HAMPTON, Va. — Bob Bass, a retired Richmond, Va., construction executive, was elected president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia Nov. 10.
Bob Bass
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Bass, a member of Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond who has been serving as the BGAV’s first president, was unchallenged for the post. He succeeds Tim Madison, a Mechanicsville, Va., pastor who was elected to the one-year, non-renewable position last year.
Bass's election continues a more than 50-year-old BGAV tradition of alternating its president between ministers and laypersons, and a more recent practice of elevating the first vice president to the presidency.
Messengers also elected Mark Croston, pastor of East End Baptist Church in Suffolk, Va., as first vice president, and Allen Jessee, pastor of Community Heights Baptist Church in Cedar Bluff, Va., as second vice president.
If the pattern of electing the first president as president continues next year, Croston would become the BGAV’s first African American president.
Croston was unopposed for the position. Jessee was elected by 321 votes to 109 in a contest with Larry Coleman, pastor of Churchland Baptist Church in Chesapeake, Va.