Leavenworth native John Leavitt.

Every few months, singers in the choir at First Presbyterian Church perform a piece by John Leavitt.

“John is probably the most published choral composer in the country, and his work has been performed all over the world,” says the choir’s director, Tracy Resseguie. “His music is so accessible for the average church choir, but it’s challenging enough to be interesting.”

On Sunday, members of Resseguie’s choir, as well as three others, will have that challenge again – with Leavitt in front of them, directing.

Leavitt will be in Lawrence for an evensong service, which begins at 4:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian, 2415 Clinton Parkway. The service will feature four anthems composed by Leavitt and sung by a combined choir that includes singers from First Presbyterian and First Baptist Church of Lawrence, and from Countryside United Methodist Church and First United Methodist Church in Topeka.

Leavitt, a native of Leavenworth, now lives in the Wichita suburb of Andover. (Resseguie was a student of Leavitt’s at Friends University in Wichita during the 1980s.)

But Leavitt travels often, doing guest appearances with choirs performing his pieces, which tend to use folk tunes in their melodies.

“Obviously, I have my own predilection of what I want to hear, but I’m not so immobile that I can’t listen to other ways of doing things,” Leavitt says of guest conducting. “It’s like a laboratory. You walk in, you know where you’re headed, but there may be some detours along the way.”

When asked about the current state of church music, and contemporary-service music in particular, Leavitt offers this diplomatic answer: “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tended to look at the state of church music this way: There are far more choices today than there were years ago. For me, I’m looking for something that will find common ground with people, even though we walk in many diverse directions.”