October 1, 2026
ATHENS, Ga. — Chad Rising, the new associational missionary strategist for the 68 churches of the Sarepta Baptist Association, expressed his hopes for the future, stating, “I want to see the Lord unite our churches. I really do believe in that philosophy, ‘We're Better Together.’ We have one body with one mission. This is my vison!”
After 29 years serving as a bi-vocational pastor, Rising is responding to a new calling as the AMS for this historic association, founded in 1799 in northeast Georgia. He is a native of northeast Ohio, raised in a Christian Missionary Alliance church. He came to Georgia to attend CMA-affiliated Toccoa Falls College. There he met his future wife, Wendy, who was also a student and a native of the Blacks Creek community near Commerce, Georgia.
Rising said for a while he neglected his call to ministry, but then had a moment when, like Jonah, he came back. His moment was not the belly of a fish, but a serious car wreck in which he broke his hip. He said by the time he was able to begin walking after 3 months, he was back on his way to Ninevah, which in his case was Talmo Baptist Church. He served there five years as the associate pastor of Youth and Children.
He credits those five years as an associate with later success in ministry and longer tenures in the churches he served because of that mentorship. “Having the associate pastor experience at Talmo, being in the second seat made a big difference. I got to watch and learn without having to be the one in the fire at the same time.”
He then became the pastor of Cave Springs Baptist, Pendegrass, Georgia, serving 13 years. He led the church through a revitalization program; they added property and baptized over 100 people. He spent the next two years church planting in Commerce, Georgia, in partnership with a church from South Carolina.
His last pastorate was at Blacks Creek Baptist in Commerce, where he served for 10 years before accepting the position with Sarepta. He led the church through a renewal process, including upgrading its facilities, and baptizing 67 during his pastorate.
His wife, Wendy, has a Christian Education degree from Toccoa Falls. He explained that they have complemented each other in their churches, “We are a kind of a one-two punch, my gift is evangelism, she is a discipler.” They have been married for 33 years, have two adult children, and recently welcomed their first grandchild. They have also raised a godson after the death of his mother three years ago. He is in his second semester at North Georgia University.
Outside of ministry, his interests includes traveling, hunting, and fishing. Reflecting his Ohio roots, he is a fan of the Athens semi-pro hockey team, the Rock Lobsters. He is also eagerly embracing the new role of grandfather.
His secondary careers during his bi-vocational ministry included the food service industry for the first 19 years. He served as a funeral director for 10 years in Commerce while pastoring at Blacks Creek explaining, “That gave me great opportunity to do ministry too.”
He said, “Paul Wade was my funeral mentor. Paul Wade was the pastor that everybody wanted to come back and do their funerals at Talmo, because he was so good at it. I said, ‘We need to have a conversation.’ And he said, ‘About what?’ I said you need to teach me how to do this, because you are an expert at funerals. So, I learned that from him, and that has been a great blessing to my ministry.”
Other mentors have included Lex Bowen, his predecessor at Sarepta. David Shivar, who is the pastor to senior adults at Prince Avenue and a former pastor at Blacks Creek. Richard Coppage, also serving at Prince Avenue, has “always been a person that I could pick up the phone and ask questions, or lean on his experience. Andy Childs, with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, has been a good friend, he was ministering at Ebenezer in Toccoa when I was serving at Cave Springs.”
Rising said the experience of being a bi-vocational pastor has prepared him for ministry in the Sarepta. “A large number of our pastors are bi-vocational. Being able to relate to those pastors and the daily tasks they juggle between their secular jobs and the ministry is a great responsibility. Those guys need support!”
He continued, "That's one of the challenges for an association today, to discover how they can support those pastors in the way they can receive it. Association leaders can't call them for a Tuesday lunch because they've got to go to work. It’s going to be more of a one-on-one relationship. Taking the time to mentor those individuals through conversations over the phone or after hours, or those types of things that work for them.”
Addressing challenges to associations, he said, “I think associations in general are struggling to be relevant. We're in a culture where everything's at our fingertips with the internet and AI. I think associations are catching up a little bit in that realm to be a relevant resource. In the future that’s not going to be learning by training or an educational process.”
Mentoring, he said, is key. "That relationship can't be replaced by the internet. The experience of walking through the fire in a church, I think that's where the association is still a needed integral part.”
Addressing ministry trends he said, “What concerns me most would be pastors holding on to tradition as if it were our scriptural foundation. I don't think we should forget our heritage. I don't think that we should forget where we came from, but I think sometimes our churches or in our human condition, we hold fastest to a tradition more than we do a biblical principle.”
Rising also expressed a desire to see the current partnership with Panama continue and an emphasis on church renewal, which are ministries the Sarepta Association supports. "I just want to see the Lord unite our churches together. I really do believe in that philosophy, that ‘We're Better Together’ and have one body with one mission.”
A commissioning service will be held for Rising at 4:00 p.m. on March 15 at Green Acres Baptist Church, Athens, Georgia.
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