• Contact
  • Return to IBSA
  • Advertise Through Us
  • Subscribe
  • E-Reader

IBSA News

Illinois Baptist State Newspaper

  • Quick Links
    • E-Reader
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Resource
  • News
    • IBSA
    • SBC
    • Culture
    • Illinois Churches
  • Stories
    • Thriving
    • Church Planting
    • Mission
    • Next Step
  • In Focus
  • Columns
    • Nate Adams
    • Eric Reed
    • Meredith Flynn
    • Table Talk
    • Reporter’s Notebook
    • Encouraging Words
Voddie Baucham

Voddie Baucham to be 2023 SBC Pastors’ Conference presidential nominee

March 22, 2022 By Diana Chandler

Voddie Baucham, dean of theology at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia, will be nominated for Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference president at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim, according to a story published at the Daily Wire, a conservative news site conceived and founded by political commentators Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing. The nomination was also announced in a statement posted at the Founders Ministries website.

“Voddie Baucham is one of the most faithful expositors of our day, a day in which sound preaching is more important than ever,” the Founders Ministries statement said. “He will give the exact kind of leadership needed for the SBC Pastors’ Conference, an event which in recent years has shifted radically from one of the high points of the entire year into what many have termed ‘Woke Fest.’ The importance of restoring that pivotal event cannot be overstated.”

The statement supporting Baucham’s nomination is signed by 11 people. Among those is Mike Stone, a member of the SBC Executive Committee and the steering committee of the Conservative Baptist Network (CBN), who lost the SBC presidency in 2021 in a runoff with Ed Litton. Stone is senior pastor of Emmanuel Baptist in Blackshear, Ga. Several other CBN members are signatories as well, including current SBC First Vice President Lee Brand.

Baucham left his position as founding pastor of Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring, Texas, in 2015 and is no longer an active member there, current pastors Erin Frye and Aaron Wright told Baptist Press.

“We only have active members at Grace Family Baptist Church. This is, by the way, what Voddie always taught while he was preaching in the church. He stands by that now as well. There is no such thing as an inactive member,” Frye and Wright said in a jointly signed email. “Therefore, when we sent him out to Zambia, he joined the solid biblical church he was attending. He is a member of Kabwata Baptist Church in Zambia and has been since 2015.

“He continues to be a part of our church since we are the Southern Baptist Church that sent him out. We support him monthly, and he regularly comes back and preaches at our church and other conferences.”

Grace Family contributed $500 through the Cooperative Program in 2021, which was the church’s first CP gift since 2014, a Southern Baptists of Texas spokesperson told Baptist Press.

Neither the university where Baucham now serves nor the church where he is a member is Southern Baptist. They are both affiliated with Reformed Baptists of Zambia.

It is unclear whether Baucham’s lack of membership in a Southern Baptist congregation precludes his nomination. The conference has no organizing documents or stated qualifications for its officers. Baucham serves on the board of Founders Ministries and is a member of the CBN steering council, two groups with Southern Baptist members.

President of Voddie Baucham Ministries, Baucham lists an active speakers’ itinerary at voddiebaucham.org, including a 2022 spring tour that included engagements at the G3 Expositors Conference in Santa Clarita, the Shepherds’ Conference in Sun Valley, the 58th Annual Louisiana Governor’s Prayer Breakfast in Baton Rouge, La., and the Triple R Fundraising Dinner in Crestview, Fla., among other stops.

Baucham did not respond to requests for comments Baptist Press sent to two different email addresses at time of publication .

He describes himself as a cultural apologist. According to voddiebaucham.org, “Whether teaching on classical apologetic issues like the validity and historicity of the Bible, or the resurrection of Christ; or teaching on biblical manhood/womanhood, marriage and family, he helps ordinary people understand the significance of thinking and living biblically in every area of life.”

He planted Grace Family Baptist Church in 2006, and maintains a relationship with the church as a missionary, Frye and Wright said.

“We sent him out as a missionary to work at the African Christian University in Zambia in 2015. We believe that missionaries going out into the field should join the church that they are attending residentially on the field,” Frye and Wright said. “We believe this because biblically, that is how someone is shepherded.” The church only allows exceptions when missionaries in serving in areas with no churches, the pastors said.

The statement from the group did not indicate who will nominate Baucham for the post, but it also announced the intended nomination of Florida pastor Tom Ascol, Founders Ministries president, for SBC president.

In addition to Stone and Brand, signers of the statement are Tom Buck, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lindale, Texas, and a board member of G3 Ministries; Javier Chavez, senior pastor of Amistad Cristiana International and a member of the CBN steering council; former Atlanta, Ga., fire chief Kelvin Cochran, a member of the CBN steering council; Mark Coppenger, Illinois pastor, CBN steering council member and former president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Greg Davidson, senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Vacaville, Calif., and state coordinator of the CBN California chapter; Mark DeVine, associate professor of Beeson Divinity School; Brad Jurkovich, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Bossier City, La., and a CBN steering committee member; Ronnie Rogers, senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Norman, Okla., and a CBN steering committee member; and Carol Swain, former professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

– Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer

Share This Story

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Featured Columns

Meredith Flynn

Breaking the fourth wall

Meredith Flynn

A recent study by Barna had good news and bad news for increasingly polarized Americans. More than 90% of U.S. adults say they welcome different ways of thinking about important topics. But 51% also say their ideas are usually better than other people’s ideas, up from 31% who said so in 2015. And 36% say […]

Nate Adams

Grateful words

Nate Adams

Recently Beth and I joined a group of Baptist pastors and leaders and their spouses for a tour of biblical sites in Greece. For a week we followed the footsteps of Paul from Philippi, through Thessaloniki and Berea, and on to the ancient world crossroads of Athens and Corinth. It would be difficult to briefly […]

The force is with us

Meredith Flynn

Our family’s recent Covid quarantine finally provided my husband an opportunity to introduce our daughters to Star Wars. Over several days, they dug into the space saga until we were all well-steeped in the story of good versus evil. A few days later, we were rushing around the house scrambling to leave for a much-needed […]

More Columns

What happens when church leaders encourage mentoring relationships with their team members

Ben Jones

If the church is going to have leaders tomorrow, it’s going to take a new wave of mentoring from existing leadership today. This reality drove organizers of the 2023 Illinois Leadership Summit (ILS) to ask those coming to the annual event, “Which younger leader will you bring with you?” The evidence that many pastors took […]

News

Miles Mullin

ERLC trustees elect Mullin as chief of staff

ERLC Staff

Veteran Southern Baptist academic Miles Mullin is the new chief of staff and vice president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. The ERLC’s trustees elected Mullin unanimously upon the recommendation of Brent Leatherwood, the commission’s president, in a special called meeting Thursday (Jan. 26). Mullin became the first addition to the ERLC’s senior staff […]

Why gambling is getting riskier in Illinois

Security training offered March 11

More News Stories

Mission

Sallateeska baptism demonstrates SBC connections

Baptist Press

(Ed. Note—In our July issue, we reported that Illinois’s very own Sandy Wisdom-Martin told the story of her brother’s recent baptism during her WMU presentation at the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Anaheim. We thought we you would appreciate this longer account that shows God’s fingerprints through multiple SBC connections. It’s too good to miss.) […]

A first-time ministry to migrant workers is very fruitful

FIRST-PERSON: A once-feared tribe now spreads the Gospel

More Mission Stories

  • News
  • Mission
  • In Focus
  • Columns

Copyright © 2023 · Website by Megaphone Designs