The Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the agency that administers benefits and assistance for PC(USA) workers, is pleased to announce that its President, Frank C. Spencer, will be ordained as a minister by the Presbytery of Charlotte, North Carolina, on February 7, 2015.

The presbytery will conduct the ordination service, which will be held at Mr. Spencer’s home church, Selwyn Avenue Presbyterian Church, in Charlotte. Ministers in the PC(USA) are known as teaching elders and fill a variety of positions in addition to that of pastor to a congregation.

“This will be a joyful day for me,” said Mr. Spencer, who will be the first minister to lead the Board in more than 25 years. “There is no question that the institution that we call the Presbyterian Church is deeply embedded in who I am, where I come from, and how I engage the world.”

Mr. Spencer’s maternal grandfather, the Reverend Frank E. Clark, was a well-known Presbyterian minister and educator in Buchanan County in southwest Virginia, in the early 20th century. His father, Dr. Samuel Reid Spencer Jr., was the 14th President of Davidson College and the fifth President of Mary Baldwin College, both with deep Presbyterian roots, and served as Chair of the Board of Trustees of what is now Union Presbyterian Seminary.

In his 2013 book, The Benefit of the Doubt: Claiming Faith in an Uncertain World, Mr. Spencer wrote that at 15, he heard the Reverend John B. Rogers Jr. preach a sermon that set the direction of his faith development. “John gave us permission to bring all questions to God,” Mr. Spencer wrote. “The freedom that he gave me on that morning, has allowed me to explore a deepening relationship with God ever since.”  Rev. Rogers will preach a sermon as part of the ordination service.

Mr. Spencer, President since July 1, 2014, has nearly 30 years’ experience in organizational leadership, finance, and commercial real estate development at for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Prior to joining the Board, he was President and CEO of Habitat for Humanity, Charlotte. He spent 15 years in healthcare real estate with Cogdell Spencer Inc., joining as its Chief Operating Officer in 1996. He was appointed President in 1998 and became CEO when the company launched its Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange in 2005.

Mr. Spencer has completed the work required for a Master of Divinity at Union Presbyterian Seminary, Charlotte. He holds a B.A. with honors in German from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar, and is a Baker Scholar graduate of Harvard Business School. For more information, see pensions.org.

About the Board of Pensions
The Board of Pensions is the agency legally responsible for administering the pension and benefits programs of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). It is required by law to administer these programs for the sole and exclusive benefit of its participants and members, and is governed by an independent Board of Directors, elected by the General Assembly of the Church.