King of Prussia, PA, August 13, 2024 – After four decades of service, IM Global Servant Stan Slade retired on December 31, 2023. It is with grateful hearts that we honor the impactful work Stan Slade has done with International Ministries (IM).

Stan is among the few people who have served both as a global servant and as an IM staff member at our home office. Even more uniquely, he served in both roles simultaneously during certain years! He has walked with IM through many transitions and played a part in moving IM forward in several key areas.

After his commissioning by IM and ordination in 1983, Stan began his service in Central America under Salvadorian leaders as a professor and dean at the Instituto Teológico Bautista de El Salvador (ITBES). He is passionate about teaching God’s word and uses a highly interactive approach when teaching and training. Stan views his role as an opportunity not only to teach but to learn from others as well, something that makes him an excellent teacher-leader.

As he looks back on his young adult years at university, he sees the threads woven together as God called him into ministry. Stan shared, “I came to understand that my growth in faithfulness, my own growth as a disciple of Jesus, would be tied to promoting the growth of others.” He has taken that call seriously and supported students and leaders in their efforts throughout the last 40 years.

In addition to teaching at ITBES, Stan served as an adjunct professor in the School of Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, Palmer (Eastern Baptist) Theological Seminary, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Eastern University, and Nepal Baptist College.

In 1992, Stan accepted an invitation to join the IM home office staff. He served as director of planning and associate director of the overseas division until 1999 when he returned to the field as a global servant. At the urging of leadership, he was again asked to join the staff in 2003 as a special assistant to the executive director. Although he had only planned to serve in this capacity during the period of leadership transition, he accepted the offer to stay and moved into the director of communications role serving until 2007; he again joined the staff in 2011 while simultaneously serving as a global consultant.

In his time on staff, Stan played a key role in important aspects of IM’s history including the planning processes for the Go Global and Responding to the Call strategic plans in 2000 and 2016, the first and second all-staff gatherings in 1999 and 2014, and the first global International Partner Consultation in 2014. Stan also co-led the team that introduced the approach of building personalized support networks for global servants with Mission Partnership Teams (MPTs). This allowed IM to grow its network of global servants and partners, furthering the Gospel and is still the framework used today.

No matter what role he has served in, Stan’s desire has always been to see people discover and embrace God’s leadership in their lives and come to a transforming understanding of the Word of God.

He speaks enthusiastically about his fellow global servants and partners, awed by the creativity and resourcefulness they employ around the world in remarkably different situations: “The responses that they make to what’s in front of them, how they keep moving along, following the Lord in what they’re doing…. I find that very inspiring.”

Stan has inspired many others during his time serving with International Ministries as he walked alongside students, church leaders, ministry partners, global servants, and IM staff members. We are abundantly thankful for Stan, his service to others and his commitment to God’s mission, and the crucial partnering role his wife Cathy has played during his years of service with IM.

Please join us as we celebrate the legacy of Stan’s service and keep him and his family in prayer as he finds ways in his retirement to formally and informally continue in his calling to teach others the Word of God.