Richard McLawhorn, president of South Carolina Baptist Ministries for the Aging since January 2006, has announced that he will resign at the end of September to return to the pastorate.
Richard McLawhornThe congregation of Garden City Baptist Church, Waccamaw Association, voted to call McLawhorn as senior pastor on Aug. 17.
A lawyer and ordained minister, McLawhorn was hired by SCBMA trustees at a time when the ministry’s two retirement communities faced possible sale or closure due to long-term debt coupled with ongoing operating deficits at the ministry.
Both Martha Franks Baptist Retirement Community in Laurens and Bethea Baptist Retirement Community in Darlington are now operating in the black.
SCBMA board chairman Kirby Winstead said the official search process will begin when the board meets in Laurens Aug. 26. He asked South Carolina Baptists to “pray specifically for God’s will” in finding the next president for SCBMA.
Winstead, director of missions for Pickens-Twelve Mile Association, said McLawhorn leaves SCBMA in a “positive frame,” adding, “If we’re going to have a transition, this is a good time to have one.”
In his resignation letter, McLawhorn told trustees: “SCBMA is now at a point where a period of consolidation and new planning is called for in order to be able to build wisely on what has been accomplished. – I am convinced that God has many other ways He wants this ministry to be a greater servant of, and witness for, Jesus Christ. – If there is to be a change in the ministry’s leadership, this is the right time for that change.”
Under McLawhorn’s administration, business practices have been implemented to eliminate the chronic budget deficits that placed the ministry at the brink of bankruptcy as recently as 2005. An unexpected gift of $440,000 from the South Carolina Baptist Convention in February 2005, followed by a $1.2 million Mother’s Day offering from the churches, provided a financial shot in the arm that allowed the ministry to remain viable until McLawhorn took the helm a few months later.
Winstead said McLawhorn will remain available as a consultant, even after a new president is hired. “This is a large ministry,” he said. “This is going to take some time.”
Describing McLawhorn as “a wonderful face for our ministry,” he said, “We will miss Rich and his organizational skills, but he has found God’s will, and we can rejoice. His heartbeat is in the ministry.”
McLawhorn holds a B.A. in government and politics from the University of Maryland, a master of public administration degree from the University of South Carolina, and a law degree from the University of South Carolina Law School. He earned a diploma in pastoral ministries from SBC seminary extension in 1994.
McLawhorn graduated from Lake City High School in 1965 and served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps for three years. He is married to Jo Ann “Jody” McLawhorn. They have five children.