Dr. Mike Milton will succeed Dr. Ric Cannada as RTS chancellor and CEO.
Dr. Ric Cannada [Left] and Dr. Mike Milton [Right]
by Paul Schwarz
In 2002, even as Dr. Ric Cannada was inaugurated into what has evolved into the position of chancellor and chief executive officer of RTS, he had in mind the day when someone else would succeed him. In fact, he discussed with Jim Moore, chairman of the RTS Board of Trustees, a possible succession plan based on the fact that he would turn 65 just after the next 10-year reaffirmation of RTS’ accreditation.
Such foresight will now be rewarded, as the day for leadership transfer has been set. RTS has planned and announced, and is now implementing, a succession plan for Dr. Cannada as chancellor and CEO. In September, the executive committee of the Board of Trustees unanimously elected Dr. Mike Milton, RTS-Charlotte president, as chancellor elect and successor to Dr. Cannada. Both Dr. Milton and Dr. Cannada will share leadership responsibilities until June 1, 2012.
After that 18-month period, Dr. Milton will assume full responsibilities as chancellor and CEO. At that time, Dr. Cannada will remain with RTS as chancellor emeritus, assisting the seminary with plans for a financial campaign leading up to the 50th anniversary of RTS in 2016.
“The Lord has raised up the perfect person to succeed me,” Dr. Cannada says. “It will soon be time for me to hand off the leadership to Mike Milton passed down to me from the founders of RTS, which included my father. Mike is a man of God. He loves the Lord and he loves God’s people. He is very talented and uses the gifts God has given him to spread the Word of God wherever the Lord opens a door. As both a scholar and a pastor, Mike is passionate about rightly preparing leaders for effective preaching of biblical truth, and he is committed to passing on to the next generation the Reformed faith as it has been entrusted to us.”
The chancellor elect designation is a new step in a series of leadership roles for Dr. Milton in his three years at RTS. Originally appointed in 2007 as RTS-Charlotte president and as the James M. Baird Jr. professor of pastoral theology there, he until recently served as interim president at RTSOrlando and will continue as the interim president of RTS Charlotte until a successor is named there. Both Dr. Milton and Dr. Cannada will continue to hold RTS faculty status.
“To carry on the sacred trust of this institution started by the few men who had a passion for the gospel, missions and the Reformed faith is a great honor and a distinct privilege,” Dr. Milton says. “It is also a new level of responsibility that has driven me to my knees. In seeking God for His will, [my wife, Mae] and I believe that the Lord has opened this door of ministry and confirmed it to us and the board in many ways. Thus, by His grace and only in His strength, I am now ready and willing to go forward and follow this call of Christ.
“I believe that RTS is more than an institution. It is a movement of God’s people earnest in their faith with a vision to change this world through the preaching of the gospel for the glory of God. RTS is to be about nothing short of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.”
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