[1]NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Jim Wells will be nominated to serve another term as registration secretary for the Southern Baptist Convention, Florida pastor Randall James announced June 3.
Wells, who was first elected to the post in 2002, is director of missions for the Tri-County Baptist Association in southwest Missouri and a member of Hopedale Baptist Church in Ozark.
“I have known Jim Wells since I was elected to the SBC Executive Committee in 2003 and have followed his work as our convention’s registration secretary,” said James, who is a staff member at First Baptist Church in Orlando and is president of the First Orlando Foundation. “As a director of missions, Jim Wells is a pastor’s pastor and closely models the description Jesus gave of Himself in Matthew 11:29: ‘I am gentle and humble in heart.’
“Jim Wells has helped streamline the registration process by initiating online registration and express registration. With Jim’s use of volunteers and new technology, SBC registration is painless,” James added. “I feel we would be blessed to have Jim Wells serve another term as SBC registration secretary and it will be my honor to nominate him.”
The Tri-County Baptist Association, which Wells has led for eight years, received the “Church Planting Association of the Year” award in 2004 from the Missouri Baptist Convention.
Wells previously pastored Oakwood Baptist Church in Kansas City, Mo., for 16 years, leading the church to increase its Cooperative Program giving from 8 percent to more than 16 percent of undesignated receipts. He was in the pastorate more than 32 years.
[2]Wells is a member of the Missouri Baptist Convention’s executive board and a former member of the SBC Executive Committee and has served on numerous committees at the associational, state and national levels.
A Missouri native, Wells holds a master of divinity degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., along with degrees from Hannibal-LaGrange College and Central Missouri State University.
He and his wife Judy have one daughter, Dana.
Information for Hopedale Baptist Church from Southern Baptists’ Annual Church Profile survey for the most recent year, 2007, lists 20 baptisms and primary worship service attendance of 400. The church gave $19,339, or 7.9 percent, through the Cooperative Program from total undesignated receipts of $245,390. According to the ACP, the church gave $10,500 for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and $3,150 for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions.
Jim Wells is the only announced candidate for the registration secretary position.
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Compiled by Mark Kelly, an assistant editor at Baptist Press.