DALLAS (ABP) — International Mission Board trustees have elected as president of the missions agency Tom Elliff — a longtime Oklahoma pastor, one-time missionary and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Elliff, 67, received a unanimous vote at the trustees’ March 16 meeting in Dallas. In a press release, Elliff dismissed concerns about his age, saying: “I’m not coming as an interim. I’m coming with a vision, and I will serve as long as God gives me grace and energy.”
Elliff succeeds Jerry Rankin as president of the mission board, which serves Southern Baptists and the 5,000 missionaries they send worldwide. Rankin retired July 31, 2010, after 17 years as IMB president. Executive Vice President Clyde Meador has served as interim president during the search for a new leader.
“This is the result of many months of missionaries praying, Southern Baptists praying and our trustees praying. God has answered our prayers,” said IMB Trustee Chairman Jimmy Pritchard, pastor of First Baptist Church in Forney, Texas, who led the presidential search committee.
Rankin, who recruited Elliff to a high-level IMB assignment during his tenure, praised his successor.
“Tom brings an amazing combination of qualities to the task,” Rankin said. “He has a deep personal walk with the Lord that inspires and challenges others. His heart for missions grows out of a personal calling. His understanding of mission strategy comes from years of involvement as a missionary, pastor and senior executive team member at IMB. He has great communication skills, genuine passion to reach a lost world, the favor and respect of missionaries and IMB staff, and he is well-connected with the churches and Southern Baptist Convention leadership.”
Born in Texas, Elliff is a third-generation pastor. He served with his wife, Jeannie, as a missionary to Zimbabwe in the early 1980s. They resigned in 1983 after their daughter, Beth, was seriously injured in a car accident there.
He twice was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, in 1996 and 1997. He has led several key churches in the denomination, including First Southern Baptist Church of Del City, Okla., where he was pastor from 1985 to 2005.
Elliff served as IMB senior vice president for spiritual nurture and church relations from 2005 to 2009. In that role, he taught and counseled missionaries and helped mobilize churches throughout the convention for missions involvement.
Since then, he has led Living in The Word Publications, a writing and speaking ministry he founded. He is the author of numerous books about prayer, spiritual awakening and family life.
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