Retired Southern Baptist pastor’s legacy to be found in biblical resource center

With the Jennings Hall dedication on Dec. 1, Union University also celebrated the opening of the R.C. Ryan Center for Biblical Studies, a third floor library and resource center that will be available for use by pastors and the community.

R.C. Ryan, a retired Southern Baptist pastor, has given more than $1.2 million to the university over the past several years. The total gifts are equally shared between the university’s Center for Biblical Studies and scholarships for Union students.

At 94 years old, retired pastor R.C. Ryan, shown here with Union President David Dockery, continues to give support to the university and its students.
“Brother Ryan’s gift is an incredible demonstration of generosity and sacrifice on behalf of Union University,” said Union President David S. Dockery. “He is a marvelous friend of Union students and a strong supporter of Union’s Christian mission.”

The Center for Biblical Studies will focus resources on helping individuals learn to more effectively study the Bible. Through conferences, a resource center in Union’s new Jennings Hall, personal consultation and a variety of other programs, the Center will help equip church leaders and Bible teachers to share tools which will help others become better students of the Bible, Dockery explained.

During a revival meeting at Bush Arbor Campground in 1917, Robert Ryan accepted Christ at 11 years old. At age 15, Ryan was licensed to preach, and preached at his home church, Cypress Creek Baptist, on several different occasions as well as surrounding area churches.

Feeling such a strong call to full-time ministry, Ryan enrolled in Hall-Mood y Baptist Academy at age 16 to study for the ministry. (Hall-Moody, located in Martin, later became a part of Union University.)

“I stayed at Hall-Moody for one term, and soon found that I missed my school friends. I was the youngest ministerial student there and a little lonely in the environment, so after discussing the matter with my parents, I returned to public school in Mt. Pelia,” says Ryan.

Ordained in 1935 at Gearins Chapel Baptist Church in Dresden, Tenn., Ryan began actively pastoring churches while continuing part-time college and seminary study. His ministry took him to five different states and eighteen different churches. Ryan’s longest service occurred at Trenton Avenue Baptist Church in Bremerton, Wash. During the five years he was there, Ryan saw the ministry grow from its humble beginnings of knocking on doors to identify prospective church members and win the lost to its culmination in an active church, housed in a building of almost 6,000 square feet of church property.

“I praise the Lord for every church I pastored; souls were saved in them,” says Ryan. “It pays to begin at an early age to live for Him daily if you wish to live for many years, and to have the peace that God has in store for them that love Him .”