Layne was appointed to serve as Friendship Baptist Church's Minister of Music on June 12, 1994.
His love for music began at an early age and began taking piano lessons at age 7. He discovered his love for singing when he joined the choir at his child-hood church when in the 7th grade. In high school, he took freshman Beginning Chorus, and then followed up the other 3 high school years in Advanced Chorus. The choruses earned superior ratings each of those years. The chorus director taught Layne many things including how to lead and direct music. Layne sang with his chorus teacher a couple years in the Chorale to the Western Piedmont Symphony.
Layne loves all types of Christian music, ranging from Southern Bluegrass Gospel, Southern Gospel, Classical Hymnody, and Contemporary Christian. He especially loves those “toe-tapper” kind of songs that gets the auditorium involved with singing, tapping, clapping, and most of all worshipping Jesus Christ. Jesus is worth celebrating every day, and our goal is seeing people ministered to with lives affected in a good way and in the hope that many will accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. Layne also loves to see the children grow up through the church, to become good worshippers, singers, and musicians for Christ.
Layne has been happily married for 44 years to his wife, Sheila.
