DRESDEN, Germany (BP)–Asian Baptist leader Billy Jang Hwan Kim, pastor of the 7,000-member Central Baptist Church in Suwon, South Korea, and immediate past president of the Asian Baptist Federation (ABF), has been nominated by the Baptist World Alliance’s General Council to serve as BWA president from 2000-2005.
The council, in its July11-17 meetings in Dresden, Germany, unanimously voted to nominate Kim for election at the 18th BWA Congress, Jan. 5-9, 2000, in Melbourne, Australia, where it is expected he will succeed current President Nilson do Amral Fanini of Brazil in July of that year.
Harry Monro, president of the Asian Baptist Federation (ABF) and chair of the BWA’s 11-member officers search committee, said Kim, who chaired the local arrangements committee for the 1990 BWA Congress in Seoul and who served as a BWA vice president from 1990-1995, was the unanimous choice of the committee. More than 40 names were submitted from Baptists around the world.
Kim, also an international broadcaster who is president of the Far East Broadcasting Co. of Korea, was described by James T. Draper Jr., president of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, as “ a pastor and man of prayer, with an ability to relate to governments and people everywhere, and a great evangelist.”
David Hahn, pastor of Seoul Memorial Baptist Church, described Kim as “a man who gives humble and strong leadership” and “an outstanding leader in the Korean Baptist Convention and the larger Christian community in Korea.”
Sixteen vice presidential nominees also were proposed to represent the BWA globally with Kim.
They are: Neville Callum, Jamaica, pastor and former president of the Jamaica Baptist Union; Morris H. Chapman, president and chief executive officer of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention; David Coffey, secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain; Branco Lovrec, president of the Baptist Union of Croatia; Ken Manley, president Whitley College in Australia; Amparo de Medina of Colombia, vice president of the BWA women’s department; Bruce Milne of Canada, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Vancouver; Zac Patnaik of India, a Christian businessman; Robert Ricker, United States, general secretary Baptist General Conference; Dorothy Selebano, South Africa, immediate past president of the Baptist Women’s Union of Africa; Raoul Scialabba of Argentina, businessman and chair of the local arrangements committee for the 1995 BWA Congress in Buenos Aires; Elaine Smith, past president of the American Baptist Churches, USA; John Sundquist, executive director, Board of International Ministries of the ABC, USA; Nathaniel Tyler-Lloyd, pastor, Trinity Baptist Church, Bronx, N.Y.; Douglas Waruta of Kenya, a theological professor; and Chan Young Shim of Korea, immediate past president of the Asian Baptist Women’s Union.
The current BWA treasurer, Clem Gimbert of the United States, was re-elected to his position.
