Laurie Register, a state WMU associate, was chosen Sept. 10 as the next leader of the South Carolina Baptist Woman’s Missionary Union. Register will succeed Evelyn Blount, who retires Dec. 31 after serving for more than 23 years as executive director.
Evelyn Blount
Laurie Register“I am humbled to have been selected as the next executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Woman’s Missionary Union,” Register said in a statement issued to The Baptist Courier. “The South Carolina WMU has a rich history, and it is my desire, with God’s leadership, to build on the foundation laid by those who have come before me,” she said.
Register, a native of Alachua, Fla., has been a member of the state WMU staff for 15 years, working with Acteens, Women on Mission and as executive director of the South Carolina Baptist Nursing Fellowship. A graduate of the University of Florida and Southwestern Baptist Seminary, she is a member of Green Hill Baptist Church, West Columbia.
“Laurie Register is first and foremost dedicated to Jesus Christ. She has an abiding commitment to missions and was led of God to live out that commitment through Woman’s Missionary Union,” Blount told The Baptist Courier.
“She has been an outstanding member of the South Carolina WMU staff for 15 years, which provides her with an understanding and love of the people who make up the South Carolina Baptist Convention,” Blount added. “I believe that under Laurie Register’s leadership, South Carolina WMU will continue to move forward and will add a great deal to God’s kingdom.”
A seven-member WMU search committee, led by Dona Lea Fanning, a member of First Baptist Church, Charleston, has been working for nearly a year, considering more than 40 candidates who were recommended for the position.
“All of the work was bathed in prayer, including a one-day prayer retreat,” according to Fanning. The vote to recommend Register to the executive board was a unanimous vote and the vote of the executive board was unanimous, she reported.
“We are excited about our choice or rather, I should say, God’s choice because we believe it definitely was his choice,” Fanning remarked.
Gail Hodson, state WMU president and member of Mid Valley Baptist Church, Graniteville, in expressing her appreciation for the search committee’s hard work and faithfulness, said, “We, as the South Carolina WMU executive board, are confident that with Laurie’s passion for missions, Evelyn Blount’s training, and Laurie’s relationship with her Lord and Master, she is equipped and ready to lead South Carolina WMU forward into the future.”
Search committee members included Fanning; Hodson; Betty Bedenbaugh, Earle Street Baptist Church, Greenville; Alice Edwards, Riverland Hills Baptist Church, Chapin; Linda Hite, Red Bank Baptist Church, Lexington; Barbara Hunter, Jones Avenue Baptist Church, Easley; Cathy Mixon, Sand Hill Baptist Church, Hampton; and Martha Smith, Summerton Baptist Church, Manning.
Register will begin her new duties Jan. 1, 2009.