Candler students learn to take responsibility for communities, both local and global. Candler’s mission is to reach out to people of all circumstances—to listen, accept, share the Gospel, and invite others into the family of faith by creating opportunities for a closer relationship to Christ. Candler trains students to serve the church and to help make communities more loving and just.
Jim Giddens packed up his belongings and brought his wife and three children to Candler in 1984. A Sherman Scholarship helped them survive as Giddens embarked on a second career with the church.
He led Skidaway Island United Methodist Church as it grew from 38 members to a congregation of 1,200, and he has worked tirelessly to give back, not just to Candler, but to the world.
Giddens is among the some 75 percent of Candler’s graduates who serve local congregations. He encourages his church members to support seminary students, and they have responded to his encouragement by contributing nearly $500,000 to scholarships at Candler, including a scholarship endowment. His passion for missions guided the congregation’s efforts to better the world through outreach to widows in India, and it has created a force of more than 150 missionaries in the local community of Savannah, Georgia, who tutor children weekly in the public school system.
Your support of Candler will help to prepare exceptional pastors, clergy, and other leaders for the positive transformation of the church and the world.
