- Baptist Press - https://www.baptistpress.com -

Bill Mackey elected Kentucky executive

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–Bill Mackey, 56, was elected executive secretary-treasurer of the Kentucky Baptist Convention by the KBC executive board Dec. 8 in a standing vote with no opposition.
Mackey, a former Whitesburg, Ky., pastor who currently serves on the staff of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, was presented to the executive board by a 14-member search committee that has been at work 15 months.
He will begin his new duties in Kentucky Feb. 1.
Since 1992, Mackey has been director of the South Carolina convention’s leadership development and evangelism growth team. From 1979-92, he was the South Carolina convention’s evangelism director.
Search committee chairwoman Peggy Hicks of Louisville presented Mackey to the board, calling him “a good family man,” “a man of integrity,” “a proven leader in denominational life and the local church,” “a man of vision,” “creative” and “innovative.”
She said Mackey is “conservative by conviction and non-political” and predicted he will “work well with the entire constituency.”
Mackey then addressed the board briefly, talking about his roots in Kentucky as a seminary student, then as an associate pastor at First Baptist Church in Middlesboro and as pastor of First Baptist Church of Whitesburg.
As a young pastor, he said, the staff of the KBC executive board mentored him. “That colored my attitude toward convention staff and the possibilities” of the state convention’s ministry, he said.
Mackey talked about a recent period of spiritual renewal in his own life, during which he “discovered the possibilities of moving to a new level of relationship with Jesus Christ.”
He assured the board he is aware of the heritage of Kentucky Baptists. “I think there is a rich heritage on which to build a great future,” he said.
He cited two words that are “very important” to him: relationship and service.
“We can’t control the issues and challenges that come,” he said. “But we can control the relationships in which we confront those issues and challenges.”
He explained service is what the KBC is about, helping churches experience growth and ministry.
When KBC President Gayle Toole, pastor of Edgewood Baptist Church, Nicholasville, then opened the floor for questions, none were asked.
The board gave Mackey and his wife, Kay, a standing ovation as they re-entered the room after the vote.
Mackey thanked the board for their confidence and noted the work of the KBC is a “supernatural work.”
“It is only as Jesus lives in me and Jesus lives in you and the Jesus in me can identify with the Jesus in you that we can resolve conflicts,” he said.
Mackey then asked board members to join him at the front of the Baptist Building chapel for a period of prayer, for him, for the executive board staff, for the KBC’s agencies and institutions and for the KBC’s churches.