About Me

Dr. Walker earned a Bachelor of Music (BM) degree from Shorter University and a Master of Church Music (MCM) and Doctor of Music Ministry (DMM) degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

An ordained minister, she has served three churches (working with nine senior pastors) throughout her career: Minister of Music, First Baptist Church, Vienna, Georgia; Associate Minister of Music, Lyndon Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky; and Music/Worship Pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Frankfort, Kentucky.

Throughout her music ministry, she has frequently assumed leadership roles in statewide children’s music festivals and camps (as adjudicator and guest conductor), co-directed all-state choirs, and been on the faculty for music leadership conferences.

She has written articles about worship, church music, and women in ministry for Baptists Today (now Baptist News Global), Ethics Daily, and other publications. Her musical compositions are published by Morningstar, Choristers Guild, Lorenz, GIA, and other sacred music publishers.

Dr. Walker has regularly been involved in denominational leadership at regional, state, and national levels, first with Georgia, Florida, and Kentucky Baptist Conventions, and then with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Currently, she is a member of Smoke Rise Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, GA, where she sings in the sanctuary choir. She is enjoying doing short interims and subbing for music ministers at various churches in the area.

Even before I was born, my family started moving around a lot, making the typical sacrifices involved in getting my dad through New Orleans Seminary. At one point he held a student pastorate in Bogue Chitto, Mississippi, where I, at age 6, made a profession of faith and was baptized in a creek. I also debuted my first solo in that church, singing “I’d Rather Have Jesus.”

My dad felt called to be a Southern Baptist (SBC) Home Missionary, so after he graduated (I was in the 4th grade) our family moved to Grand Island, New York to begin Pioneer Mission work. We arrived in a blizzard, and that pretty well describes my mother’s feelings about the move—she didn’t feel nearly as “called” to mission work as my dad did…but she was really good at it!

The first small congregation worshiped in our double garage, and Sunday School classes were held in our living room, kitchen, and bedrooms. Mostly, I remember the culture shock from the move–the extreme climate, the advanced school systems, the teasing about being “Southern” and “different.”

Mom was often employed as a secretary. Later in my life, I patterned my own work ethic after their hardworking example.

Besides New York, he—actually, “we”—eventually did similar mission work in Michigan, West Virginia and South Carolina. (My most recent lifetime tally shows that I’ve lived in 8 states, 13 cities and 21 houses/apartments.) In these varied mission settings, I grew up taking on adult responsibilities in church leadership. I sang in the “adult” choir (when we had one); helped my mother teach Vacation Bible School; taught my own 1st grade Sunday School class at age 13; and was church pianist at age 15. (I gave the music director a list of hymns I could play, and worked hard to expand the list.)

Those early experiences—especially having to adjust to so many new people and cultures as we moved around, as well as my opportunities to lead in mission work—shaped my life as much as did my private music lessons and my choral experiences in school. I learned a lot from my Mom & Dad.

After I graduated South Charleston High School (WV), I entered Kentucky Southern College in Louisville, KY in the Fall of 1967, and soon majored in music. 

The school went bankrupt in 1969 (absorbed by the University of Louisville), and I transferred to Shorter College (now University) in Rome, GA, where I earned a Bachelor of Music (BM) degree. I became certified to teach music education, grades 1 – 12.

During my last 2 years of college I was employed as a Summer Music Worker for the Florida Baptist Convention, traveling around the state, leading weekly schools of music in churches and camps. I loved the travel (even though it was on a Greyhound bus every Saturday) and I especially enjoyed the teaching.

After graduation in 1972—vowing I would never go to graduate school—I was employed by Dooly County Schools, Vienna, GA as Choral Music Teacher. I was also employed as part-time Music Director at First Baptist Church, Vienna (VFBC)—that is, after the pastor got over the fact that I was a woman. He required me to wear a choir robe on Sunday mornings, even though their services were far from liturgical, and he didn’t wear a robe. Even after he left, I continued to wear that robe for 14 years. Such were the early days of women in ministry. 

