Midland church calls Everett; search for replacement to begin

DALLAS—First Baptist Church of Midland voted unanimously Dec. 5 to call Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Randel Everett as senior pastor, and he accepted.

Everett, 61, has served several months as interim pastor of the West Texas church. He becomes pastor effective Jan. 16.

BGCT leaders will name a 15-member search committee to find Everett’s successor as executive director. Seven members will be named by BGCT Executive Board officers and eight members by convention officers, and the Executive Board then will vote on that committee and initiate the search, said BGCT Executive Board Chair Debbie Ferrier.

Convention leaders are recommending to the Executive Board that Associate Executive Director Steve Vernon be empowered to assume all authority and responsibilities related to the executive director’s role while the position is vacant.

For updates on the search process, visit www.baptiststandard.com.

The board elected Everett as executive director in February 2008, and he assumed the post several weeks later. Everett came to the position from First Baptist Church in Newport News, Va.

In addition to serving as president of the John Leland Center for Theological Studies in Arlington, Va., his previous places of service included Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church, Va.; First Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla.; First Baptist Church in Benton, Ark.; University Baptist Church in Fort Worth; Inglewood Baptist Church in Grand Prairie; and First Baptist Church in Gonzales.

In a video statement posted on the convention’s website, Everett thanked Texas Baptists for the opportunity to serve them as the BGCT executive director and indicated he believes Texas Baptists are poised to continue reaching the state for Christ.

“I want you to know how excited I am to continue being a part of the Texas Baptist family,” he said. “In these past three years, I’ve been able to see face-to-face what’s going on in many our churches and in our institutions.

“I’ve never been more ex-cited to be part of the Texas Bap-tist family than I am right now. God has brought together a wonderful resource of people, of institutions, a great heritage and a great future. When we really cooperate together, we can do things like end hunger in Texas or share the hope of Christ with every person in our state.”

During Everett’s tenure as executive director, Texas Baptists launched Texas Hope 2010, an initiative to share the gospel with every person in Texas by Easter 2010. The effort emphasized praying for non-Christians, caring for people in need and sharing the gospel.

As a result of the emphasis, Texas Baptists distributed more than 860,000 multimedia gospel compact discs, as well as multitudes of Bibles, throughout the state.

Texas Baptists gave more than $1.8 million to feed the hungry through the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger. The Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission partnered with the Baylor University School of Social Work to launch the Texas Hunger Initiative, an effort to end Texas hunger by 2015. An initial project involved recruiting Texas Baptist churches to serve as summer feeding sites for children in school reduced- or free-lunch programs.

The BGCT recently began building on the Hope 2010 momentum by launching Hope 1:8, an initiative based on Acts 1:8 that encourages Texas Baptists to share the hope of Christ locally, statewide and around the world.

—Based on reporting by John Hall of Texas Baptist Communications