Rebecca Orton began working at Parkway Baptist Church as the Minister of Children in June 2007. She is also the Pastoral Resident under the Lily Grant program which gives recent seminary graduates training as Pastors.
Rebecca grew up in Huntsville, Alabama where she attended First Baptist Church with her family. She accepted Christ at the age of 9, felt the call to ministry at age 17 and has been following God's guidance into ministry ever since. Upon graduation from high school in Huntsville, Rebecca moved to Waco, Texas to attend Baylor University. While in Waco, she interned in the Children's Ministry at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church and first explored this type of ministry. The following year, Rebecca returned to Alabama to attend Samford University in Birmingham. During her college summers, she interned at First Baptist Huntsville in the Children's Ministry. For two summers she was an intern and during her third and final summer, she was named Childhood Ministries Associate. She graduated from Samford in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts in Family Studies.
Rebecca then moved to Atlanta to attend McAfee School of Theology. She graduated in May 2007 with a Master of Divinity with a Concentration in Christian Education. While attending McAfee, Rebecca was the Associate Children's Minister at Smoke Rise Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, Georgia.
On June 15, 2006, Rebecca married John whom she met at First Baptist, Huntsville while in the youth group. John was born in Winston-Salem, NC but also lived in Bowling Green, KY and Washington D.C. John graduated from Samford University with a degree in Business Management. John and Rebecca currently live in Brookhaven, Atlanta.
Rebecca is also very experienced in the art of dance. She began dancing at the age of three, but because of physical ailments had to discontinue her intense training after graduating from high school. She continued to participate on Samford's dance team and began to dance in churches at that same time. Rebecca has danced and choreographed for many churches in Alabama and Georgia and loves connecting people to God through movement. Since she is unable to dance every day, Rebecca picked up a love for running and training for various road races. She and John also enjoy concerts, dining out, Braves and Falcons games, and most of all, Alabama Football.
Check out her children's ministry blog here: Growing in God's Love
