Baptist Briefs: McRaney to Maryland/Delaware

Maryland/Delaware executive director elected. Will McRaney, a former Florida Baptist church planting and evangelism strategist and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary professor, was elected executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware. Will McRaneyThe convention’s general mission board voted unanimously Sept. 10 to call McRaney to fill the position vacated by David Lee, who retired from the Columbia, Md.-based convention July 31. Since 2011, McRaney has served as team strategist for Florida Baptists’ English-speaking church planting team in Jacksonville, Fla., after previously directing the convention’s evangelism strategy department. McRaney, 50, served previously at New Orleans Seminary, where he occupied the Max and Bonnie Thornhill Chair of Evangelism from 2001 to 2007 and the Cecil B. Day Chair of Church Planting from 1996 to 2000. McRaney was founding pastor of Life Church in Mandeville, La., 1997 to 1999; lead pastor at Daybreak Community Church in Littleton, Colo., 1992 to 1996; and pastor of Jackson Avenue Baptist Church in Pascagoula, Miss., 1987 to 1991. He is a graduate of Mississippi State University who earned master of divinity and doctor of philosophy degrees from New Orleans Seminary. He and his wife, Sandy, have three children— Blakeney, Hadley and Macy.

BWA plans dialogue with Methodists. Representatives of the Baptist World Alliance and the World Methodist Council met recently in London to plan an international theological dialogue. The dialogue is planned for 2014-2018 and will explore the theme, “Faith Active in Love: Sung and Preached, Confessed and Remembered, Lived and Learned.” Participants in the planning meeting agreed on several goals for the dialogue—greater understanding of, and appreciation for, one another; mutual exchange of gifts for the enrichment and renewal of Baptist and Methodist churches; increased participation in a common mission and witness in the world; and deeper fellowship and cooperation by identifying and overcoming barriers.