Conservative network leaders named as SBC VP nominees

A seminary dean and a Georgia church planter—both steering committee members of the recently formed Conservative Baptist Network—will be nominated for vice presidential posts at the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 15-16 in Nashville.

Lee Brand Jr., vice president and dean of Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, will be nominated as first vice president of the SBC, the pastor of the Mississippi church he attends announced.

Pastor James Lewis described Brand as “a fellow pilgrim who walks beside his pastor encouraging me along the way.”

“He has a deep and growing passion for God’s word, God’s people and God’s servants,” Lewis continued. “He believes strongly in the inerrant and sufficient message of God’s word and the mission of the local church. In his role at the seminary, he is helping equip a new generation of church leaders for Bible-based, Spirit-led and God-honoring ministry.”

The SBC Annual Church Profile shows a membership of 1,494 and weekly attendance of 648 at DeSoto Hills in 2019. The church that year gave 10.1 percent of undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program in 2019 and reported 17 baptisms.

“I am honored by this opportunity to serve,” Brand said. “When I was first approached, I bathed the matter in much prayer before I accepted. The goals and focus of my ministry are the word of God and service to others. It will be my pleasure to serve the SBC if elected, and I will do so through prayer and faithful application of God’s word.”

Saved at 12 and called to preach at 17, Brand began serving as pastor of Beth-el Missionary Baptist Church in rural central Mississippi at age 22. He continued as pastor of that church nearly 20 years until his call to Mid-America Seminary.

Chavez nominee for second vice president

Javier Chavez, church planter and pastor of Iglesia Bautista Amistad Cristiana International in Gainesville, Ga., will be nominated as second vice president, leaders of the Conservative Baptist Network announced.

Chavez, 44, also is a visiting professor of global missions at Truett-McConnell University in Cleveland, Ga.

Chavez, a former missionary kid, immigrated to the U.S. as a transfer college student and went on to pursue master and doctoral studies at Wheaton College and Biola University. He met his wife in Chicago. As newlyweds, the couple moved to South America, where they served as missionaries 13 years.

Amistad Cristiana, planted in August 2016, has become one of the fastest growing churches in northeast Georgia, recording an average of 52 baptisms per year. According to the 2019 Annual Church Profile, the church has a membership and weekly attendance of 185 and contributed 5.6 percent of its undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program.

“We are the example of an SBC church planted with no funding from national convention sources but with the sacrifice of its people, and still, gladly cooperating with our convention,” Chavez said.

Previously, another member of the Conservative Baptist Network steering committee—Mike Stone, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, Ga.—was announced as a nominee for SBC president.

Other nominees for president are Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Randy Adams, executive director of the Northwest Baptist Convention; and Ed Litton, pastor of Redemption Church in Saraland, Ala.

Stephen Feinstein, pastor of Sovereign Way Christian Church in Hesperia, Calif., previously was announced as a nominee for second vice president.

Compiled from Baptist Press reports.