LAMONI, Iowa — Twenty years ago Woodie Ladnier, a devout member of the Reorganized Latter-day Saints church (RLDS), now called the Community of Christ, attended Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa. He has returned to campus to serve as a Baptist collegiate minister.
After becoming a Christian, Ladnier joined a Baptist church and later attended Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tenn.
He soon held a bivocational ministry position as minister of youth in a suburban Memphis Baptist church. Now Ladnier is connected with First Baptist Church in Lamoni. Pastor Scott Kallem led the church to bring Ladnier on as a volunteer staff member under the Mission Service Corps of the North American Mission Board, raising his salary through the gifts of friends and partners who believe in his mission.
Serving as a part of the staff at First Baptist Church, Lamoni, the focus of his ministry is Graceland University. Ladnier said 51 percent of Graceland University’s students are non-RLDS. Many are open to the new college ministry group, which meets off-campus. Ladnier is free to visit on the campus and has renewed relationships with many of his former professors.
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