Nominees for BGAV Offices

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                                                                                        Vol. VI, No. 8, October 1993

The Banner has learned that the following individuals will be nominated for the indicated offices at the annual convention of the Baptist General Association of Virginia in Richmond, 9-10 November.

President:

Vander Warner, Jr.: Dr. Warner was senior pastor of Grove Avenue Baptist Church, Richmond, for over 26 years before resigning to begin the Home Before Dark Ministry. He continues to serve Grove Avenue as Pastor-at-Large. The record of the church under his ministry was remarkable. In 1980 the church moved seven miles into a new $3,000,000 facility which won the National Architects' Award for Outstanding Design. The budget increased from $100,000 in 1960 to $1,400,000 in 1990. Cooperative Program giving increased 1000%. Some 2400 new members were enrolled since relocating and 150 professions of faith were recorded in 1990.

In the Southern Baptist Convention Vander Warner addressed the Pastor's Conference in 1965, 1969, and 1972, served as vice-president of the Pastor's Conference in 1966 and president in 1973. He has served on these SBC committees: Time, Place, and Preacher; Committee on Committees; and Committee on Boards.

At state level, he served for ten years on the Maryland state board, chaired the Maryland radio and television committee, has spoken to the Evangelism Conferences of Maryland, California, Alabama, Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania, and is past president of the Executive Board, Richmond Association.

Vander has been active in international missions and crusades. He has been on several missions to the British Isles, most recently to Inverness, Scotland in 1992. Also preaching missions to Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti in 1965, Jamaica in 1966, crusades in two cities in Nigeria in 1973 for the Foreign Mission Board, and in Kunnamkulam, India in 1972.

Dr. Warner attended Wake Forest College, did honors work at Virginia Commonwealth University, and holds a Doctor of Divinity from Brown Theological Seminary.

Home Before Dark is designed to help bring America back to God. It is interdenominational and regional in scope and consists of (1) a personal ministry of one-on-one encouragement to pastors and businessmen and (2) public preaching, teaching, and conducting seminars.

Grove Avenue recorded 59 baptisms with resident membership of 1575, a ratio of 1:26.69.

Ronald W. Crawford: Dr. Crawford has been pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church, Richmond, for nine years. Previously he pastored Vandola Baptist Church in Danville for four years. He is a native of Portsmouth, and many Virginians will remember his father, Zeke Crawford, who pastored churches throughout Virginia. Dr. Crawford attended Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC, receiving the Master of Divinity degree in 1977 and the Doctor of Divinity in 1985.

Ron has served the Baptist General Association of Virginia as first vice president in 1990-91, as a past member of the budget committee, and as an at-large member of the Virginia Baptist General Board.

Dr. Crawford worked with the Southern Baptist Alliance (now the Alliance of Baptists) and was a state council member sometime back but is no longer active in the Alliance. He supports the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship but holds no office in the CBF. He is a trustee of the Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond.

Lakeside Baptist reported 5 baptisms last year with a resident membership of 494, a ratio of 1:99.4.

First Vice President:

Dempsey Jones was born in North Carolina and moved to Virginia when he was ten. He was raised in Keysville and attended Bryan College (a non-denominational Christian school) in Dayton TN (site of the famous Scopes Trial), graduating in 1976 with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration.

Dempsey has worked with the family's business, Western Auto of Farmville, since 1971, full time since 1978. When his father retired in 1989, Dempsey became president and treasurer.

He is a member of Worsham Baptist Church, Farmville, and currently serves as deacon chairman and member of the long-range planning committee. He has been a youth Sunday School teacher for five years. He has just completed a three year term (1990-1993) on the Virginia Baptist General Board as associational representative. Dempsey is married with three children.

Worsham Baptist had 13 baptisms last year and a resident membership of 223, a ratio of 1:17.15.

Mark Olson: Rev. Mark Olson is pastor of First Baptist Church, South Boston. He grew up in Columbia Baptist, Falls Church, and considers Rev. Neal Jones his pastoral mentor. Mark received his call to preach while a student at Wake Forest University. In 1981 he graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Master of divinity degree.

Mark was pastor of Berean Baptist, Fredericksburg, for three years, and pastored Free Union Baptist while pursuing graduate work at the University of Virginia. He taught New Testament at Virginia Tech during the 1989-90 school year and completed his Ph. D. at UV in May 1990. He was called to First Baptist, South Boston in August 1990.

First Baptist, South Boston, was in the Southern Baptist Alliance (now Alliance of Baptists), but after the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship was formed felt more comfortable in the CBF and withdrew from the Alliance. Mark notes that he and his church have been active in the CBF, though he holds no formal CBF position. He notes that he has been active in planning CBF activities in Virginia. His church hosted Dr. Cecil Sherman, Executive Director of CBF, some time back, and Mark played an active role in planning a recent meeting where Cecil Sherman and Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler spoke.

Mark places himself in the moderate camp and states that he does not hold to strict inerrancy. However, he characterizes himself as having a high view of Scripture and considers himself a theological evangelical.

First Baptist, South Boston, had 17 baptisms with a resident membership of 624 last year, a ratio of 1:36.71.

Second Vice President:

David Johnson: Rev. David Johnson was born and raised in Hartlepool, England, where he was converted at the age of 19. He has a background in marine engineering. In England he trained for the mission field intending to go to Taiwan, but a liver problem prevented the assignment. He spent seven years in rural evangelism. And he has been in the pastorate for the last 22 years.

In 1978 he and his wife, who have two grown sons, came to the U.S. and have spent the succeeding 15 years pasturing Rileyville Baptist Church in Rileyville, Shenandoah Association. Rileyville gives 14% to missions, 11 % to the Cooperative Program. Under David's ministry Rileyville has grown from some 40 active members in 1978 to approximately 240 now and has had to build three times to accommodate the expansion. They have just completed the third phase and have instituted two morning services.

David holds the Th. D. from Trinity Theological Seminary, Evansville, Indiana. He has written for the SBC Sunday School Board and has served on the SBC Committee on Committees. In Shenandoah Association David has been moderator for two years, has chaired the evangelism committee, and has chaired the youth committee for the last eleven years.

Last year Rileyville had eleven baptisms with a resident membership of 287 for a ratio of 1:26.09.

Mary Wilson: Mrs. Jack Wilson was born in Georgia and attended a girl's college subsequently merged into Mercer University. Her husband works for IBM which has entailed some moves. Mrs. Wilson has taught high school. While living four years in New York she and her husband helped establish a mission church in Westchester County. They recently returned for the twenty-fifth anniversary of that church.

Mary is WMU director at Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church as well as having been a Sunday School teacher and departmental director, a trustee, and chairman of the finance committee.

In state activities she has served as a member of the budget committee and then, more recently, as budget committee chairman. She has also been on the urban church committee. She is now serving her second term as a member of the Virginia Baptist General Board. She is chairman of the Mount Vernon Association finance committee.

Mary and Jack have two adult children.

Columbia recorded 86 baptisms last year with 2638 resident members, a ratio of 1:30.67.