RICHMOND — After the executive committee of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board approved the action, executive director John Upton announced that Kenneth Kessler will join the mission board staff as the team leader of the empowering leaders team.
In 2004, Kessler joined the staff of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina staff where he served as team leader for associational partnerships and senior coach for Lake Hickory Learning Communities. His responsibilities included resourcing the state's associations, providing leadership development opportunities for directors of missions, partnering with associations in providing field service opportunities and serving with others in sustaining pastoral excellence.
Kessler
“I am excited about Ken Kessler joining the staff,” said Upton. “He brings a great deal of church experience as he has worked as an educator particularly in the area of discipleship-making. He also brings denominational experience so he understands how to help individual churches to think of relationships on a larger collective scale. And he brings great gifts in the area of coaching which will be a new experience for Virginia Baptists as we move from a consultative model to a coaching model, which is someone coming in and listening to a church in assessing where it is and coaching it in determining the direction God is leading them to go. So Ken brings a whole new skill-set to Virginia Baptists. As a team leader in North Carolina he already possesses leading skills he will need in working with the empowering leaders team so Ken will be a great addition to Virginia Baptist life.”
Given the opportunity to address Virginia Baptists through the Religious Herald, Kessler wrote in an e-mail, “I am very excited and humbled by the opportunity of serving the Baptist churches and associations in Virginia. The heritage of Virginia Baptists is well known to me through my study of Baptist history and personal relationships with ministry mentors and pastor friends in the state. Now the inspiration of Kingdom Advance gives me great hope for effective and innovative ministry throughout the state. I feel privileged that God has given me this opportunity to serve alongside the field strategists and other staff of this great general association.”
He asks Virginia Baptists to “pray for my family and me as we make this transition. We are leaving dear friends and colleagues in North Carolina to begin this new journey, but we look forward to Virginia Baptists becoming our newest friends. We again are thankful to the Lord and to Virginia Baptists for this wonderful privilege.”
Kessler received his doctor of ministry degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1995, his master of divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1981 and a bachelor of arts from Gardner-Webb University in 1978. Since 1979, Kessler has served churches in Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Tennessee in educational and discipleship roles.
He and his wife, Teresa, have three sons aged 22, 20 and 12.