In his 50th year of pastoral ministry primarily in the midlands, Lonnie Shull has announced his retirement from the pastorate of First Baptist Church, West Columbia, effective Feb. 28.
Lonnie ShullAs a USC student, Shull simultaneously pastored three churches in Lexington County – Oak Grove, Harmony and Florence – before attending New Orleans Baptist Seminary.
In 1961, he returned to the state, serving at First Baptist churches in Leesville and Liberty before becoming pastor of Northside Baptist Church, West Columbia, in 1968. During his 15-year tenure at Northside, the congregation’s membership grew from 650 to more than 2,100, and Shull served as moderator of Lexington Baptist Association and president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention in 1981.
After a four-year stint in Plant City, Fla., Shull was called as pastor of Fairview Baptist Church, Greer, where he served 10 years. Then, in 1997, he returned to the church where he had surrendered to the ministry as a student – First Baptist Church, West Columbia. During his nine years there, the church started the River Springs congregation near Irmo.
Active in denominational service throughout his ministry, Shull has been a trustee of the International Mission Board for two terms and was a three-term board member of the Baptist Foundation of South Carolina, serving as its chairman three times. He has been president of both state and national alumni organizations of New Orleans Seminary.
In addition to leading hundreds of revival meetings, Shull went on missionary preaching and teaching assignments in Panama, British Virgin Islands, Venezuela, Ecuador, Jamaica, Japan and Brazil. He has baptized about 2,000 believers and 75 persons have been called into the ministry under his pastoral leadership.
He and his wife Hazel, who served as a part-time instructor of nursing at Baptist Hospital, Greenville Tech and Midlands Tech, and helped establish a parish nurse program at First Baptist, West Columbia, have three adult sons: Lon III, a Mount Pleasant attorney; Tim, pastor of River Springs; and Andrew, pastor of First Baptist Church, Woodruff.