Roger Orman, associate executive director for the South Carolina Baptist Convention, has announced his retirement effective Nov. 30.
Orman, who joined the state convention staff in 2000, is relocating to his home state of Mississippi, where he will serve as a team leader for discipleship development and Sunday school with the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board in Jackson.
“We will deeply miss Roger and his energy for the work of the kingdom,” said SCBC Executive Board chairman Dwight Easler. “His gifts of service and administration and his drive for excellence in his own work and in those that he leads are unparalleled. We desire the Lord’s blessings upon him as he continues to serve our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Orman has spent the last 24 years in South Carolina as a church staff member, an intentional interim pastor, and as an SCBC employee in several positions, including leader of the Church Development Team, the Communications & Mission Development Team, and the Church Supporting Team. He also has coordinated the convention’s annual meeting for the past several years.
Orman acknowledged a “period of transition” in the leadership of the SCBC with the recent retirement of Jim Austin and the election of Richard Harris as interim executive director-treasurer. “My retirement adds to that transition, and I want it all to be as smooth as possible,” he said, noting that he plans to be available to the SCBC even after he moves to Mississippi. “I believe in the future of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, and I believe in the Great Commission Living initiatives,” he said.
During his 14-year tenure at the SCBC, Orman led efforts to improve and expand White Oak Conference Center, was instrumental in expanding the use of digital technology to communicate the convention’s initiatives, and helped communicate the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report and the Great Commission Living emphasis to South Carolina Baptists.
Orman is a 1979 graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a 1975 graduate of Mississippi State University. Before coming to South Carolina in 1990 to serve as minister of education and administration at North Trenholm Baptist Church in Columbia, he worked in student ministry at churches in Tennessee and Texas.
He and his wife, the former Patricia E. “Patti” Cox, have been married for 34 years. They have three children: Chris, who is retired from the U.S. Air Force; Paige, who served as an IMB Journeyman in Poland for two years and is now married to Josh (both Southeastern Seminary graduates) and have two children, Liza Jane and June Apple; and Perry, who is married to Kelly and lives in Maryland.