RICHMOND — Blacksburg, Va., pastor Tommy McDearis, currently serving as first vice president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, will be nominated in November as president of the state association, it was confirmed Sept. 17.
If elected, McDearis, who is pastor of Blacksburg Baptist Church, would succeed Richmond layman Carl Johnson.
Jim Baucom, pastor of Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church, Va., said he will nominate McDearis at the BGAV meeting scheduled for Nov. 12-13 in Fredericksburg, Va.
“Last year I nominated Tommy for first vice president because he is one of the most capable and competent leaders in Virginia Baptist life,” said Baucom. “He is precisely the kind of person we need as president in these significant times for the General Association. I am grateful he is allowing himself to be nominated in Fredericksburg.”
Tommy McDearis
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McDearis’s election would be consistent with a more than 50-year-old practice of rotating the BGAV presidency between ministers and laypersons — a well-established tradition that isn’t required by bylaws. Outgoing president Johnson is not ordained to the ministry, though he was a long-time denominational employee. Before joining the staff of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board in 1979, he was an executive with a Richmond real estate firm for 11 years.
Since 2000, serving BGAV first vice presidents have been nominated — and invariably elected — as the state association’s president — another tradition that isn’t mandated by bylaws. The practice was established to enhance the experience of BGAV presidents, whose terms are restricted to one year.
McDearis has been pastor of the Blacksburg church since 1997. Earlier he was pastor of Northside Drive Baptist Church in Atlanta. He is a graduate of Berry College in Rome, Ga., and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.
Since 2003 he has been chaplain for the Blacksburg Police Department, a period of time that included the fatal shootings in 2007 of 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech, across the street from the church.
McDearis is a former trustee of the Religious Herald. He and his wife, Susan, have three grown children.
At this point, McDearis is the only announced candidate for president. On Sept. 5 it was confirmed that Ann Brown of Gretna, Va., a former president of Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia, will be nominated for first vice president. No nominee has been announced for second vice president.
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.