Gary Strickland, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Mauldin for the past 16 years, has resigned to accept a seminary position.
Gary StricklandStrickland will begin duties July 1 as professor of pastoral ministry and director of the doctor of ministry program at North American Baptist Seminary in Sioux Falls, S.D.
His last Sunday at Mauldin First Baptist will be June 3.
North American Baptist Seminary, which has approximately 150 students, is affiliated with the North American Baptist Conference comprised of 400 churches with 7,000 members.
Founded nearly 150 years ago in Rochester, N.Y., it is the only accredited seminary in a four-state area of the Midwest. Approximately half of the students at the denominationally diverse seminary are Baptists.
Strickland served as associate pastor at the Mauldin church from 1991-1992 before becoming senior pastor in 1992. He formerly was pastor of Northminster Baptist Church in Conyers, Ga., from 1981-1991.
A native of Atlanta, he is a graduate of Samford University and Southwestern Baptist Seminary. He earned the doctor of ministry degree at Princeton Seminary.
He has been moderator of the Greenville Baptist Association and currently is a member of the board of visitors at Anderson University.
He and his wife Stephanie, who works in the home health care division of St. Francis/Bon Secours Hospital in Greenville, have three children — Amy, Lori and Jonathan.