DALLAS (BP)–Mark Wingfield, editor of the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s weekly newspaper, the Western Recorder, has been elected managing editor of the Baptist Standard, weekly newspaper of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
Wingfield, 36, was elected unanimously by the Baptist Standard board of directors Sept. 29. He will begin his duties Nov. 1.
Wingfield will succeed editor-elect Marv Knox, who will succeed retiring editor Toby Druin Jan. 1, 1999.
“Mark Wingfield is an immensely talented journalist, a deeply committed Baptist Christian and a role-model husband and father,” said Knox, who recommended Wingfield for the position.
“Mark is creative, talented, industrious, passionate and compassionate,” Knox said
In addition to editing the Kentucky newspaper, Wingfield has led the Western Recorder organization to publish Real Life, a general-interest monthly magazine for Baptist families. The Recorder also publishes several monthly newspapers in partnership with smaller “new work” Baptist state conventions.
“More importantly, Mark is a committed Baptist minister,” Knox added. “He has a heart for Christ’s church and its mission and ministry in our communities and around the world. He lives out this commitment in his own life and is a very involved member of his own congregation.
“Mark is a devoted husband and father,” Knox added. “He and his wife, Alison, have a strong, mutually enriching marriage partnership.” They are the parents of 6-year-old twin sons, Garrett and Luke.
“I could not be happier about the election of Mark Wingfield as managing editor of the Baptist Standard,” Druin noted. “I feel it is an answer to prayer.
“The pairing of Marv Knox and Mark Wingfield brings to Texas Baptists an absolutely superb team of journalists who also are exemplary Baptist Christians and churchmen. I feel that under their leadership the future of the Standard is assured as the bellwether publication of Texas Baptists and Baptists around the world.”
“The entire board was very impressed, not only by Mark’s journalistic background and his dynamic Christian witness, but also by his great energy and vision,” noted Danny Andrews, chairman of the Standard’s board of directors and editor of the Plainview Daily Herald. “We know he will be a tremendous asset to the Standard and Texas Baptists, working alongside our new editor, Marv Knox.”
Wingfield’s arrival at the Standard will mark the second time Wingfield and Knox have worked together. Wingfield became news director of the Kentucky newspaper in 1991, when Knox was editor. He became that paper’s editor after Knox joined the Baptist Standard in December 1995.
An Oklahoma native, Wingfield earned a journalism degree from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and studied at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Prior to joining the Western Recorder, he was associate director of news and information at the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board in Atlanta, director of news and information at Southwestern Seminary and assistant editor of the Baptist New Mexican in Albuquerque.
The Wingfields are members of St. Matthews Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.
