Co-Director of the Center for Faith and Imagination
B.A., Lambuth College
M.Div., Emory University
Rev. Billy Vaughan joined the faculty full time in 2012 after directing Formation For Ministry for five years while on staff at The Memphis School of Servant Leadership.
Rev. Vaughan is a fourth generation Methodist pastor who has been on appointment in the Memphis Annual Conference since 1980 in a wide variety of ministry settings including:
- Patchwork Central: a non- profit organization and intentional Christian Community in the inner city of Evansville, Indiana
- Plowshares Chapel House in rural West Tn.: a center for prayer and social justice
- Good Samaritan United Methodist Church: an intentionally multi-racial church in North Memphis
- The Memphis School of Servant Leadership: an ecumenical ministry for lay and clergy
During his years at The Memphis School of Servant Leadership Rev. Vaughan also served for three years as a clergy colleague leader for the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence program at MTS.
Rev. Vaughan understands his work at MTS, both through the Formation For Ministry program and by way of his work with the Methodist House of Studies, as helping to raise up leaders who are deeply rooted in faith, with both courage and subversive imagination. It was in hearing Gordon Cosby, now deceased pastor of The Church of The Saviour in Washington DC, sound a call for raising up a critical mass of Christian servant leaders for the church and world that Billy recognized this as his primary call and the thread being woven through his various appointments as a Methodist pastor.
Billy is married to Joni Laney and they have four grown children. As one of the founders of the McMerton Community Gardens in the Binghampton neighborhood he is very active in gardening. He also serves on the boards of The Caritas Community and The Center For Transforming Communities in the Binghampton neighborhood and gives pastoral leadership to a mission church in the neighborhood. Even in his 60’s he continues to play a bit of basketball (when his kids are home for the holidays), but haltingly admits that he has lost a step or two to the basket.
