After 36 years in student work, Jane Poster retired at the end of April as Baptist collegiate minister at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
Jane Poster, center, and her husband David greet convention staffer Elaine Stroud at Jane’s retirement reception.Poster was first employed in 1971 as associate director of campus ministry at the university by the former Fairfield Baptist Association, now Columbia Metro.
She was honored at a reception April 18 at the Baptist Building in Columbia.
“Over the past 36 years,” said Ken Owens, director of collegiate ministry for the South Carolina Baptist Convention, “Jane’s ministry has impacted thousands of students, many of whom are today’s missionaries, ministers and church leaders.”
Owens praised Poster as a “true servant of the Lord and a dedicated ambassador for South Carolina Baptists to the college campus.” He concluded, “Without a doubt, her leadership has empowered the kingdom of God to grow throughout the world.”
A Greenville native who grew up in Judson Baptist Church, Poster graduated from Erskine College, Wake Forest University, and did additional study at Southeastern Baptist Seminary and USC.
She is the author of “Reckless for Christ,” an early history of Baptist student work in South Carolina.
Poster said that building relationships gave her the most satisfaction in her work. “First,” she said, “we want to lead them to know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, and after that to connect them to a local church where they can become involved.”
“Nothing,” she emphasized, “brings more pleasure than seeing a student make a profession of faith and begin to grow in Christ.”
Poster helps with renovation of the Baptist Collegiate Ministries Center at USC on South Main Street, two blocks from the state capitol. BCM moved into the new facilities, a former printing company building, in 2004.Poster said that Christian students today “hear and see so much that they frequently have a hard time discerning where they need to take a stand for their faith.”
At the same time, she pointed out, “this is a passionate generation who want to make a difference and are willing to sacrifice to share the gospel. We have a larger number of students than ever who are considering the Journeyman program through the International Mission Board after graduation.”
One thing has not changed in her three decades of work with students, Poster noted, and that is their “need for love and acceptance.”
The retired collegiate minister said she would “not be where I am today without the impact” of the Baptist Student Union, and now Baptist Collegiate Ministries, on her own life as a student at Erskine. “I thank God,” she said, “for the commitment of Southern Baptists to collegiate ministry. Changed lives is a major product of Baptist Collegiate Ministries.”
Poster hopes that she will “always be connected with college students and my fellow collegiate ministers in some way.” In August, she will assume duties as a contract worker for the South Carolina Baptist Convention in the area of South Carolina Baptist history.
She has been a summer research fellow for the Institute of Southern Studies at USC. She also is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, a leadership society at the university, and the National Society for Collegiate Scholars.
Her husband David will retire in December from his position in financial services with the state’s Department of Mental Health. They are members of St. Andrews Baptist Church. Following her husband’s retirement, Poster said they “hope to relax, enjoy being together and travel.”