[1]RICHMOND, Va. (BP)–The executive board of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia has selected a Richmond-area pastor, Jeffery Ginn, as the state convention’s new executive director-treasurer, effective June 2.
Ginn, senior pastor of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Colonial Heights, succeeds Doyle Chauncey, who announced his retirement during the SBCV annual meeting last fall.
Ginn and his wife Nell served as missionaries in Cali, Colombia, with the International Mission Board, where he was a church planter and professor of New Testament and Greek at the International Baptist Theological Seminary. Prior to serving at Mount Pleasant, Ginn was director of Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary’s Northeast Campus in Schenectady, N.Y.
Ginn recently completed a term as an IMB trustee.
Chauncey, Ginn’s predecessor, became the SBCV’s first executive director-treasurer after the convention was formed in 1996 with 91 churches, since growing to 500-plus churches.
[2]Chauncey will serve as special assistant to Ginn to aid in the transition and he will remain as president of the SBCV’s Church Ministry Services and Foundation until May 31, 2009.
Ginn, in accepting the position after a unanimous executive board vote May 13, said, “As I undertake this new assignment from the Lord, one of the first things on my heart and mind is to build upon the effective foundation and insightful strategies for state missions that this exemplary entity already has in place.”
Ginn, referencing 2 Corinthians 11, recalled the “exhaustive litany of trials and troubles the Apostle Paul endured for the sake of the Gospel, and at the end of it all, he said in verse 28 that his ‘concern for all the churches’ was what weighed most heavily on him.
“This passage of Scripture has most moved my heart in seeking God’s will for my future in His ministry,” Ginn said. “At the foundational level of an executive director’s ministry ought to be such a concern for all the churches.”
Outlining his future ministry efforts for the SBCV, Ginn said, “My first concern is that our churches continue to multiply, both in baptisms and church planting. Second is that our churches continue to mature in the faith. And third is that all our churches mobilize for local and global impact.”
During Ginn’s tenure at Mount Pleasant, the church’s membership grew to about 2,350, with 1,500 additions and 500 baptisms, and the Sunday morning worship attendance doubled to 1,100.
A native of West Memphis, Ark., Ginn holds an undergraduate degree from Blue Mountain College in Mississippi and for his undergraduate degree and M. Div. and Ph.D. degrees from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, which is based in the Memphis area
The Ginns have two sons and a daughter.
Chauncey commended the SBCV search committee “whose diligent work and tireless search have rendered to us Jeff Ginn, a pastor and servant-leader who is uniquely qualified and significantly gifted to take the SBCV helm.”
“Many within the SBCV family have watched through the years as God has blessed Jeff so phenomenally in the ministry at Mount Pleasant, and our entire executive board is confident that our Lord will continue to bless whatever Kingdom work Jeff attempts,” Chauncey said.
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Norm Miller is a freelance writer based in Richmond, Va.