Dr. Byron Edens - Pastor

Dr. Byron Edens is the Pastor Elizabeth Baptist Church and Vice President for Online Learning and Professor of Preaching and Christian Ministry of Brewton - Parker College, based in Mount Vernon, Georgia. He has over 40 years of pastoral ministry experience spanning 12 different churches. He also served as the 2018-19 Vice President of The Tennessee Baptist Convention, TN. Additionally; he is also a Georgia POST certified Law Enforcement Chaplain with over 20 years of Law Enforcement Chaplaincy experience.

Dr. Edens is a native of West Columbia, S.C. where he was saved at the age of seven and was called to ministry at the age of 18. He accepted that call and was later licensed and ordained at Northside Baptist Church, West Columbia, SC. After graduating from Brooklyn-Cayce High School, he began his college education. He graduated with his Associate Degree from Midlands Technical College in 1979. He then transferred to the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC and completed an Associate Degree in Commercial Education in 1982 and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in 1984.

He completed his seminary education at New Orleans Baptist Seminary earning a Master of Divinity in Pastoral Ministry in 2001 and a Doctor of Ministry Degree in Expository Preaching in 2012. Additionally, he did further post graduate doctoral studies at Walden University in Applied Management and Decision Sciences in Information Technology and completed his Ph.D. in Leadership from Carolina University in 2021.

Dr. Edens is married to the former Theresa Ann Wilson of Miami, who received her Associate, Bachelor of Arts, and Master of Divinity Degrees in Christian Education from NOBTS and her Doctor of Philosophy in Leadership from Carolina University in 2022.  They have two children, Danielle and Philip (wife Emily).

Dr. Edens ministry of preaching and evangelism has allowed him to share the gospel in South East Asia, the Holy Lands, Israel, Jerusalem, Judea, Greece, Moldova, India, Africa, Russia, Cambodia, Japan, North and South Vietnam, Jamaica, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Sierra Leone and many other countries. He has a heart and passion to reach the people that Jesus challenged each of us to reach in all walks of life, especially to those underprivileged of the world and give them an opportunity to gain a Christian education.  There is an old saying, “Man’s flight through life is sustained by the power of his knowledge!” Without the knowledge of Christ, the world is lost. The Edens challenge is, “we must reach the world for Jesus!”