Dr. Royster received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. In addition to his undergraduate degree, Dr. Royster obtained mid and advance management certifications from the School of Banking at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; a graduate degree in banking from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware; a Master of Divinity Degree in Theology from Shaw Divinity School in Raleigh, NC; a Doctor of Ministry degree in pastoral counseling from the Graduate Theological Foundation in South Bend, Indiana and in 2011, Dr. Royster received a Continuing Education Diploma in Pastoral Ministry from the Zimbabwe Baptist Theological Seminary in Gweru Zimbabwe.
In January 2017, Dr. Royster becomes the first Assistant Pastor of FBC-Chapel Hill. He is the former Senior Pastor of the Cedar Rock Missionary Baptist Church of New Hill, NC where he served faithfully for almost eighteen years.
Dr. Royster has had the opportunity to go on international immersions to Guyana, South America in 2009; Jamaica, West Indies in 2010 and Rome Italy in Europe in 2011 through the Lott Carey Pastoral Excellence Program of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention, Inc.
In addition to being extensively involved educational and community programs in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro communities, he is the Chair and Catechist of the Ordaining Council of the New Hope Missionary Baptist Association, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Apex School of Theology and a faculty member of the Mission Education Program of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention.
Dr. Royster currently serves the community as the first African American Chair of the Professional Advisory Group on Pastoral Care at UNC Hospitals; member of the Non-Medical Review Board of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; President of the Board of Directors of the First Baptist and Manley Estates Retirement Community and a member of the Board of Directors of the Carol Woods Retirement Community.
Dr. Royster loves the Lord and when things really get rough and hectic, he will turn to his favorite passage of scripture found in Philippians 3:13-14. “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”