That next Spring, I felt that with my school teaching job, there was not enough time to accomplish all that needed to be done at church. So I talked the pastor and the church into hiring me as their very first full-time Music/Youth Director. [Interestingly, it turned out that Title I education funds ran out for that next Fall, and I wouldn’t have had a teaching job, anyway.]

I’ve often said I sort of “fell into the ministry.” I never intended to be a vocational minister in any church (I’d never thought of women as ministers, anyway), but I saw the need, the congregation saw the need, and we agreed that I had the particular 

gifts and dedication to meet those needs. So, it just made good sense to hire me. I never dreamed that I would end up staying at VFBC for 14 years, working alongside 4 different pastors.

To this day, that congregation has no real idea that I am a woman minister, with all the implications of that term, and I didn’t know I was one, either…until I started exploring full-time music ministry opportunities with other churches. Then I found out–with multiple messages loud and clear–that I was a woman minister, a generally undesirable commodity among most SBC churches, especially during that era.

My dad also struggled for a long time with my being in the ministry. I reminded him that he’d taught me all my life to “follow what Christ leads you to do,” but I’m sure he was surprised when I wasn’t led to be a WMU (Women’s Missionary Union) director, missionary, or pastor’s wife. I was just doing what I felt called to do: full-time vocational music ministry.

Eventually, as he saw how I thrived as a music minister, he not

only accepted, but embraced my calling. In his later years he would proudly announce to new acquaintances that I was a woman music minister.

Throughout my years at VFBC, I took advantage of opportunities to attend denominational music ministry conferences, and I also enjoyed attending a monthly support group of other music ministers. I was almost always the only female in the room. Those wonderful men always treated me like a peer and sister in ministry, and I am so grateful for how they helped shape my life and music ministry.

During that time, I also began to be involved in denominational leadership through the Georgia Baptist Convention (and continued, years later, with the Kentucky Baptist Convention). I enjoyed serving as regional director and vice-president of the church music conference; teaching various music leadership classes; presenting short concerts and leading music for conferences; being on the faculty or conducting for state music camps; and co-directing all-state children’s choirs. I enjoyed traveling, meeting people, and doing the presentations so much that at one point, I thought God might be calling me to do denominational work full-time.

After several years at VFBC, I began to realize that I was doing exactly the same tasks that all my male music minister friends were doing in their churches. As I slowly embraced my role as “minister with a capital ‘M’,” I began to refer to myself as Minister of Music (rather than Music Director), within my congregation and elsewhere. The title caught on…and, unexpectedly, my salary became more substantial.

In 1983, I asked the church to license me to the ministry. The pastor at that time really encouraged me to request ordination instead, but I declined because of some personal reasons that had nothing to do with my qualifications nor my desire to be ordained. In retrospect, if VFBC had ordained me in those early days of women in ministry, there undoubtedly would have been some backlash from local and state denominational leaders, causing problems for the church.

Around that time, I began to realize that a lot of my “sisters in ministry” were having a very difficult time getting churches to hire them as ministers. Or, if they were employed as ministers by churches, they were often subjected to lesser salaries; to not being allowed to stand behind the pulpit as they led hymns, or to speak during worship; to being patted on the head or addressed as “sweetie” by male ministers; …the list goes on. Thankfully, I was comfortably secure in my church position, but I felt sad and angry for what they were experiencing.

So I listened to their stories and began to do some writing on their behalf. My articles received some state and national attention in denominational

publications. Soon afterwards, I became one of several co-founders of GA Baptist Women in Ministry. Since then, I’ve always felt that being an outspoken advocate for women, especially women ministers, was a distinct part of my calling.

In 1986, after 14 years at VFBC, I felt God leading me to pursue a Master of Church Music (MCM) degree at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS), Louisville. At that time, SBTS had a great reputation for embracing and training women as ministers, and their School of Church Music was large and prestigious. (Sadly, no longer true; now completely defunct due to denominational politics.)

