A December graduate of North Greenville University who is pursuing a graduate degree in English, with his sights set on a seminary education and a career in Christian service overseas, is the recipient of The Baptist Courier’s ninth annual Horace B. Sims Jr. Award for excellence in Christian studies at NGU.
Chris JohnstonChris Johnston, a native of Statesville, N.C., is in the graduate program at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., and said he also wants to earn a master of divinity degree from a Southern Baptist seminary. He said he would like to teach English as part of his service as a Christian worker in what are considered “closed countries” of the world.
Johnston was active in Brushy Creek Baptist Church in Taylors while a North Greenville student. He said that Brushy Creek pastor Ralph Carter formerly served the church in which he grew up in Statesville.
He is engaged to Julianna Usry, a North Greenville University senior who is the recipient of one of the the school’s highest honors, the General Excellence Award, and was the outstanding honors student in the spring term. From Georgia, she has attended First Baptist Church in Travelers Rest as a student. They plan to marry in July.
Both were recognized during the university’s annual awards day program on April 23.
The Sims award, which includes a cash gift, honors the memory of the late pastor, state Baptist convention president and widely read columnist for The Baptist Courier.