wfn.org | ABCUSA: ENTREKIN HONORED BY ACADEMY OF PARISH CLERGY

[RICH.SCHRAMM@ecunet.org]

AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS SERVICE 
Office of Communication  
American Baptist Churches USA 
P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851 
Phone: (610)768-2077 / Fax: (610)768-2320 
Web: www.abc-usa.org
Richard W. Schramm, Director 
 E-mail: richard.schramm@abc-usa.org

ENTREKIN NAMED PASTOR OF THE YEAR 
BY ACADEMY OF PARISH CLERGY
 The Rev. Dr. Heather Entrekin, senior pastor of 
Prairie Baptist Church in Prairie Village, Kans., has been 
honored as Pastor of the Year for 2002 by the Academy of 
Parish Clergy.
 Organized in 1969, the Academy is an 
international, ecumenical, professional organization for 
ordained ministers.   An individual nominated for its Pastor 
of the Year award must demonstrate that his or her 
practice of ministry shows exceptional concern for the life 
and work of the church and provides creative and effective 
leadership. 
 Entrekin will hold an honorary membership in the 
Academy for a year, and will be invited to preach at its 
annual conference in Richmond, Va., next month. 
 Entrekin, who has been senior pastor at Prairie 
Baptist since September 1999, previously was minister of 
small groups and older adults there.  In United Mission 
funding, Prairie Baptist continues to be  the highest-giving 
congregation within American Baptist Churches USA.
 Before graduating from Central Baptist Theological 
Seminary in Kansas City, Kans., with an M.Div. degree in 
theology in 1987, Entrekin served as the administrative 
head of the Christian Legal Society in Chicago and as 
director of public relations at Central.   She was pastor of 
Centerville Community Church and  interim pastor of 
Grandview Baptist Church in Kansas City, as well as an 
adjunct faculty member at Central, before coming to 
Prairie Baptist in 1996.  
 Entrekin and her husband, Peter Stover, served as 
English language teachers in China for two years through 
American Baptist International Ministries and the Amity 
Foundation. 
 She recently completed all of the requirements for 
her Ph.D. degree in communication studies at the 
University of Kansas. 
 Regarding ministry she has said: "This world 
desperately needs Christians who practice and preach a 
love for God which sends us out to love our neighbors in 
ways which are difficult, uncomfortable and risky.  Our 
world needs churches which demonstrate in the diversity 
of their makeup and worship the reality of a loving, 
reconciling relationship with God and one another.  If we 
do not, who will?"

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