<\/p>\n

FAMILY DESCRIPTION: Ricky has been married to his wife, Hilary, since November of 1996.\u00a0 He is the father of two girls.<\/p>\n

EDUCATIONAL AND MINISTRY EXPERIENCE:\u00a0He received a bachelor\u2019s degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Youth Ministry from Bryan College<\/a>, in Dayton, Tennessee.\u00a0 He holds a Masters degree in Theology from Liberty Baptist Seminary<\/a>, and he holds a Specialist Degree in Educational Leadership from Liberty University<\/a>. He also holds an honorary doctorate from Emmanuel Theological Seminary.<\/p>\n

Ricky’s ministry career has been focused on making the name of Jesus known and advancing the mission of the Gospel.<\/p>\n

His ministry began at Calvary Christian School<\/a> in 1996, as a Middle School and High School Bible teacher. In addition, Ricky served at Piney Grove Baptist Church<\/a>\u00a0in Fortson, GA from 1999-2007 as a minister of music and youth.\u00a0 He joined\u00a0the church staff at Calvary Baptist Church<\/a> in February 2007, and served as Head of School at Calvary Christian School<\/a>\u00a0from 2012-2016.<\/p>\n

From 2016-2019, Ricky served as a state missionary for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board<\/a>. In his role as the NextGen Catalyst, he worked with nextgen leaders across the state of Georgia to see this generation engaged with the gospel of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Currently, Ricky serves at the Lead Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia and provides leadership to the multi-faceted ministry with a commiment to make disciples in the Chattahoochee Valley and to the ends of the earth.<\/p>\n

FAVORITE RESTAURANT DISH: Sirloin Marsala at Carrabbas<\/p>\n

FAVORITE TEAMS: Georgia Bulldogs and all Atlanta Pro Teams. Go Braves!<\/p>\n

HOBBIES: Sports, Gadgets, Beekeeping, and Gardening<\/p>\n

Visit my YouTube channel<\/a> to watch beekeeping videos and learn from my journey:<\/p>\n

Promotional Images:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Headshot 1<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FAMILY DESCRIPTION: Ricky has been married to his wife, Hilary, since November of 1996.\u00a0 He is the father of two girls. EDUCATIONAL AND MINISTRY EXPERIENCE:\u00a0He received a bachelor\u2019s degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Youth Ministry from Bryan College, in Dayton, Tennessee.\u00a0 He holds a Masters degree in Theology from Liberty Baptist Seminary, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":480,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19\/revisions\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}