JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) — Wayne Stacy, dean of the divinity school at Gardner-Webb University, is expected to leave to become pastor of a church in Florida.
Stacy, 53, will be recommended Jan. 11 to lead Southside Baptist Church in Jacksonville, according to the congregation. The 64-year-old church, located in a historic section of Jacksonville, has about 1,600 members and has played a leadership role in the Florida Baptist Convention, which is headquartered nearby.
Since 1997 Stacy has been dean of the Christopher White School of Divinity, which is named for the former Gardner-Webb president who resigned in 2002 after admitting he changed a star athlete's grades, prompting an NCAA investigation.
Stacy, a vocal supporter of White, recently requested and was granted a sabbatical leave from the divinity school, according to Frank Campbell, the university's interim president. But Campbell told Associated Baptist Press Stacy was not pressured to leave and had been expected to return.
Stacy could not be reached for comment. He recently became interim pastor of First Baptist Church in Gastonia, N.C. Robert Canoy has been named interim dean of the divinity school.
A tenured member of the Gardner-Webb faculty, Stacy previously served on the faculty of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and as pastor of First Baptist Church of Raleigh, N.C.
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