fbpx
×

Log into your account

We have changed software providers for our subscription database. Old login credentials will no longer work. Please click the "Register" link below to create a new account. If you do not know your new account number you can contact [email protected]
Golden Gate gives awards and discusses relocation
Tyler Sanders, GGBTS/Baptist Press
June 20, 2014
4 MIN READ TIME

Golden Gate gives awards and discusses relocation

Golden Gate gives awards and discusses relocation
Tyler Sanders, GGBTS/Baptist Press
June 20, 2014

An upcoming campus relocation was a main topic at a June 11 alumni and friends luncheon hosted by Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (GGBTS) at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Baltimore.

GGBTS President Jeff Iorg presented Distinguished Alumni awards to Col. Frank Rice and Henry Webb at the seminary’s alumni and friends luncheon.

“When I think about these two men who are being honored tonight, the word that comes to my mind is ‘distinction,’” Iorg said. “Both of these men have worked long and hard for the gospel and have done it with distinction.”

ggbts06-20-14.jpg

Rice is a native of Baton Rouge, La., and received both the bachelor of divinity and master of theology from Golden Gate. Rice joined the Air Force after two years at Louisiana State University, serving with the WWII European occupation forces and during the Korean War. He graduated from Louisiana Baptist College in 1954 and moved west to attend Golden Gate.

Rice also served as a pastor in California and worked in rescue missions in San Francisco during his seminary years. He then reentered the Air Force as a chaplain and served in the United States, Germany, Japan and Thailand. His last active duty assignment was as the command chaplain of the Air Force Communications Command, providing for the spiritual welfare of over 55,000 men and women around the world. He retired in 1985. He and his wife Margarete live in Charlottesville, Va.

Webb was born in Portland, Ore., grew up in Oklahoma and graduated from Golden Gate with the master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees. In accepting the award, Webb said he enrolled at GGBTS after a series of “delays and detours” that hindsight has revealed to be God’s precise orchestration. The first delay involved a transfer from West Texas State University to Oklahoma University, where he met his wife Patti and received his call to ministry. The second delay put seminary off for a year, which led to campus ministry at Colorado State University and the University of Hawaii.

After arriving in Hawaii, Webb transferred again, but this time to Golden Gate to complete his master of divinity. At GGBTS, Webb felt a shift in his calling from campus ministry to pastoral ministry, and began to pastor Kalihi Baptist Church in Honolulu, Hawaii. While at Kalihi Baptist, he completed his Doctor of Ministry and helped found Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services.

Webb served 28 years at LifeWay in a variety of roles including director of pastoral ministries. He was on the team that developed the LifeWay Transitional Pastor Ministry and was a transitional pastor trainer for 13 years.

During the luncheon, Iorg reported on the seminary’s sale and relocation, focusing on most-frequently-asked questions.

“We have spent a considerable sum of money and time trying to develop our Mill Valley property. Despite these efforts, we have been stymied,” Iorg said, explaining the reasons for the move. “Recently, we have come to the conclusion that these barriers were not obstacles to overcome, but rather as signposts telling us to move in a new direction.”

The new campus will be on a smaller footprint in support of the school’s core mission, Iorg said.

“We will design our campus with the needs of tomorrow’s students in mind. In short, our campus will reflect our mission,” Iorg said. The seminary’s primary campus will be in Southern California, where population demographic projections indicate great growth over the next 40 years; while the Northern California campus will continue to serve the Bay Area as a commuter campus.

The relocation will not drain the seminary’s endowment, Iorg said.

“Golden Gate’s future is bright,” he said. “We are strategically, geographically, and financially ready to impact the United States and world like never before.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Compiled from report by Tyler Sanders of Golden Gate Seminary.)