absolute honor. At my age, I know that this is something I won’t be doing long because they’re looking for somebody permanent, and that’s fine, but it’s an honor to do it while they have the need.”
At Briarwood, Hitchcock not only leads the music ministry but other programs as well when needed. Earlier in July, Hitchcock directed “Christianity in America,” an event held annually at the church that features patriotic music and a program for honoring active duty soldiers and veterans.
“Christianity in America is an unabashed celebration of patriotism,” Hitchcock said. “But it’s couched in the belief that the church has to be at the forefront of change. If the church is not changed then you will not change the political landscape.”
Music is not an easy feat, he said. But, despite this, music can be an uplifting experience for anybody.
“It is a lot of work,” Hitchcock said. “When I say it’s empowering I mean you do what it takes to bring the average person who works a 40,50 or 60 job and sits down at rehearsal dead tired at the end of the week and you make it possible for them to praise the Lord with their talent, whether it’s instrumental or choral or whatever.”
Hitchcock said that there is a unifying aspect to music and ministry.
“I think the church musician is more empowering for others,” he said. “I think the main role of a church musician is to empower other people and bring them together so they can use their skills. I have been surrounded all my life by music ministry with exceptional talent, far more than my own. And that’s not intimidating, that’s wonderful.”
