October 2006 Issue
Ministry Reunion 2006 · Five Alums Honored · Finding...Mike Reed
Ministry Reunion 2006
They came from California, Ohio, Maryland, Mississippi, Illinois, Indiana, Colorado, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Florida, New Jersey, Alabama, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and the District of Columbia to join the home people in Kentucky for the first ever Georgetown College Ministry Reunion.
Yet even this does not represent the geographical diversity of those who have departed the Georgetown campus for vocations in ministry.
Thirty nine of the 50 states have some graduate of Georgetown College engaged in gospel work. Of these, 13 have more than ten alumni: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Texas and California.
Those that have no graduates include: Montana, Utah, New Mexico, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Maine, Connecticut, Vermont, and Rhode Island.
“If we are wrong about this,” said David Wernsing from the office of alumni records, “please let us know. During the past two years as we have prepared for the Ministry Reunion, our list of ‘Religion Profession’ people has been corrected substantially. In 2004, the list numbered 570; now it is over 1200!”
Rod Norvell, ’89, came from his post as Baptist Campus Minister at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. Upon returning home he wrote President Crouch: “It was such a heart warming experience to reconnect with so many friends and professors that meant so much to my wife and me as we attended Georgetown College.”
Oleg Turlac came all the way from the Republic of Moldova. He also wrote Dr. Crouch: “I thank you for making it possible for me to attend the Georgetown College Ministry Reunion. It was a joy to see friends and people that I even did not expect to meet….I am so proud to be a graduate of Georgetown. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to study at this wonderful school. The impact that it made on me is felt as far as Moldova and the former Soviet Union.”
Not everybody was able to come. “I cannot attend this year,” wrote Lois (Parks) Brandon, from Irving, Texas. “My husband died March 22 after a 12 year bout with cancer.” She then described her one year at Georgetown, 1959, and the impact it made on her life.
Perhaps the best word from an alumnus unable to attend
was the very first letter, written in October of 2005 and
accompanied by a check. “Congratulations on your proposed
Ministry Reunion 2006. Georgetown College provided an
education for my father, Edgar L. Morgan (’00) and later for
me (’33). We think of those years as most difficult
for obtaining any kind of education and now remember with
gratitude the dedication and sacrifice made by the faculty
and staff to keep the doors open. They could not know the
long range contribution resulting from their faithfulness.
But God blessed and extended around the world the “fruit of
their labors.” My father went to China in 1905 and
worked in evangelism, pioneer churches, and Chinese
publications until 1927; after that, Bible Conference
ministry until 1960. My life work developed in the
Pacific as outline on the enclosed card.” With genuine
appreciation, Carl Morgan, Westminster South Carolina.
Georgetown honors ministry excellence with Chafin Awards
Georgetown College recently honored missionaries and ministry specialists with the school’s annual Ken Chafin Awards. Recipients were honored during Georgetown’s first-ever ministry reunion, a three-day event for graduates involved in Christian ministry. The awards, designed to recognize lifetime achievements in ministry, are named after a prominent Baptist scholar, preacher and evangelist. Those receiving awards this year were:
Helen White Brown. Brown, a 1952 Georgetown graduate, was honored for her work with children and music at Trinity Baptist Church in Lexington, where her husband, Bob, was pastor until his death in 1980. She has been the church organist for more than 40 years. For the last 30 years she has been the organist for Milward Funeral Home in Lexington.
Tom Smoot. Smoot retired in January after more than 30 years on the staff of the Kentucky Baptist Convention collegiate ministry team.
Smoot “invented creative ministry,” said Jack Birdwhistell, long-time campus minister and now professor of religion. “Scores of Georgetown students have been transformed by their summer spent on one of Tom’s Son Teams.”
Jean and Grundy Janes. The couple were career missionaries in Chile. After their retirement in 1995, the Janeses led Georgetown to establish a partnership with the Baptist Academy in Temuco, Chile. More than 100 Georgetown students and faculty have traveled to Temuco since then, and four Baptist Academy graduates currently attend Georgetown.
Harold Bratcher. The missionary has baptized more than 1,200 people in his 47 years as a missionary in Brazil. Bratcher and his wife, Marie, traveled from Manaus, Brazil, on the Amazon River, to attend the ministry reunion and receive the award.
This is the fifth year that the Ken Chafin Awards have been presented by the college.
Ken Chafin served on Georgetown’s board of trustees and directed the annual Georgetown College Pastors Conference. Earlier winners of the Ken Chafin Award for Excellence in Ministry were: Harold Pike, Bob and Edie Fields, James Baldwin and Jim Henry.
Approximately 270 ministers and ministry specialists attended the three day ministry reunion, April 24-26.
Other highlights included the annual student commissioning service and receptions for missionaries and campus ministers. A reunion choir premiered the commissioning service anthem “All Generations Praise God,” written and composed by Georgetown alumnae Mary Ellen Kerrick.
Dwight Moody said the attendance was impressive, but he was even more pleased with the interaction between graduates and current Georgetown ministry students. “In every respect this gathering exceeded our expectations,” said Moody, dean of Georgetown’s chapel and organizer of the event. He predicted the school will host a similar event in four years.
Student Jennifer Pratt said the reunion was inspirational for students. “I think the ministry reunion is a wonderful way for the students to see the influence that other Georgetown College graduates have had on the world and begin to think of possibilities of what impact they can make.”
Finding...Mike Reed
Not every ministry alum comes to college with gospel work in mind. Just ask Mike Reed. He left Georgetown in 1971 with an English degree and a fellowship to graduate school at the University of Indiana.
"I had in mind university work," Reed now says, "but it didn't take much graduate work to convince me I was headed in the wrong direction. So I took off for Duke Divinity School."
Why Duke?
"I grew up a Baptist and married an Episcopalian. We decided to go in a fresh direction. God pointed us toward the Methodists and time has demonstrated it was a good decision."
Reed is now the senior pastor of Fishers United Methodist Church in Fishers, Indiana, a northeastern suburb of Indianapolis.
"We have four Sunday services," he explains, "three traditional, or "classic" as we call them, and one contemporary. It keeps me busy on Sunday morning and all through the week. The congregation is now in a mood of seeking where the Spirit wants us to head, a mission and vision clarification process."
Reed explains he considered ministry while in high school (Harrison County, Kentucky) but did not think of himself a "ministerial student" while attending Georgetown College. He does vividly remember Sunday mornings at Julius Marx Hospital in Lexington, then a weekly outreach project of the Baptist Student Union. He also spent one summer as a student missionary, in the state of Washington.
"The toughest part of ministry," he confesses, "is dealing with people who see things differently: church life, doctrine, worship. Sometimes I like the philosophy: 'Let's just have church and go home'."
This month, Reed is celebrating his "first appointment" to a ministry position. "I love seeing people become disciples of Jesus Christ and growing in their faith," he says.
"I was really impressed with the Reunion speakers," Reed says, reflecting on the Ministry Reunion 2006, "especially the Scholars Forum. But I missed some people I wanted to see: Howard Roberts, Phil Roberts, Larry Gilmore and Dan Powell. Maybe next time. I look forward to 2010!"
Contact Mike at Fishers United Methodist Church, 9690 East 116th Street, Fishers, Indiana 46037-2838, phone 317-849-1805 or email at mreed@fishersumc.org