First Baptist Church - Darlington

South Carolina, USA

First Baptist Church of Darlington, SC is located in the city most famous for the Darlington Raceway.

The church's pipe organ was built by the former M. P. Moller company of Hagerstown, MD and was installed in 1936. It was the 6,384th organ the Moller firm built.

When the pipe organ began to fail in several areas, a task force was formed to identify a solution for repairs or replacement. After a thorough study of all avilable options, it was decided to retire the pipe organ and replace it with a new Rodgers Signature series digital organ. The original 2-manual Moller organ of approximately 10 ranks was replaced by a 3-manual Rodgers organ with an equivalent of 197 pipe ranks. In addition, a Rodgers MX-200 MIDI module was incorporated in the design to provide over 1,000 additional pipe organ and orchestral sounds. Early on, it was decided not to rebuild the pipe organ and incorporate it into a pipe/digital instrument because of the small specification.

The new Rodgers organ has brought new powerful and versatile music to FBC with a custom 20-channel audio system and MIDI orchestral voices. The Rodgers organ complements the fine music program at FBC and serves as the lead instrument during worship services, weddings and other special events.