I had no realistic idea how I was going to pay for the experience at SBTS. But—perhaps somewhat naively—I decided to go there on faith, the kind of faith my parents modeled during my early years as we did mission work. God called, and I followed.

(As it turned out, I mostly made it through seminary on academic loans, small denominational scholarships, and grants. I was also blessed to receive a variety of “care packages” and cash from various church groups and individuals.)

Among other clear signs that enrolling at SBTS was God’s will for me was a phone call “out of the blue” from Dr. Phillip Landgrave, Music Professor at SBTS and Minister of Music at Lyndon Baptist Church, Louisville. He was interested in hiring me as part-time Associate Minister of Music at Lyndon.

When I subsequently interviewed there, I came away thinking that only God could have picked out this church for me. For one thing, the re-elected chair of their deacons was a female who was single. Gender and marital status were just not issues for that congregation when it came to professional ministry.

So, with generous help from family and some very gracious friends & VFBC members, I sold the mobile home I lived in, moved to Louisville and rented a small, on-campus apartment (un-airconditioned, with radiator heat) in Seminary Village. (Thank you, Ellis & Frances Davis, for graciously offering to move me there.)

Soon thereafter, Lyndon BC officially hired me as Phil Landgrave’s Associate, and later hired his son, Kevin, as his other Associate. Our responsibilities at Lyndon were different but overlapping, and as the church’s “trio” of music ministers (we used to joke about being “father, son & ‘holy’ sister”), we served together creatively for about 9 years. Along the way, Phil & his wife, Gloria, became like family to me. They mentored me, inspired me…and happily worked me to death! I deeply value their friendship.

Before I arrived in Louisville, I knew that I had to take a set of entrance exams before enrolling in masters-level classes. It had been 14 years since I was a college student, so I was very nervous about passing exams in music history, conducting, music theory, piano proficiency, and sight-singing, as well as a vocal audition (in multiple languages/styles).

I did all right, except for the 4th level of music theory. And since I was never proficient in history anyway, I managed to pass the Baroque & Classical music history exams, then just enrolled in remedial classes for the 2 remaining historical eras. Of course, for remedial classes, the grades counted, but no quality points were given, and those classes usually met at 8 a.m.–too early for my brain!

Between advanced coursework, recitals, concerts, and choir tours at seminary, as well as the “three-ringed circus” of ministry responsibilities and activities at Lyndon, there was never a dull moment during my time in Louisville—just chronic exhaustion. At Lyndon, I was embraced by wonderful, caring friends who not only modeled and supported our creative ministries through the church, they also helped me get through my seminary coursework, and saw to it that I was well cared-for personally.

The SBTS School of Music was held in high esteem in the Louisville fine arts community during those years, and I was able to participate in many wonderful programs through Oratorio Chorus, Seminary Choir (11 semesters), and Opera workshops. Seminary Choir tours allowed me to experience singing in some very fine churches and venues across the Southeast…as well as to do some sight-seeing. (I also sang in the Kentucky Opera Chorus for 3 seasons during those years.)

A little to my surprise, I did very well during my 1st semester of seminary classes. I recall the irony of calling home—at age 36—exclaiming, “Mom, guess what!? I made straight “A”s this semester!” My initial success helped me challenge myself to keep hitting that “A” mark—and I mostly did, throughout 2 degree programs.

By the time I graduated the MCM program in the Spring of 1989, I had decided to take the entrance exams for the doctoral program at SBTS. At first, I didn’t really care about graduating with a doctorate; I just wanted to be accepted into the program. Sounds odd, I know. But many women will understand that my getting accepted was a “self-esteem thing,” a validation that I was indeed smart and worthy, whether I completed the degree or not.

SBTS offered a unique accredited program, Doctor of Music Ministry (DMM) degree, which is comparable to Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree, except designed for the church, not academic venues. To apply, I had to narrow my focus to 3 primary areas of study. I finally chose voice, music education, and composition.

I knew that doctoral entrance exams would be more challenging than masters level exams. And at SBTS, applicants normally got only one shot at it—you either knew the material, or you didn’t.

