Jackson Free Press

Millsaps College announced last week that Reverend Joey Shelton will join the college's staff as chaplain and director of church relations on July 1. Shelton is currently serving as the senior pastor of Galloway United Methodist Church in Jackson, a position he has held since 2008.

As chaplain, he will manage the college's religious life, direct Millsaps' relations with various local churches and oversee the workings of the college's Center for Ministry, which coordinates learning opportunities for clergy and church members on campus.

"Going into my new position at Millsaps, I want to be able to build on the school's legacy of courageous faith and bringing together people who care about the common good," Shelton told the Jackson Free Press. "My goal is to provide more learning opportunities than ever for students, faculty, staff and clergy, and to promote interfaith dialogue."

Shelton, 56, was born in Hattiesburg and went to Oak Grove High School. He attended Pearl River Junior College, now Pearl River Community College, until 1980 and then went on to Millsaps, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1982.

After graduating from Millsaps, he enrolled at the University of Mississippi School of Law, where he received a juris doctorate in 1985. Shelton practiced law in Hattiesburg and became a partner in the Cook and Shelton law firm before leaving his practice in 1994 to pursue a Master of Divinity degree from the Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

He graduated from Duke in 1997 and returned to Hattiesburg to serve as the pastor of Court Street Methodist Church until 2004. Shelton later received a Doctor of Ministry degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga., in 2006 and returned to Duke University to serve as field director until 2007. That year, Bishop Hope Morgan Ward of the United Methodist Church appointed Shelton as the pastor of Galloway, and Shelton formally assumed the position in January 2008.

Shelton also serves on the board of Methodist Senior Services and is in his final year of service on the Millsaps College Board of Trustees, where he is the current chair of the Academic Affairs committee.

Shelton and his wife, Reverend Connie Shelton, have been married for 30 years and have two daughters—Bailey, who is a freshman at the University of Southern Mississippi, and Jessica, who is in eighth grade.