[1]INDIANAPOLIS (BP)–After serving in several leadership positions within two state conventions, Mark Stephen Hearn will be nominated for Southern Baptist Convention second vice president during the SBC’s annual meeting June 15-16 in Indianapolis.
Hearn, pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Indianapolis, will be nominated by Charles W. Sullivan, former executive director-treasurer of the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana.
“During the past several years, various leaders of our convention have talked with me about someone from Indiana being nominated,” Sullivan said in a statement to Baptist Press. “I believe the time has come for that to be a reality. Therefore I will nominate Mark Stephen Hearn.”
Hearn has been pastor of Northside Baptist Church since May 2002. Northside leads the state in giving to the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon offering for international missions. Hearn currently serves as co-chairman of Crossover Indiana, the pre-convention evangelistic emphasis in Indianapolis. He serves as a trustee for LifeWay Christian Resources.
Previous convention service includes election as first vice president of the Baptist Convention of the State of Georgia in 2001.
The nominee also has been first vice president of the State Convention of Baptists of Indiana in 1997 and president of the Indiana Baptist Pastors’ Conference in 1996. Hearn was elected to the SBC Committee on Nominations in 1996. He also has been a trustee of the Southern Baptist Annuity Board, where he served on the presidential search committee.
[2]A 1981 graduate of Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tenn., Hearn earned a master of divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., in 1985 and a doctor of ministry degree from Luther Rice Seminary in Atlanta in 1992.
Hearn was pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Evansville, Ind., from 1992-97 and Calvary Baptist Temple in Savannah, Ga., from 1997-2002.
Hearn and his wife, Glenda, have four daughters and two grandsons.
The second to be nominated, Hearn joins John Hays of Jersey Baptist Church near Columbus, Ohio, in the running for second vice president. Plans for Hays’ nomination were announced in March by Guy Morton of Lakeview Baptist Church in Vermilion, Ohio.
Two other announcements for SBC offices were made in February: a presidential nominee, Bobby Welch, pastor of First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., and a first vice presidential nominee, Gerald Davidson, pastor of the St. Louis-area First Baptist Church in Arnold. Terry Fox, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, Kan., was announced as a nominee in January for Pastors’ Conference president.
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(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: MARK HEARN.