Dr. John Francis is a native of Monticello, Kentucky and earned his bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance from Eastern Kentucky University, and a Master’s degree in Worship Arts from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Fort Worth as well as a PhD in Church Music, with an emphasis on Worship Arts. Currently, he is the Minister of Worship at Parkway Baptist Church of St. Louis, is an adjunct professor at Missouri Baptist University, and is the director of the MBU Ringers.

Dr. Francis has played all over the world, most recently as soloist with the El Salvador National Symphony Orchestra. In addition to being a Southern Baptist worship leader for over 25 years, he is the former principal trumpet of the Jefferson Brass Quintet, trumpet soloist in the Country Gentlemen Jazz Quartet, and is the director emeritus of the Somerset Brass, a municipal band in Somerset, Kentucky.

Dr. Francis’ trumpet playing has also been demonstrated in the 1993 movie, Gettysburg. He has written the book, Sound the Trumpet and has several writings and arrangements published by LifeWay (Nashville) and Cleff Publishing (Olathe KS). He has written academically for the International Trumpet Guild Journal (Trumpets of the Qumran) and for The Artistic Theologian (Eating Beauty: Book Review).

John is married to Kimberly Francis, a parent educator with Parents as Teachers in the Parkway school district. They have two married children, Madelynn Hendrickson, married to Jacob Hendrickson and Tristan Francis, married to Sarah Francis. He has three lovely grandchildren, Jael, Nava, and Talia Hendrickson.

John has a blogsite for his research, biblicaltrumpets.org.