Barbara O'Chester Chair

BARBARA O’CHESTER

Chair of Women's Ministry

BY MARILYN STEWART

The newly established Barbara O’Chester Chair of Women’s Ministry honors O’Chester’s legacy as a pioneer in women’s ministry and signals the seminary’s commitment to continue to equip women in ministry. Emily Dean, assistant professor of ministry to women and director of ministry to women academic programs, will occupy the chair.

“Barbara, we are grateful to God and to you for your ministry and your legacy,” president Jamie Dew said in a chapel service Jan. 27 in announcing the new academic chair.

Dew praised Barbara O’Chester’s ministry as a speaker, mentor, and women’s ministry leader that has touched tens of thousands of women’s lives.

Noting the O’Chesters’ long friendship with former NOBTS President Chuck Kelley and his wife Rhonda Kelley, Dew thanked Barbara for her contribution to NOBTS through her encouragement and support of Rhonda Kelley’s ministry to women. Under Rhonda Kelley’s twenty-year leadership, the NOBTS women’s ministry programs expanded to include course offerings and degrees that drew in women from around the world.

“Barbara, this has been your passion for 70 years,” Dew said. “You have been so faithful in that.”

Dean leads the academic programs focused on ministry to women with degrees offered at the certificate, undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. Dean also helps direct the newly founded NOBTS Society for Women to promote academic gifts, scholarly practices, and contributions to the academy by women doctoral and graduate students. “The legacy of Barbara O' Chester reminds us that each generation does not serve the kingdom in isolation,” Dean said. “As women in SBC life, we stand on the shoulders of women such as Barbara who have faithfully led the way for ministry to women as we know it today. She was a trailblazer in her focus on ministry to women, and I am so grateful for her vision and dedication to serving women in the church. The new academic chair is made possible by funding from Jon Parnell, a long-time friend of the O’Chester family and a member of the Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, where Harold O’Chester served as pastor for 35 years prior to retirement.

Barbara O’Chester earned the bachelor of sacred music and her husband Harold O'Chester received the bachelor of divinity from NOBTS in 1958.