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Steve Blanchard
Associate Pastor, Christian Compassion
358-5458, ext 133
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Steve
Blanchard serves as FBC's Associate Pastor for Compassion. This area of life
and ministry simply focuses on using where we are in life to help meet
others where they are, as they are. Steve sees this as a ministry everyone
can do because we are all uniquely gifted to use what God has done in our
lives to reach out to the world around us. We all have been blessed and hurt
in ways that can minister to others.
He has
overseen the growth of the compassion ministry of First Baptist into more
than 30 different ministries that reach out to the City of Richmond, and
throughout the United States and in more than 15 countries. Some of these
include a shower ministry for the homeless, a mobile ministry that ministers
to people on the street, community partnerships with other churches and
agencies, and international partnerships with churches on five continents.
Steve
loves to travel and see how God works through other people with different
cultural backgrounds. He is also immersed into the growing refugee and
immigrant population in the Richmond area. He is helping coordinate local
efforts ministering to the various needs of these many people groups. In
addition, Steve is passionate about bringing the church to the doorstep of
people in need.
He loves
football, basketball, and many other sports, especially when the Duke Blue
Devils have a team involved. Steve and his wife, Susan, have two daughters,
Molly and Menley, who are on top of his list of greatest joys and passions.
Steve is a
native of Siler City, North Carolina. He is a graduate of Emmanuel College
in Franklin Springs, Georgia where he received a B.A. in Pastoral
Ministries. He has a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary and
a Master of Arts in Christian Education from the Presbyterian School of
Christian Education. Prior to joining the staff of First Baptist in 1997,
Steve was Director of Youth and Children at St. Luke’s United Methodist
Church in Danville, Virginia (1989-1993), and the Director of Christian
Education at First United Methodist Church in Siler City, NC (1986-1988). He
has also served part time with congregations in Athens, Georgia; Ashland,
Virginia and Ruther Glen, Virginia.