But once accepted, you were well-prepared for all the upcoming

coursework. So, for Fall semester I took a break from classes (except for Seminary Choir and private study in  composition) to prepare for the exams.

That next Spring, doctoral entrance exams were another “dog & pony show” for 2 solid days. Music history & music theory exams were 3 hours each; applied audition (voice) was basically a recital, with program notes; piano proficiency; sight-singing; conducting 2 diverse anthems; sacred solo literature; and music education (children’s music ministry).   

So, I was accepted into the DMM program and began “jumping through all their hoops.” For my doctoral project, in 1992 I wrote a children’s musical, “Knock-Knock! Are You There, God?,” about prayer and overcoming children’s typical problems. I produced/directed it with my children’s choirs at Lyndon, and I’ve produced it twice more since then.

At SBTS, the more I learned and the more I succeeded in my studies, the more my confidence grew. I happily graduated in May 1993, a far different person internally than I was at my previous graduations. That was also the last year that Dr. Roy Honeycutt was president of SBTS before the conservative takeover, and I was honored to shake his hand at graduation.

[Let me add here that I am grateful for the treasure-trove of knowledge and skills that achieving a doctorate provided me–and I am proud of that accomplishment–but I’ve never fixated on being called “Dr.”

That said, if I am in an academic setting or a formal venue where others are being addressed by their titles, then I do expect the same acknowledgement. 

It’s a matter of equal respect; I earned the title. For everywhere else, though, please just call me “Naomi.”]

After graduation, I worked full-time for a couple of years as Director of Housing & Mailing Services at SBTS, while I continued my music ministry at Lyndon.

Then, in the Summer of 1995, after searching for quite some time, I got a call from Immanuel Baptist Church (IBC), Frankfort, KY about a full-time position as Music & Children’s Pastor (later, my title changed to Music/Worship Pastor).

When I was hired, I thought I might stay at IBC for 5 years or so, but I ended up staying 22 years, working with 3 senior pastors and 1 interim pastor, plus other pastoral staff. My years there were both fulfilling and challenging, and during my tenure, the congregation and its overall ministries evolved several times. In recent years I’ve been known to say, “I served three different churches in Frankfort—all at the same location.”

From the start, I felt this was a good match for me. They had a well-rounded music ministry and children’s program; they were quite involved in the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; their Senior Pastor was moderator of the Kentucky Baptist Fellowship; they embraced a professional team concept for pastoral staff; they were racially diverse; and they had women deacons.

Through the years, as the congregation’s worship & music preferences fluctuated, our music/worship ministries tried everything from liturgical to contemporary worship services (no “worship wars”; just a few minor “skirmishes”), and from Contemporary Christian music to spirituals, traditional hymns/anthems, classical music, and major works. The Sanctuary Choir was always the anchor of our music ministries, but from time to time we also had various choral groups, soloists, instrumental and vocal ensembles, handbell groups, and quartets. We made some fine music together!

Graded choirs at IBC always met during the school year. But each July, partly as an outreach ministry, we held a week-long Musical Day Camp–a fully-staged children’s musical theater production, with 35-65 children enrolled each year. I successfully produced and directed 20 of these during my tenure–not by myself, of course, but with the help of Gabrielle Gayheart (co-director–thank you!) and a host of other workers.

Overall, Lyndon and IBC are the most racially/culturally diverse congregations I’ve ever served (except for a 2018 interim I did at Peachtree Baptist Church in ATL), and that diversity has often resulted in unique ideas for creative ministry. Currently IBC’s congregation is a little smaller than it was during my early years there, but the church is still thriving (as is the music ministry—yay!), and maintains fine, innovative ministries such as their Infant Resource Center, which provides necessities for needy mothers of newborns in the area. 

So many faithful members of the IBC congregation supported me through “thick & thin” during my tenure there. They were almost always willing to jump right in whenever I introduced some wild, new idea for creative worship and ministry.

I think they trusted that I would never let them embarrass themselves, and I trusted them to give their best to our music ministry & worship projects. Mostly, I knew they had my back.

