CHUCK KELLEY ELECTED FOR NEW ORLEANS PRESIDENCY

by   Herb Hollinger & Debbie Moore                                                                                                            Vol. IX, No. 3, March 1996

Charles S. "Chuck" Kelley Jr., a New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary evangelism professor, has been elected president of the seminary. Trustees met on campus Feb. 22-23 to vote on the selection, according to Morris Anderson, chairman of the trustee presidential search committee.

Kelley, is the eighth president of the 30-year- old seminary, the nation's third-largest, and will succeed Landrum P. Leavell II, who was president for 20 years until his retirement at the end of 1994.

The 12-member search committee reached a unanimous decision on Kelley in a meeting Feb. 6, said Anderson, pastor of First Baptist Church, Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

"I am excited about Dr. Kelley," Anderson told Baptist Press. "He's a scholar, without question, a church growth practitioner and has preached all over the world."

The rest of the 40-member trustee board was notified Feb. 3 by special mail of the Feb. 22-23 called trustee meeting. Anderson, who also is vice chairman of the NOBTS board of trustees, said trustees met with Kelley Feb. 22, followed by a short session on Feb. 23 and then the vote. Because Kelley is familiar to trustees, the sessions will probably not be long, Anderson said.

According to sources on the campus, Kelley's nomination will be popular with students, faculty, and staff.

The selection process took about 14 months and was slowed by several top candidates who withdrew their names, including SBC President Jim Henry, an Orlando, FL, pastor, and Fred L. Lowery, a Bossier City, LA, pastor. Lowery, a seminary trustee, withdrew following his selection by a search committee but prior to a special called trustee meeting Nov. 8 to vote on his nomination. The search committee said it had received 25 to 30 recommendations during the year.

Kelley, 43, has been director of the seminary’s Center of Evangelism and Church Growth and chairman of the seminary’s largest division, pastoral ministries, since 1993 as well as Roland Q. Leavell Professor of Evangelism since 1983. He was the seminary’s director of field education from 1983-93. He also has been director and an itinerant evangelist with Innovative Evangelism Inc., since 1975.

A much-requested public speaker throughout the Southern Baptist Convention, Kelley is recognized widely both for his evangelistic preaching and for is research in the area of “baby boomers” and “baby busters.”

Kelley is the author of “How Did They Do It? The Story of Southern Baptist Evangelism” and four other books and writer of numerous evangelism training materials, including “The roman Road” tract, teacher’s guide, learner’s guide and training video produced by the SBC Home Mission Board and used throughout the SBC during the 1995 “Here’s Hope” nationwide evangelistic campaign.

He is the brother of Dorothy Patterson, wife of Paige Patterson, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC. [BP]