Dan Griffin is the pastor of Harmony Baptist in Elgin. He currently serves on the CMBA Administrative Team, formerly known as the Visionary Leadership Community (VLC), which meets almost monthly to conduct CMBA business and share ministry updates from our Family of Churches across the Midlands. The group will hold its November 2022 meeting at Harmony.
A Charleston native, Dan attended school at the First Baptist Church of Charleston before majoring in history at Clemson University. He met his wife Edith through Campus Crusade for Christ while in college, and the two married after graduating in 1975. The couple moved to Fort Worth, Texas, the week after their wedding so that Dan could begin classes at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Dan recalls his time at Southwestern with fondness, and shares about the sound of “hearing 3,000 students singing in chapel every morning – it was an incredible experience.”
Dan went on to pastor a church in North Carolina and three others in South Carolina before being called to Harmony in August 2006. He describes the church as “a special place with a sweet fellowship,” and points out that it is one of four CMBA churches located in Kershaw County. Harmony dates to the early 1800’s and came from the same church planting movement as Sandy Level Baptist, with both having been started by Twenty-Five Mile Creek Baptist Church, which is no longer in existence.
“I like to say that all roads lead to Harmony, because literally all the major roads in our area of the county lead to Tookiedoo Lane,” Dan quips, adding his church has “the largest building in our area, so a local homeowners association meets here, and we serve as a polling place.”
Dan says that, like many rural churches emerging post-Covid, Harmony Baptist is seeing attendance numbers rise but it is not quite back to where it was before the pandemic. The church’s giving is strong, they are seeing visitors attend after being invited by members, and families are returning for big events like homecoming. Dan is sure “our best days are before us,” and points to strides the church has in Facebook viewer numbers and online livestream worshippers.
Having served several terms on the CMBA Administrative Team, Dan appreciates that the association cares for every church and is a great resource for churches of all sizes. “Our association is very unique,” he says. “We have good participation from pastors and churches. I’ve been a part of four other associations, and none of them started as many churches as we have.”
Another CMBA ministry Dan recommends is Disaster Relief (DR), which provides partnership opportunities – local and regional – for individuals and churches to serve together. He has served as a unit leader and chaplain in several units, and says grants from CMBA and the South Carolina Baptist Convention helped buy and outfit a DR mud out/chainsaw/rebuild unit trailer that is kept at North Trenholm Baptist Church. He invites CMBA members to sign up for training and join DR efforts through local projects in the future.
Dan and his wife have two adult daughters – Katie and her husband Brian have a three-year-old daughter Vandy, and Cheryl married her husband Ed this past September. In his spare time Dan enjoys gardening, reading, and studying history. A “big Clemson football fan,” he has also enjoyed playing softball, tennis, and being a member of a bowling league.