When it came to my personal needs, I’ve never known of a congregation that was more loving and attentive. I am indebted to so many for their kindness and generosity. And I am especially grateful for Karen Dungan and the Dooley/Dungan clan who treated me like “family” throughout my time there, even including me in 17 or so of their Thanksgiving dinners, whenever I couldn’t make it home to GA.

During my last several years at IBC, my aging parents’ health issues were getting more frequent and more serious. Years earlier, the rest of my birth family had moved to the Atlanta area, where my parents lived, and they were all doing their best to care for Mom’s frailties (including brittle Diabetes) and Pop’s advancing Dementia and heart problems.

My siblings were increasingly overwhelmed, trying to do their jobs and care for their own families, while our parents needed more and more attention, especially after Mom broke her hip in 2013. So I began traveling to GA more often to give my siblings a break–which, of course, took me away from responsibilities at my church in KY.

[Some may wonder why I waited so long to be ordained. The story’s rather long and convoluted; if anyone is interested in details, contact me and I’ll explain.]

So, by midsummer 2017 I got ordained, sold my house, retired, packed my belongings in a POD and a trailer, and moved to GA to begin a new adventure–once again trusting God that it would be a good one.

Earlier, when Mom broke her hip, we arranged for round-the-clock caregivers, who were wonderfully attentive to her and Pop’s needs. After his death in 2016, we began preparing to move Mom out of the old, deteriorating barn-of-a-house they had lived in for over 20 years, so we could sell it to help pay for her caregivers. Finally, in 2018, we moved her into a small senior apartment (with a room for rotating caregivers).

We were relieved at how well Mom adjusted, and we were greatly blessed by Hospice Care during her final months. In September 2018, Mom died peacefully in her own bed with all of us standing around her, singing hymns, praying aloud, and reading Scripture. We buried her next to Pop, her beloved, in a nearby cemetery.

Since Mom’s death–after finally getting her estate settled–I’ve begun pursuing my other retirement goals: being with family and long-time friends; settling in and fixing up my home and yard; doing a little music ministry subbing at churches; composing anthems and songs; doing some ministry writing; painting and crafting; helping with Clark Howard Habitat for Humanity home 

builds; doing ministry projects and building personal relationships through my Sunday School class and Sanctuary Choir at Smoke Rise Baptist Church; making friends in my neighborhood; developing this website; …

A-a-a-n-n-d something totally unplanned: doing a little paid background acting in the movie/television industry, which is booming in the Atlanta area. It has been fascinating to experience the production process and fun gigs—about one per month (except for a pause during the Covid-19 pandemic) since January 2019.

life. I seem to keep “running into brick walls.”

But every time parts of my life have seemed to be in ruins, I’ve found that not only is God’s grace abundant, God’s will is adjustable. After all, God is in the business of redemption, turning bad into good, creating new paths that lead to joy.

When my days have been dark, my loving family, church members, and close friends have always embraced me, supported me, and “pulled me back into the light.” For that I am deeply grateful.

Ironically, surviving the unwelcome parts of my journey has led to my becoming a far better minister, a more compassionate caregiver whose understanding of others’ pain is deepened by my own experiences.

Whenever I feel sad about whatever seems to be “missing” in my life, God tends to remind me that overall, my life is privileged and wonderful! From the very air that I breathe, to good health, people who love me, domestic comforts, and interesting things to do and look forward to, I am blessed far more than I deserve. After all, nobody has everything–that’s why we mortals need God. I have no reason to complain.

For now I’m just focusing on: learning to think and live and love like Jesus; being grateful for “what’s left”—which is way more than enough; looking for ministry opportunities–doing whatever I can to help improve other people’s lives; sharing my creative gifts; finding calm during stressful times; listening to God’s “voice” for guidance, and listening to people who need to share their burdens, thoughts, and feelings.

I am confident that this is the way to a life of peace, satisfaction, and spiritual growth. God promises a good future, and I’m certainly looking forward to it!

Soli Deo Gloria!