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Canadian executive Schmidt announces July retirement


COCHRANE, Alberta, Canada (BP)–Allen Schmidt, the first executive director-treasurer of the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists, has announced his retirement, effective July 1998.
Schmidt, 65, who was elected to his position in 1986, announced his retirement at the Nov. 3 meeting of the convention’s executive board.
Schmidt had been asked to continue as the convention’s executive for two years after reaching retirement age and had intended to do so. However, he has been called as interim pastor of a new Southern Baptist church in the Richmond Hill area of Calgary which will begin a major building project this coming summer. He said he believes the new church work will require his full attention for a few years.
The executive board appointed an eight-member search committee for Schmidt’s successor, to be led by Clare Cremer, a layman from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and CCSB president. The other seven members are representatives of each of the seven associations in the convention.
Cremer paid tribute to Schmidt’s contribution to the convention, saying, “Allen has been and will continue to be a blessing to all Canadian Southern Baptists. Personally he has enriched my life in many ways. He is a man of God, living his life in every respect to serve God.”
Before his election as executive director, Schmidt served as Canadian coordinator for the Northwest Baptist Convention from 1981-85 and was instrumental in the organization of the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists in 1985.
Schmidt served as president of the Northwest Baptist Convention from 1976-78. He also has planted three churches, two in Canada and one in California, and helped plan several others, including Bow Valley Baptist Church in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada.
He is a graduate of Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, Texas and Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Mill Valley, California.
In his letter of resignation, Schmidt wrote, “It has been a great privilege for me to be the founding executive director of the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists and to work with a fine corps of members of the executive board and the churches through these years.
He wrote that he will “miss many of the wonderful relationships these years have afforded me and my family. In that sense it is with a heavy heart that I offer my resignation.”