We are very happy to announce that Glenn Cole joined our board at our meeting in Chattanooga on March 20.
Glenn was born and raised in Kentucky, mostly in Lexington, and moved to Athens, GA, to attend graduate school at UGA. He received his masters in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and was ABD (All But Dissertation) in his doctoral work until his children came on the scene. (More about that in a minute.) He is married to Kelly, who is the Director of Academics and Counseling at Westminster Christian Academy in Watkinsville, GA, and they will celebrate their 23rd anniversary in June.
Professionally, Glenn has served in the private sector as a management consultant; in public service and outreach at the University of Georgia as a community development and group decision facilitator, and a human resources consultant to public service agencies; and he now serves as the Executive Minister at St. James United Methodist Church in Athens, a position he has been blessed to hold for the past 13 years. His most favorite “job”, however, was that of stay-at-home dad, which he did for a delightful three years.
Glenn was called into the ministry in his mid-teens, but pretended not to hear that call for approximately 20 years. Even more recently, Glenn was (re)called into ministry. Even though he was raised Southern Baptist, and his father was a Southern Baptist minister, Glenn is currently in the ordination process to become an Elder in the UMC, to pursue his calling to teach and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, though he has NO idea exactly what that will end up looking like. He is currently pursuing the M.Div. at Asbury Theological Seminary as an ExL (extended learning) student, and at the end of the Spring semester he will be have reached the halfway point.
In 2003, Glenn went on his first mission trip, traveling to Scotland with his church staff to work with church leadership in several towns there. He has led short-term trips to Russia in 2004-2006, working with disabled orphans, and has also served on mission teams in Mexico (2008), and most recently in Montenegro (2013).
Glenn and his wife Kelly have two beautiful and rather outstanding daughters, both of whom were born premature. Hannah was born 13 weeks early, and weighed 1 lb. 13 oz. at birth. Their second child, Sarah, was born 11 weeks early, and weighed 2 lbs. 5 oz. Both of their births had a significant impact on Glenn’s spiritual growth, development, and path, as they were opportunities for the Lord to strengthen Glenn’s faith and trust in Christ—and to develop a healthy head of salt-and-pepper hair. Hannah is now 20 and is a junior at Lee University in Cleveland, TN, and Sarah is 17 and a junior at Westminster Christian Academy.
