[1]LAS VEGAS (BP) – Matt Carter, lead pastor of Sagemont Church in Houston, will be nominated for president of the 2022 Pastors’ Conference.
Vance Pitman, senior pastor of Hope Church in Las Vegas, announced his intentions to make the nomination in an email to Baptist Press. Nominations will take place Monday, June 14, during the Pastors Track of the Send Conference, hosted by the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board. The conference precedes the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting. The 2022 Pastors’ Conference will be held in conjunction with next year’s annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif.
Steve Gaines, senior pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church near Memphis, described a message Carter delivered at Bellevue as “an excellent expository sermon that exalted Jesus as [Carter] walked through the text giving explanation and application. He is a seasoned pastor who loves the Lord, loves the lost and loves the Southern Baptist Convention. He is a man of God and he would lead us well as the president of the SBC Pastors’ Conference.”
Nathan Lorick, executive director-elect of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, called Carter “a phenomenal pastor, leader, preacher and friend.”
“He loves the church and sacrificially invests in pastors. He is a great partner through the Cooperative Program and has a proven track record of planting churches and making disciples.”
Prior to becoming pastor at Sagemont in May 2020, Carter had been the founding pastor of The Austin Stone Church in Austin, Texas. Under his leadership the church grew from a core team of 15 to a weekly attendance of more than 8,000 over six campuses. During his tenure, the church sent more than 300 full-time missionaries to unreached people groups worldwide.
[2]According to the 2020 Annual Church Profile report, Sagemont Church recorded 20,551 total members and gave $342,500 –2.8 percent of undesignated receipts – to Southern Baptist missions and causes through the Cooperative Program.
Carter is the co-author of multiple books including Steal Away Home, a historical fiction piece based on the real-life story of Charles Spurgeon’s unlikely friendship with former-slave-turned-missionary Thomas Johnson. A graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity) and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Doctorate in Expositional Preaching), Carter and his wife of more than 20 years, Jennifer, have three children.