[1] ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) — Trustees of the North American Mission Board elected two new vice presidents May 6th: John O. Yarbrough, vice president of the evangelization group, and David W. Clark, vice president of the broadcast communications group.
Yarbrough served NAMB as lead strategy coordinator since the agency’s inception last June. As vice president of evangelization, he will oversee all of the agency’s efforts in evangelism, which with church planting, is a key thrust of NAMB.
Yarbrough has been pastor of seven Southern Baptist churches in Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee, most recently First Baptist Church, Perry, Ga., from 1993-97, where he led his church to give 14 percent to the Cooperative Program. He was pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Cartersville, Ga., from 1985-93, during which time the church was listed in Church Growth Today as one of the 200 fastest-growing churches in America. During the same 20 plus years, he served through local associations as chairman and member of various committees and conferences.
Yarbrough served on the executive committee of the Georgia Baptist Convention from 1989-93 and was president of GBC from 1994-96.
On a national level, Yarbrough has served on the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1992-97. He was secretary/treasurer of the 1993 SBC Pastors’ Conference and served on the Implementation Task Force for the SBC’s “Covenant for a New Century” restructuring from 1995-97.
Yarbrough has been a conference speaker for more than 97 associations and 17 state conventions and preached in more than 365 churches in 20 states and three seminaries across the Southern Baptist Convention. An Atlanta native, he was ordained at First Baptist Church of Chattahoochee, Atlanta, in 1970. He is a graduate of Truett McConnell Junior College in Cleveland, Ga., Mercer University of Atlanta, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., where he received the master of divinity degree. Yarbrough holds an honorary doctorate from Southern California Theological Seminary.
Yarbrough and his wife, Diana, have one adult daughter, Christina, who serves with the Sunday School Board as a bookstore manager, and one adult son, Joseph, currently a student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, N.C.
Clark became executive director of the Media Technology Center of NAMB in June 1997. He will assume the role of vice president, broadcast communications, June 1. The broadcast communications group is responsible for the production and distribution of all radio and television programs for the Southern Baptist Convention in North America.
Clark currently is chairman of the board of the National Religious Broadcasters and served as president and chairman of the board from 1991-94.
Prior to joining NAMB, Clark was president of KMC Media, a media strategy, production and placement company from 1991-97. KMC Media served many of the leading nonprofit ministries in America, including the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association, Love Worth Finding (Adrian Rogers) and Touching Lives (James Merritt).
He was dean of the college of communication at Regent University in Virginia from 1988-91. He was vice president of marketing for the Christian Broadcasting Network from 1982-87.
Clark was licensed to preach in 1961 and ordained in 1966. He has been on staff as associate pastor or pastor of four churches in Illinois and Iowa.
Clark is a native of Chicago but lived in Latin America as a child with his missionary parents. He is a graduate of Evangel College, Springfield, Mo., Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Chicago, and the University of Iowa, where he received his doctorate in mass communication research. He and his wife, Lois, have two sons and one daughter, all adults.
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