Dr. Nathan Byrd
Pastor
On November 14, 2021, the congregation of MABC, with the recommendation of the Pastor Search Committee and the Board of Deacons, unanimously called Dr. Nathan Byrd, III, as full-time pastor of Milledge Avenue Baptist Church beginning January 1, 2022. Nathan has thirty years of experience teaching, training, mentoring, counseling, and leading in various ministry settings. Discipling believers during life's transitions is his passion. He enjoys improving, innovating, and expanding existing ministries through creative, collaborative partnerships. His career path has given him a skill set to nurture partnerships among disparate groups. Most recently, Nathan has served our community as assistant director of Family Promise of Athens; and he has served our church since 2019 as Minister of Older Adults. We look forward to starting the new year with Nathan's leadership.
Nathan's family have been members of MABC since they moved to Athens in 2000. He is married to Karen, a middle school Social Studies teacher in nearby Walton County. Karen has served MABC as our organist. They have three children. Sebastian is a graduate student in Physics at Virginia Tech. Nick, one of our Music Scholars, is a Music Business major at UGA. Karlie is a student in Oconee County.
Nathan and Karen grew up in Statesboro, Georgia, moving there the same school year. Nathan had a crush on Karen from the day they met at First Baptist Church and they dated in high school. Both graduated from Georgia Southern College (now University) in 1985. Nathan majored in studio art and Karen in music education. They were married two weeks after graduation and promptly moved to Louisville, KY where they both attended seminary. Nathan earned an MDiv in Pastoral Care and Counseling, Karen an MA in Children's Ministry. In 1989 Nathan obtained a position as the Middle Georgia Area campus minister, based at Middle Georgia College in Cochran.
In 1991 they moved to Atlanta where Nathan became associate director of the Department of Student Work (now Collegiate Ministries) where he coordinated the Collegiate Missions program, managed PR for the department, and eventually began supervising part-time and volunteer campus ministers around the state.
In 2000 Nathan became an assistant campus minister at the Baptist Collegiate Ministries at the University of Georgia. In addition to helping students navigate the somewhat turbulent college years, in 2011 he earned a Ph.D. in Adult Education at UGA. His research explored the narrative nature of faith development in emerging adults.
In the summer of 2018, he retired from Campus Ministry and began to look for his "what's next." In November he joined the staff of Interfaith Hospitality Network of Athens (now Family Promise of Athens) as an Assistant Director, coordinating volunteers, mobilizing congregations, and training new recruits to be a community response to family homelessness.
Nathan joined the staff of Milledge Avenue Baptist Church in August of 2019 as our first Minister for Older Adults to develop a unified ministry to those who are the foundation of our fellowship. In 2020, with the retirement of Pastor Edward Bolen, Nathan filled the pulpit and coordinated pastoral care duties while Milledge searched for a pastor to inspire and guide the church in its journey with Christ. After a prayerful and rigorous search and interview process of several candidates, Nathan Byrd was recommended to the Board of Deacons by the pastor search committee. On November 14, 2022, the congregation voted to confirm the committee's recommendation; and on January 2, 2022, Nathan preached his first sermon as the new pastor of Milledge Avenue Baptist Church.
In his spare time, Nathan enjoys home repair and remolding projects, reading novels and academic works, writing creatively, exploring new places (especially those involving food), cooking for his family and friends, and riding his road bicycle.
