NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Florida pastor John Revell has been named associate editor of SBC LIFE, a monthly journal for pastors, church staff members and lay leaders published by the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Revell, 40, has been pastor of First Baptist Church, Coconut
Creek, Fla., since 1990.
The Deland, Fla., native was the Fort Lauderdale-area congregation’s first full-time pastor and led its members in sponsoring a new Haitian congregation in the Gulfstream Baptist Association. He has been the association’s clerk since 1991.
Revell served on a 1994-95 Florida Baptist Convention task force considering options for a lobbyist at the state capitol and was an instructor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s Broward County extension center in the fall of 1990 and 1992.
Bill Merrell, SBC Executive Committee vice president for convention relations, welcomed Revell by recounting:
“When Jon Walker, our former associate, went to edit Home Life magazine, we interviewed a large number of extremely capable people and were impressed with the quality of many of them. During that process, a surprise contact with John developed. After reading some of his writings, I felt the Lord leading me to discuss with John the possibility of him using his talents as a Christian communicator. We prayed and thought about it for some time, and we both came to conclude it was the Lord’s will for him to come here to serve in this way.”
As SBC LIFE associate editor, Revell will do content and general form editing as well as developing, crafting and editing articles for the journal.
“He will also assist in representing Southern Baptists to our varied constituencies through the convention relations office,” Merrell said. “He is a capable speaker and will minister in that way as well.
“John is committed to the work of the Lord and to the people of our convention,” Merrell continued. “He is insightful, and he communicates well in his writing, seeing the ministry of the written word as a vital extension of that of the spoken word. He is currently coauthoring a book on the Christian’s civic duty which is expected to be released early in 1998. We are delighted to welcome him to work with us in SBC LIFE and expect him to contribute to making it an even better communication tool.”
Before his Florida pastorate, Revell was assistant pastor of Wantagh Baptist Church, Wantagh, N.Y., from 1986-90. While attending Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, he was worship leader and choir director at Covenant Baptist Church, Englewood, Colo., from 1981-82 and the church’s discipleship director from 1983-86. From 1978-80, he was minister of music and youth at Sierra Norwood Baptist Church, Miami.
He earned a master of divinity degree from Denver Seminary in 1986, with majors in New Testament exegesis and preaching, and a B.S. degree from Trinity International University (formerly Miami Christian College) in 1978.
His father, Clifford, who died in 1978, was a Southern Baptist pastor of churches in Mississippi, Kentucky and Florida. Three of the late Revell’s four sons are in vocational ministry, and the fourth is a church’s volunteer choir director and worship leader.
Revell and his wife, Debra, of West Palm Beach, have two sons, Micah, 11, and Phillip, 8.
