Kelly Baptist Church became the owner of a local park this summer and is wasting no time in putting the park to use.
On Saturday, Sept. 30, the church will host Light Fest, which will offer numerous festival events and food, along with a worship service and music concert featuring Todd Tilghman, winner of Season 18 of “The Voice.”
“This summer, God graced us with the local park,” said Kyle Rader, Kelly Baptist’s minister of music.
The park had been under the oversight of a community group, but when it disbanded, the park bylaws stipulated that Kelly Baptist Church would become the owner.
Previously, the park was the site of the Kelly Little Green Men Days Festival, which recalled the story of a local family whose members claimed to have seen aliens from a spaceship on the evening of Aug. 21, 1955.
“They used to have a festival on the grounds,” Rader noted, and said that the church decided to host a “big community event, bring everybody together and have a good time. This is our first one, and we hope to make it an annual event.”
The festival at Kelley Station Park, 7490 Old Madisonville Road, will be from 3 until 5 p.m. During that time, there will be typical festival activities such as games, Nerf War, bounce houses, face-painting, caricatures, fair food including barbecue and giveaways.
“All of it is free to the community,” Rader noted.
At 5 p.m. a worship service will begin. Starting off will be Arielle Evans from Trigg County, who sang on American Idol. Then Kyle Noffsinger, who pastors Southside Baptist in Princeton, will preach.
Around 6 p.m. there will be a concert by Tilghman. At age 42 in 2018, he became the oldest winner in the history of “The Voice” television competition. In his audition, all four chairs turned by judges Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas and John Legend. He was the first artist aired that season and the first artist to be aired as being unanimously selected by the judges. He competed on the team coached by Shelton. In a May 2020 live finale, he sang “I Can Only Imagine” by Mercy Me.
He pastored Cornerstone Church in Meridian, Mississippi, before pursuing a full-time music career. He and his wife, Brooke, have eight children.
Hoptown Chronicle contributed to this story.
Chip Hutcheson is a content strategist for Kentucky Today, the online news website of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. He also does supply preaching and interim pastorates. He retired as publisher of The Times Leader newspaper in Princeton in 2017 after serving as a publisher for 41 years. He previously served as president of the Kentucky Press Association, Kentucky Baptist Convention and the National Newspaper Association.
