Ministries & Mission

Redding Lecture

Dr. George Walker Redding was a Georgetown College graduate (1927) and member of the faculty of Georgetown College for thirty years (1943-1973), teaching primarily courses in Bible and chairing the Bible Department. Dr. Redding earned the Bachelor of Divinity and the Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.  He was known for his good humor, concern for students, and high academic standards.  Dr. Redding was active in local Baptist churches, serving as interim pastor on twenty-eight occasions.  The College awarded him an Alumni Achievement Award in 1973 and an honorary doctorate in 1981.  After retiring from Georgetown in 1973, Dr. Redding continued to teach until his death in 1989.  In 1997 Georgetown College inducted him into its Hall of Fame.

One might ask, “Why have the Redding Lectures on the campus of Georgetown College?” Simply stated, our hope is to inspire the spirit, challenge and expand the mind, and encourage further study. We trust that such a worthy goal is accomplished by providing an annual lecture at Georgetown College that brings to our campus some of the best known and most widely published Christian scholars in the United States and the world.

Preaching Workshops

The Lord brought together the vision of Bill and Alice Marshall and the legacy of Eugene Isham Enlow and his late wife, Culley Yates Enlow. That vision was to create an annual preaching workshop, sponsored by Georgetown College’s Marshall Center for Christian Ministry, the focus of which was/is to enhance the preaching ministry of the participants. The first Enlow Excellence in Preaching Workshop was held in 1998 and featured Dr. Thomas G. Long.

In the fall of 2003, Dr. Eugene Enlow established with the Kentucky Baptist Foundation the “Eugene and Culley Enlow Excellence in Preaching Endowment Fund”, the income from which is to provide funding for future preaching workshops.

Dr. Eugene Isham Enlow is a beloved Kentucky Baptist pastor, preacher, teacher, writer, denominational leader; and 1944 Georgetown College graduate. Gene Enlow received a PhD from SBTS in Louisville. He pastored churches in Kentucky and Oklahoma and retired from Louisville’s Beechmont Baptist Church in November 1988. He also taught as an adjunct  professor of OT, NT, and Evangelistic Preaching at Boyce Bible College. After retiring he served more than 13 interim pastorates.

After the death of Dr. Enlow’s first wife, Culley; he married Bettye McSwain Lovorn Enlow. Gene and Bettye shared life, ministry and love together until his death on November 15, 2017.  

Minister's Leave to Oxford

The Minister’s Study-Leave Program, through the Marshall Center for Christian Ministry of Georgetown College, provides ministers with a brief period away from congregational and/or ministry field responsibilities. It provides a time of renewal, both professionally and spiritually, and allows the minister to return to his or her duties with new energy and ideas.\

Each year, between mid-June and mid-September, three “four-week” sabbatical periods are made available at Regent's Park College of Oxford University in Oxford, England. It is a rare opportunity made possible through a unique agreement between Georgetown College and Regent’s Park College. Regent’s Park is a community of scholars in the Baptist tradition, established in 1810 and is a “permanent private hall” of Oxford.

Those who participate in the Minister’s Study-Leave will have the riches of Oxford available to them: the extensive libraries, an intellectually stimulating environment, and centuries-old traditions that are part of Oxford’s impressive history.

Christian Service Awards

Each year at Baccalaureate Service the Marshall Center for Christian Ministry is privileged to recognize selected members of the campus family for their dedication to Christ and exemplary service in His name. They are people who live out the humility of servanthood, and the courage and authenticity of their Christian faith. Recipients of the Christian Service Awards include a Staff member, a Faculty member, and a Graduating Senior. Nominations are received from throughout the entire campus family.

One goal of the Marshall Center for Christian Ministry at Georgetown College is to sharpen the focus and deepen the commitment of students, faculty, and staff toward a global Christian perspective. Our hope is that the Christian Service Awards will affirm exemplary Christian life and witness on our campus, and will elevate the relevance of such a life and witness in the larger academic context.     

The Christian Service Awards are named for some outstanding Georgetonians, and the Awards are funded by their families. Named Awards are:

• George Walker Redding - Faculty Award
• Gardner-Marshall - Staff Award
• Norman and Martha Yocum Lytle - Graduating Senior Award

Bibles to Graduates

Each year, as a gift from the Marshall Center for Christian Ministry, every graduating senior at Georgetown College (May & December) receives a copy of the Good News Translation Bible. The Bible gifts are made possible through the Wanda P. Higbee Bible Endowment, Wanda P. Higbee was a 1957 honors graduate of Georgetown College. She excelled as a teacher of French in the Maryland public school system from which she retired. To assist Georgetown College in strengthening its Christian mission, Ms. Higbee graciously established an endowment with the Marshall Center to provide each graduating senior with a Bible.

Why the Good News Translation? Because the primary New Testament translator and the Chair of the Old Testament translators was Dr. Robert G. Brathcher. Robert Bratcher, missionary kid from Brazil, was a 1941 graduate of Georgetown College.

He went on to earn his Th.M. and Th.D. degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Working for the American Bible Society, employing an approach to translation known as “dynamic equivalence,” and rendering the text in simple, everyday English; Robert Bratcher produced an English translation of the New Testament that was published in 1966 as Good News for Modern Man: The New Testament in Today’s English Version. Following the addition of the OT translation, today the Bible is called the Good News Translation. This translation of the Bible has been deeply meaningful to many people around the world.

Summer Mission Trips

The MCCM Board of Directors has spoken often about our desire for the Marshall Center to more aggressively and generously support Georgetown College students (staff, faculty and others as needed) in taking advantage of Christ-centered missions experiences at home and abroad. Our desire is to make mission grants/scholarships available to students seeking a missions experience. We believe that such missional opportunities can and will be life changing for students and others as they consider the world around them, and seek to extend His love and grace to others.

In recent years the Marshall Center has supported GC students/faculty/staff financially with mission grants for ministry and service in Uganda, Cuba, Honduras, Wales, Australia, Philippines, India, Thailand, Haiti, Malaysia; as well as Ohio, Washington D.C., and New Jersey.