SUFFOLK, Va. — Mark Croston, a longtime Virginia pastor and former president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, has been named national director of black church partnerships for the Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tenn.
Croston said his last Sunday at East End Baptist Church in Suffolk, where he has been since 1987, would be Dec. 1.
When Croston was elected BGAV president in 2011, he was the first black president in the organization’s history.
He has long been active in BGAV life, serving as its second vice president in 2005 and as president of the Virginia Baptist Pastors Conference from 2006-2008. He has been a trustee of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and for more than 15 years has been a board member of the National African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention, serving as its president from 2005-2008.
He also has been involved in the Virginia Baptist State Convention, one of two historically African-American Baptist conventions in the state. He has been president of that organization since 2012.
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.