By FULLER ROYAL
Staff Writer

Georgetown, S.C. native, Timothy Lance is the new executive director for Communities in Schools of Whiteville. Lance, an ordained minister, has spent the past 16 years in Fayetteville, where he was teaching physical education and health at South View Middle School in Hope Mills.

He replaces Jennie Croft, who stepped down earlier this year.

“I am certainly looking forward to working with CIS-W,” said the father of four. “I am looking forward to working with CIS because the programs and activities are directly related to my own personal thoughts and ideas concerning the need for businesses, churches and the community at-large to get involved with the school system. I have a passion for working with families and doing all that I can to inspire children to reach their maximum potential.”

Lance has plenty to do and has hit the ground running.

He said that CIS-W’s most critical needs today are volunteers and financial support.

“My immediate goal is to keep the program going and ensure a smooth transition from the previous executive director to myself,” he said. “I stepped right in the middle of the planning phase of the basketball tournament scheduled for March 10.”

This is CIS-W’s biggest fundraiser.

“I am seeking to get more churches involved in the tournament this year,” Lance said. “We are also planning a program called ‘Strengthening Families’ scheduled to begin Feb. 20. I am focused on getting this program up and running and ensure maximum family participation.

“My long-term goal is to make an already great program even better and increase the number of students being served by CIS,” he said.

“The importance of CIS-W to the schools is summed up in the CIS mission statement – ‘To champion the connection of needed community resources with schools and other sites to help young people successfully learn, stay in school, and prepare for life,’” he said. “We live in a period of increased gang violence, drug abuse and addiction, resulting in a higher dropout rate of high school students. It is imperative that we make use of every resource available to keep our children in school and help them become productive, contributing members of our community.”

He graduated cum laude from South Carolina State College with a bachelor’s degree in general business administration in 1983. Later, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He has been married to the former Priscilla Singleton for 23 years.

Lance attended the U.S. Army Quartermaster Officer Basic Course and was assigned to the U.S. Army Quartermaster Brigade at Fort. Lee, Va.

While assigned to Ft. Lee, he said he confessed Jesus as Lord and served as a deacon for the Liberty Chapel Gospel Service at Ft. Lee. He completed the U.S. Army Quartermaster Officer Advance Course in 1987 and was assigned to the Hohenfels Training Area in Germany.

During his tenure at Hohenfels, he served as the chief of logistics and headquarters company commander.

While in Germany, Pastor Lance accepted the call to the ministry and was ordained to preach the gospel by the General Baptist Association of West Germany and Belgium. He served as pastor of the Hohenfels Gospel Service. He returned to the United States in 1990 and was assigned to the 1st Special Warfare Training Group at Fort Bragg as the Group S-4.

In 1993 he was voluntarily released from active duty to pursue his desire for the ministry.

His awards and decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal (second award), the National Defense Service Medal, the Parachutist Badge, the Parachute Rigger Badge and Hohenfels Most Valuable Volunteer Award.

Lance received a master’s of divinity degree, summa cum laude, from Shaw Divinity School in Raleigh in 1994, and was awarded the American Bible Society’s Achievement Award for studies in Biblical Languages.

He completed the US Army Chaplain Officer Basic Course in August 1999, and serves as a chaplain in the U.S. Army Reserves as a major. Lance received an honorary doctor of ministry degree from Tri-County Bible College in Maxton in 2001.

Lance describes himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and his greatest desire is to be an instrument of peace and love in a dying world.

“My heart is in marriage and family counseling,” he said. “I love conducting workshops, seminars and doing inspirational speaking. My hobbies include, but are not limited to reading, woodcraft, and cooking.”