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SBC DIGEST: Dockery to be 1st VP nominee; Georgia convention sells Pinebloom property


Anthony Dockery to be nominated for SBC 1st VP

By George Schroeder

NASHVILLE (BP) — South Carolina pastor Marshall Blalock will nominate California pastor Anthony Dockery for first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention at the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting in Nashville in June, Blalock announced today (April 6).

Blalock said Dockery, who has served since 2008 as pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church in La Puente, Calif., has “a heart to serve Christ and a proven track record of reaching people with the Gospel.” A native of Florida who was raised in Detroit, Dockery served 21 years in the United States Air Force and the California Air National Guard. A pilot, he flew missions over three war theaters. He has been in various ministry roles at St. Stephen Baptist since 1990, including youth pastor and executive pastor. The church is involved with missions and outreach efforts both globally and in its community, which is located about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

“Folks may wonder why a guy on the Atlantic Ocean is nominating a pastor on the Pacific Ocean,” said Blalock, pastor of First Baptist Church of Charleston, S.C . “We are separated by a continent, but we share one great Savior with a common passion to see Christ exalted and lives changed by the power of the Gospel. We are Great Commission partners, which is the genius of our Convention.”

Blalock noted Dockery’s “strong ties” to the California Southern Baptist Convention. He currently serves as chairman of the board of trustees of California Baptist University.

St. Stephen Baptist gave $6,000, or less than 1 percent, of $1,587,845 in undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program and had $32,613 in total mission expenditures in 2020, according to the SBC Annual Church Profile and figures the church submitted to Baptist Press. The church is involved with a West Africa partnership through the International Mission Board. Additionally, the church is involved in ongoing missions work in El Salvador and in outreach locally to the Hispanic community through its Spanish language ministry (SLaM).

“Tony Dockery is an outstanding pastor with a heart to serve Christ and a proven track record of reaching people with the Gospel and cooperating in our Baptist family to fulfill the Great Commission,” Blalock said. “His witness, his faithfulness, and his heart for the nations all speak to his qualifications to serve as a support and encouragement for our next president. He has led with excellence as pastor at St. Stephens and served his country with distinction. I believe he will serve our larger Baptist family with Christ-honoring leadership as first vice president.”

Dockery earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of La Verne and Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (now Gateway Seminary). He has been married to Yvonnie for 31 years.


Georgia convention’s Pinebloom property sold

By Gerald Harris/The Christian Index

ATLANTA (BP) –Pinebloom, an Atlanta property owned by the Georgia Baptist Mission Board for 24 years, has been sold to Joel Reed of Reed and Company. The property consists of a 1914 mansion built for Preston S. Arkwright, president of Georgia Railway and Power Company. In recent years, Jackson Hill Baptist Church has also utilized part of the property, which once housed the offices for The Christian Index, Georgia Baptists’ newsjournal.

In 1997, the Executive Committee of the Georgia Baptist Convention voted to accept the property as a gift in order to provide office space for the Index at a location separate from the mission board’s offices. The limited warranty deed was signed by representatives of the Jackson Hill Church and The Christian Index on April 27, 1997. At the time the property was received the church facility was being used by the Moreland Avenue Baptist Church, and the Jackson Hill Church was meeting on Sunday morning and Wednesday night in the solarium of the mansion. The building is rich in Baptist history, and at one time was the home of The Radio Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Christian Index did not move into the building in the historic Druid Hills area of Atlanta until 2001. The renovation and maintenance of the building proved costly, and by 2003, The Index moved back to the mission board’s offices.

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