Here - Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

ALUMNI FOCUS
Ministering
the Word
through music:
Clay Layfield
By Garrett E. Wishall
Three years into marriage, Clay
Layfield found himself in a position
that required great faith.
Wed to Amy Fields in March 1995,
Layfield was blessed with a good job and
young child. However, Clay was not content,
as he sensed the Lord leading him
into full-time ministry. So, he resigned his
position – turning down a good to stay in
his job – and the Layfields prepared to
move to Louisville, Ky., where Clay would
attend Southern Seminary.
Two weeks later, the couple learned
that Amy was again pregnant.
“I will never forget loading up the
moving truck with a two-year-old child,
a wife who was pregnant, and moving
to a place where I had no job,” Layfield
said. “The Lord had used that third year
of marriage to show me that I needed to
go to seminary. We knew that God was in
our coming to Southern. Though there
was a lot of uncertainty, especially financially,
we knew that we were in the right
place.”
Growing up
Layfield said his mother made sure,
even at an early age, that he attended
church every Sunday and Wednesday,
and around age 10 he became a Christian
at Vacation Bible School.
“I continued to be active in the church
following my conversion,” said Layfield,
who was born in Macon, Ga. “When I was
in seventh grade, my dad left the home
and my parents divorced. The music
minister at my church spent a lot of time
investing in me, as well as did other men
in our church.”
Sensing God leading him into music
ministry, Layfield majored in music education
with an emphasis in percussion
at Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon,
Ga.
Layfield met Amy at Brewton-Parker
and they dated throughout college. During
that time, Layfield said the Lord led
them to a church in Hagan, Ga., where
he learned the value of expositional
preaching.
“We need
to be singing
good theology.”
“My eyes were opened to what it is
like to sit under an expositional preaching
ministry [at that church],” he said. “I
really began to go deeper in my understanding
of theology and developed a
craving for theology. I began to see the
importance of reading, and being a student
of, the Word.”
Preparing for ministry
Layfield began taking classes at Southern
in fall 1998. With his wife staying
home with their one child, soon to be
two, Layfield knew money would be
tight. However, throughout seminary the
Lord met their financial needs.
“We never went hungry, or without
clothes and we never missed a payment
on anything,” he said. “Every time we
would think we didn’t have the money
for something, God would provide it.
There would be times when we would
go to the mailbox and there would be
a hundred dollars that we could use for
groceries or rent. That happened multiple
times and sometimes we didn’t know
where the money came from.”
Layfield said he chose to attend Southern
because of the school’s emphasis on
sound theology. He views his calling as
being, “a minister who happens to be a
musician.” The teaching of Chip Stam,
associate professor of church music and
worship at Southern, was particularly formative
for Layfield.
“Chip Stam came to Southern in the
middle of my time there,” Layfield said.
“His love for leading God’s people in
God-centered worship had a profound
effect on me. I do a lot of the things that
he taught and showed us to do. I would
not be who I am today if Chip Stam had
not come to Southern Seminary.”
Layfield graduated in December 2002.
In November 2005, Layfield became the
minister of music and senior adults at
First Baptist Church in Eastman, Ga.,
where he currently serves.
Layfield said as he continues in music
ministry, the one thing he most wants to
emphasize is that every member of the
congregation should actively worship
God in song.
“Our aim must be for every member
of the congregation, regardless of their
vocal ability, to be engaged and profoundly
moved as the wisdom and love
of God are proclaimed through the cross
of Christ,” he said. “We should strive to
have our worship services as much like
heaven as possible: Redeemed people
singing praise to the Redeemer as we
give thanks for our redemption.”
Southern Seminary Magazine | Fall 2007 page 21