WESTWEGO (BP) – Louisiana pastor Jay Adkins will be nominated for second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention by Joed Rice, pastor of Central Baptist Church in Ashland, Ky., according to a news release.
By Baptist Press
Staff
WESTWEGO (BP) – Louisiana pastor Jay Adkins will be
nominated for second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention
by Joed Rice, pastor of Central Baptist Church in Ashland, Ky.,
according to a news release.
Adkins has been pastor at First Baptist Church of
Westwego for four years and graduated from New Orleans Baptist
Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree in May 2007.
Adkins, 33, previously served as pastor of
Fellowship Baptist Church in South Shore, Ky., where he led the
congregation from its status as a mission to a self-supporting church.
“Jay Adkins exemplifies the best qualities of a number of young leaders
now emerging in the Southern Baptist Convention,” Rice said.
Adkins is the third nominee for SBC second vice
president, following the announcement in early March by Kentucky pastor
Bill Dodson that he will nominate Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern
Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., and the announcement later that
month by Daniel L. Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological
Seminary, that he will nominate J.D. Greear, pastor of the Summit
Church in Durham, N.C. The SBC’s June 13-14 sessions will be held in
Greensboro, N.C.
A fourth generation Baptist pastor, Adkins
frequently speaks at revivals, Bible conferences and associational and
state convention meetings, according to the news release.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Adkins’
church building suffered significant damage to its roof and worship
center but served as a staging area for SBC disaster relief work.
Two kitchen units set up at First Westwego served
more than 400,000 meals for police, emergency personnel, military
members and area residents.
“The first few times someone suggested this
[nomination] to me I told them ‘no’ pretty quickly because I am fully
aware there are many more better qualified men,” Adkins said. “But I
got to playing around with it in my head for two reasons. … I thought
with being at 33 one of the ‘younger pastors’ in the SBC, and with
having about 75 on Sunday we’re an average-sized Southern Baptist
church, maybe I ought to consider this and give voice to these
two concerns.”
Helping keep the awareness-level of the continuing
needs in southern Louisiana high among the SBC also would be a good
thing, Adkins said.