RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Baptists Committed, a moderate advocacy group, has endorsed the candidacies of two previously announced nominees for offices of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
VBC members voted Sept. 16 to endorse Bob Bass, a Richmond layman currently serving as the BGAV’s first vice president, for president and Mark Croston, pastor of East End Baptist Church in Suffolk, Va., for first vice president.
Bob Bass
|
In addition, VBC said it will support Larry Coleman, pastor of Churchland Baptist Church in Chesapeake, Va., for second vice president.
Meanwhile, another candidate for second vice president — Allen Jessee, pastor of Community Heights Baptist Church in Cedar Bluff, Va. — will be nominated. Hank Brooks, pastor of Coastal Community Church in Virginia Beach, Va., announced Sept. 24 he will nominated Jessee.
The BGAV will elect officers during its annual meeting in Hampton, Va., Nov. 9-10.
Both Bass and Croston had earlier agreed to be nominated for BGAV offices — Bass by Travis Collins, pastor of Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond, who nominated Bass for first vice president last year, and Croston by Don Davidson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va.
Bass’s nomination is consistent with a 50-year-old BGAV practice of rotating its one-year, non-renewable presidency between ministers and laypersons. His nomination also follows a 10-year practice of electing first vice presidents as president. Neither tradition is mandated by BGAV bylaws.
“We honor the tradition of nominating the first vice president for president,” said Michael Clingenpeel, a Richmond pastor who is VBC’s co-chair. “We think Bob has done a great job as first vice president and we endorsed him for that position last year. We gladly encourage the messengers [at the BGAV annual meeting] to elect him as president.”
Clingenpeel, pastor of River Road Church, Baptist, in Richmond, said Croston has “always been on our short list as a possible candidate for both first vice president and president of the General Association.” In 2004 Croston was elected the BGAV’s second vice president with the endorsement of VBC.
If Croston is elected as first vice president — and at this point there is no other nomination for the spot — and if he is elected as president in 2011, he would be the first African American to hold the BGAV’s top elected position.
Virginia Baptists Committed, organized in 1980 just as theological conflict in the Southern Baptist Convention was heating up, has endorsed candidates for BGAV office for 30 years. Each of its nominees have won — and often been uncontested — until last year. At the 2009 annual meeting, VBC’s endorsed candidate for second vice president lost in a contest with a pastor nominated outside the VBC channel.
This year, the second vice president’s position again will see more than one nominee.