Messengers to the annual meeting at Irmo’s Riverland Hills Baptist Church took time to honor Executive Director-Treasurer Gary Hollingsworth for his seven years of service to South Carolina Baptists. Hollingsworth has set his retirement date as April 30, 2023.

Bryant Sims, SCBC director of denominational relations, unveils a portrait of Hollingsworth that will be hung in the Baptist Building.

Calling his years at the state convention’s helm the pinnacle of his 48 years of ministry, Gary Hollingsworth said he had come with an open heart, knowing that it was truly the call of God, but he now is “just as confident the time for us to make this move in our lives to step away” has arrived. “I believe South Carolina Baptists are poised now to enter truly some of the greatest, most productive, fruitful years of kingdom advance that they have ever known,” he added.

Hollingsworth said he has no intention of retiring from the ministry and already has been approached by GuideStone Financial Resources to serve in a part-time capacity as an ambassador for Mission Dignity, a Southern Baptist ministry to retired ministers and their widows.