At this year’s South Carolina Baptist Pastors Conference, Anderson University recognized three pastors and a director of missions for “faithful and effective” ministerial service.
Anderson University president Evans Whitaker, right, presented Pastor of the Year awards to Chad Rickenbaker, Robert Winburn and Wayne Golden.The four men were recognized with a plaque and a complimentary registration to the National Conference on Preaching in May 2013 at Charlotte, N.C.
Criteria for Anderson’s selection included at least three years of service in the state, strong support for the Cooperative Program, and personal faithfulness and integrity.
The John W. White Award, named for the university’s second president, was given to Wayne Golden, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in the Round O community near Walterboro. This category for the award was churches of 300 or less members.
Golden and his wife, Elaine, have three daughters and five grandchildren and have served at Bethlehem for just over one and a half years. He served his previous church, Congaree Baptist in St. Matthews, for 18 years. Bethlehem gives 12 percent to the Cooperative Program and has a global intercessory prayer ministry designed to enlist people to pray for indigenous pastors, missionaries, and unreached people groups. More than 100 trained intercessors serve in prayer partnerships with missionaries in nine countries.
Chad Rickenbaker, pastor of First Baptist Church of Gowensville, received the John Edward Rouse Award for the church category of 301 to 1,000 members. Rouse served as Anderson’s president from 1957 to 1973.
Rickenbaker and his wife, Joy, have four children and have served the church for 12 years. The congregation gives 11 percent to the CP and has developed a small-group ministry that focuses on applying the pastor’s Sunday morning sermon to various mission activities in the community. Rickenbaker’s desire is to “help Christians mature in their faith and begin living missionally.”
The W.B. Johnson Award for pastors serving churches with more than 1,000 members was given to Robert Winburn, pastor of Spring Valley Baptist Church in Columbia. Johnson was one of the founders of the Southern Baptist Convention as well as founder and chancellor of Johnson University, the forerunner of Anderson University.
Winburn and his wife, Linda (Cookie), have one son and three daughters all involved in Christian ministry. He has been the pastor of Spring Valley for more than 23 years and serves on AU’s board of trustees. Under his leadership, the church will reach the $3-million mark for Cooperative Program gifts in 2013.
The Carlisle Driggers Award, named for the 15th executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, is given to a director of missions. This year’s recipient was Edgar Boles, director of missions of Charleston Association for nearly 12 years.
Boles and his wife, Miriam, have two sons and two grandchildren. Charleston Association, composed of 72 churches and more than 30,000 church members, has developed multifaceted ministries, including disaster relief, seafarers ministry, college, community, and multihousing ministries, as well as camps and retreats at the association’s Bonnie Doone Plantation Conference Center.
Boles initiated a theme in the Charleston Association that was also used by NAMB as their national theme, “Across the Street and Around the World.”
LifeWay Christian Resources partnered with Anderson to provide the gifts to the recipients.
Boles has recently been hospitalized and was unable to attend the Pastors Conference and accept the award in person. – AU