Southern Baptist Convention President Steve Gaines named members of the Southern Baptist Convention Committee on Resolutions for the June 12–13 SBC annual meeting in Dallas on March 29.
Gaines, pastor of Memphis-area Bellevue Baptist Church, appointed the committee in keeping with the provision in SBC Bylaw 20 that its members be named seventy-five days prior to the start of the annual meeting.
The committee is tasked by SBC Bylaw 20 with preparing and submitting resolutions to the Convention, recommending them for adoption.
“I am grateful for the ethnic diversity we have on the Resolutions Committee,” Gaines said. “It is predominantly non-Anglo and is probably one of the most ethnically diverse committees in the history of the SBC.”
Of the committee’s ten members, four are African American, four are Anglo, one is Hispanic, and one is Asian. Two members are female.
Jason Duesing of Missouri was named as the committee’s chairman by Gaines.
Duesing is provost and associate professor of historical theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City and is a member of Antioch Bible Baptist Church in Gladstone, Missouri.
The committee’s composition, according to Bylaw 20, must include at least two members who served the previous year, with Duesing and Ken Alford, pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church in Valdosta, Georgia, meeting this requirement.
Bylaw 20 also stipulates that the committee include at least three SBC Executive Committee members. This year they are Alford; Chris Metcalf, pastor of Lihue Baptist Church in Lihue, Hawaii; and Adron Robinson, senior pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Country Club Hills, Illinois.
Other members are Byron Day, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Laurel, Maryland, and president of the National African American Fellowship of Southern Baptists; Candi Finch, assistant professor of theology in women’s studies at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and member of Hope Church in Fort Worth; Willie McLaurin, special assistant to the executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board in Franklin, Tennessee, and member of Simeon Baptist Church in Antioch, Tennessee; Jason Paredes, lead pastor of Fielder Church in Arlington, Texas; Alicia Wong, associate professor of women’s ministry at Gateway Seminary in Ontario, California, and member of Rosena Church in San Bernardino, California; and Curtis Woods, associate executive director for convention relations with the Kentucky Baptist Convention, Louisville, Kentucky, and member of Watson Memorial Baptist Church in Louisville.
In an op-ed piece he wrote for Baptist Press in late May, Duesing asked Southern Baptists to pray for this year’s Resolutions Committee, noting the committee “exists to serve the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention” by “preparing and submitting resolutions for adoption by the SBC at its annual meeting.”
“Resolutions . . . are intended to express the collective opinion of the messengers at that particular annual meeting on pertinent moral, ethical, and public policy issues, often providing suggestions for cooperating churches and entities to speak with biblical clarity on a wide range of theological, social, and practical topics,” he wrote.
In alignment with a set of encouragements adopted by the Executive Committee at its February 19–20 meeting in Nashville, Duesing pledged to include a “brief explanation” as part of the required disposition report for any properly- submitted resolution the committee believes does not best serve this year’s annual meeting focus.
If a properly submitted resolution is not forwarded by the Committee on Resolutions to the SBC annual meeting, a two-thirds vote of messengers is required to bring the proposed resolution to the convention floor.
Jason Duesing, provost and associate professor of historical theology, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, and member of Antioch Bible Baptist Church in Gladstone, Missouri. An author and coauthor of numerous books, Duesing is one of two members from the previous year’s Committee on Resolutions as stipulated by SBC Bylaw 20.
Ken Alford, pastor, Crossroads Baptist Church in Valdosta, Georgia. Alford, who has served in numerous leadership roles in Baptist life, is one of two members from the previous year’s Committee on Resolutions as stipulated by SBC Bylaw 20 and one of three members of the SBC Executive Committee on the Resolutions Committee as also stipulated by Bylaw 20.
Byron Day, pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church in Laurel, Maryland. Day is the current president of the National African American Fellowship of Southern Baptists, former president of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware, and was a member of the SBC Executive Committee’s African American Advisory Council.
Candi Finch, assistant professor of theology in women’s studies, Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and member of Hope Church in Fort Worth. Finch has contributed chapters and edited numerous books, has been on more than twenty overseas mission trips, and served as secretary of the SBC Executive Committee’s Women’s Ministry Advisory Council.
Willie McLaurin, special assistant to the executive director, Tennessee Baptist Mission Board in Franklin, Tennessee, and member of Simeon Baptist Church, Antioch, Tennessee. McLaurin is a specialist in leadership development and is a much sought-after motivational speaker in both local church ministry and conference leadership.
Chris Metcalf, pastor, Lihue Baptist Church in Lihue, Hawaii. Metcalf is one of three members of the SBC Executive Committee on the Resolutions Committee as stipulated by SBC Bylaw 20. Located on the island of Kauai, one way Lihue Baptist serves its community is by holding summer-long Vacation Bible Schools (see 2015 SBC LIFE story).
Jason Paredes, lead pastor, Fielder Church in Arlington, Texas. Paredes, alongside retired pastor Gary Smith, transitioned Fielder Church from a monocultural to a multiethnic congregation actively engaging its neighborhood (see 2016 SBC LIFE story). Paredes is a frequent guest speaker on topics ranging from transtioning churches to parenting.
Adron Robinson, senior pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church in Country Club Hills, Illinois. Robinson, who has a passion for discipling men to become who God has called them to be, is the current president of the Illinois Baptist State Association. He is one of three members of the SBC Executive Committee on the Resolutions Committee as stipulated by SBC Bylaw 20.
Alicia Wong, associate professor of women’s ministry, Gateway Seminary in Ontario, California, and member of Rosena Church in San Bernardino, California, where she serves as Educational Ministry Coordinator. Fluent in English, Spanish, and Cantonese, Wong has served overseas with the IMB and as a national missionary focusing on women’s evangelism with NAMB.
Curtis Woods, associate executive director for convention relations, Kentucky Baptist Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, and member of Watson Memorial Baptist Church in Louisville. He holds undergraduate and graduate level degrees in social work, urban studies, and pastoral theology. His research interests are in African American intellectual history.
