McBride & Vernon to be
nominated as vice presidents
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___Two longtime pastors, both active in Baptist General Convention of Texas affairs, will be nominated as vice presidents when the convention meets next month.
___Paul McBride, pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in The
Colony, will be nominated for first vice president by Howard Anderson, pastor of Singing Hills Baptist Church in Dallas.
___Steve Vernon, pastor of First Baptist Church in Levelland, will be proposed for second vice president by Milton Cunningham, chaplain of Baylor University athletics, staff member with the Baylor on Mission program and a former BGCT president.
___McBride and Vernon will join Bob Campbell, pastor of Westbury Baptist Church in Houston, who has been presented as a presidential nominee.
___"Paul McBride is a great leader," Anderson said. "And he is a man of integrity and honesty.
___"He is familiar with Texas Baptists" and can help strengthen the state convention, Anderson added.
___"If I'm elected, I want to be able to show that there is a unified body of believers working together" in the convention, McBride said. "I would like to see our churches over Texas be as we were eight to 10 years ago--how we were so unified, and there was no battling between the families of believers."
___McBride has been affiliated with the BGCT since 1983, when his church was a new mission congregation. "I've seen the convention grow and change," he noted, citing the current unprecedented "opportunity to reach out to the unchurched, to bring people who don't know Jesus Christ into the body of believers."
___If elected, McBride will look forward to working with the new convention president, as well as BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade and the convention staff, he said.
___McBride was the founding pastor of the 1,350-member Friendship Baptist Church, which began as a mission in 1983 and constituted as a church in 1984.
___He is past president of the BGCT African-American Fellowship and is a member of the BGCT Black Advisory Board. He was a member of the BGCT Effectiveness/Efficiency Committee and served on various state and associational committees.
___He is a graduate of Eastvale Junior College, Southern Bible Institute of Dallas, Trinity Valley Baptist Seminary and Andersonville Baptist Seminary. He is retired from GTE.
___He and his wife, Ida, have three children and five grandchildren.
___"Steve Vernon has demonstrated his support for the Baptist General Convention of Texas and his willingness to be a part of the goals the convention has established," Cunningham said.
___"His record as a pastor and his cooperation with other Baptists on the local and state levels make him very knowledgeable of Baptist life in Texas and what we're trying to do."
___Vernon's character and demeanor form the foundation of an exemplary life, Cunningham said. "He has been a role model for his family and community. He's a man who has led his church to be supportive of the BGCT, and he's demonstrated his leadership ability in the responsibilities given him over the years."
___Prior to joining the 3,218-member First Baptist Church in Levelland in 1991, he was pastor of First Baptist Church in Panhandle, First Baptist Church in Kress and First Baptist Church in Ames, Okla.
___Vernon has been vice chairman of the BGCT Christian Life Commission and serves on the commission's board of consultants. He has been a trustee of Wayland Baptist University and moderator of the South Plains, Amarillo and Staked Plains Baptist associations.
___He has served on numerous BGCT and associational committees and has participated in mission projects in Mexico, South Africa and Brazil. He also has been active in community causes where he has been pastor. He was named 2000 Man of the Year by the Levelland Area Chamber of Commerce.
___He is a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
___He and his wife, Donna, have three children.
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