SBCV appoints a Senior Associate Director 

                                                                                                                   Vol. XV, No. 6, Jun/Jul 2002

Dr Geoff Hammond was elected as Senior Associate Director by the Executive Board of the SCBV on April 29th, 2002. Geoff will assist Executive Director, Doyle Chauncey in the day-to-day leadership of the Convention.

Hammond brings a varied background and a diversity of experience to this new role. He has been involved in church planting on four continents of the world; has been a pastor in London and Texas; has served on church staff at First Baptist Dallas and First Baptist Norfolk; was a Director of Missions in Arkansas, and has served as missionary with the International Mission Board in Brazil.

Geoff was born to missionary parents in Ogbomosho, Nigeria, while his parents were Southern Baptist Missionaries. Although his parents were British citizens they worked for the IMB for 9 years. His parents were also missionaries in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where he lived until he was 21. At the age of 12, he was saved and baptized in the Central Baptist Church, Harare, Zimbabwe. He was called to preach at age 16 and went to seminary at Spurgeon’s College in London, England. Upon his graduation he was invited to serve as British Minister at First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, for one year. It was there that he met his wife, Deborah Atchison, and they were married in 1983. They now have two sons, Timothy age16, and Nicholas age 12.

Hammond has his Doctor of Ministry degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in the area of missions and evangelism. In 1990 he and his wife were appointed missionaries to Brazil with the International Mission Board. Geoff taught evangelism, church growth and missions at the North Brazil Seminary and was involved in church planting with the Baptist State Convention of Pernambuco.

In 1998, Hammond returned to the United States and served as Director of Missions for the Washington Madison Baptist Association in Northwest Arkansas. In January 2000, he came to the SBCV to serve as Church Planting Strategist in the Tidewater area of Virginia. This was a part of the Key Church Strategy and he simultaneously served as Minister of Global Missions at First Baptist Church of Norfolk. In 2001 he was appointed as a missionary with the North American Mission Board, and he also served as interim Church Planting Coordinator for the SBCV.

In his new role, Geoff will continue to lead church planting for the SBCV, and he will also lead the Church Planting Strategists and Church Health Specialists who will serve in different areas of our State.