Editor’s note: Updated May 29 to include Kathy Litton’s nomination for SBC recording secretary.
With less than a month before Baptists convene for their 2019 annual meeting, several candidates have announced their intent to run for denominational office. J.D. Greear (right) will be nominated for a second one-year term as SBC president, Pennsylvania pastor K. Marshall Williams said in April.
“In these troublesome and turbulent times, we need a pastor-preacher-prophet that will stand in the gap and lead with confident, consistent, convictional, Christo-centric, courageous courtesy,” said Williams, pastor of Nazarene Baptist Church in Philadelphia.
Marshal Ausberry Sr., senior pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Fairfax Station, Va., will be nominated as SBC first vice president. Ausberry, who has led the church for 24 years into numerous local and global initiatives, also is the current president of the National African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Noe Garcia, senior pastor of North Phoenix Baptist Church, will be nominated to serve as the SBC’s second vice president. Garcia has led the Arizona church since 2016. He is a member of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s Leadership Council and the SBC Executive Committee’s Convention Advancement Advisory Council. He also served on the 2017-2018 SBC Evangelism Task Force.
Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Director John L. Yeats (left) will be nominated for a 23rd term as recording secretary. First elected to the post in 1997, Yeats designed the process currently used for the flow of information from the convention floor to the platform and distribution to the Committee on Order of Business.
Yeats will face Eddie Eaton, pastor of Fuquay-Varina Baptist Church in North Carolina. Eaton is “a proven leader,” “Kingdom minded,” and “administratively gifted,” Florida pastor Mike Orr told Baptist Press in relaying his intent to nominate Eaton.
Don Currence will be nominated for a third term as registration secretary. Prior to his service as registration secretary, Currence assisted late SBC registration secretary Jim Wells with the registration process for 12 years. He has served on the staff of First Baptist Church, Ozark, Mo., for 26 years.
Kathy Litton, director of planter spouse development for the North American Mission Board, will also be nominated as registration secretary, Florida pastor Jimmy Scroggins announced May 28. “With all of the conversations going on in our convention about integrity, sexual abuse and women in ministry,” Scroggins said, “this is the right time and Kathy is the right person for this vital role.”
David Uth (right), senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Orlando, will be nominated for president of the 2020 Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference. “David is a pastor’s pastor, a spiritual statesman, and is universally respected in his state and across our convention,” Georgia pastor James Merritt said in a May 17 announcement to Baptist Press.
For more information the SBC annual meeting, Pastors’ Conference, and other meetings in Birmingham, go to sbcannualmeeting.net.