WINTER PARK, Fla. (BP)–A Florida Baptist pastor will be nominated for first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention during the annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., June 13-14.
Brad Hoffman, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Tuscawilla, Winter Park, will be nominated by Richard Behers, pastor of First Baptist Church, Largo, Fla., and Alan Berry, minister of music and youth at Catawba Springs Baptist Church, Brewton, Ala.
Hoffman accepted Christ at age 14 through the witness of an Evangelism Explosion team from First Baptist Church, Orlando. During his junior year at Palm Beach Atlantic College, he sensed God’s call into full-time Christian service. He was licensed to the gospel ministry in 1986 at Sagamore Hill Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas.
He earned a bachelor of science degree in business administration with a minor in management from PBAC in 1985 and the master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, in 1988.
He was then called to the Tuscawilla church as associate pastor and minister to students and education. However, in 1990, he left the church to become vice president of a family owned company in Orlando, with responsibilities for business and financial affairs.
In September 1995, he was called as pastor of Westchase Community Church, a Southern Baptist congregation that met in Tampa with 19 people in the core group. Within nine months the congregation was constituted as a Southern Baptist church. In October 1997, he accepted the call to the Tuscawilla church as senior pastor.
Hoffman has led the Tuscawilla congregation to become the Model Refugee Church for Antioch Affection, a ministry to ministers and their families that face forced termination from pastorates and staff positions.
