Three pastors and an attorney will be nominated for statewide offices at the Baptist General Association of Virginia annual meeting, Nov 9-10 in Virginia Beach.
Virginia Baptists Committed has named a slate of candidates for all three offices. Boyce Brannock, current BGAV first vice president, will be nominated to succeed Bert Browning, a pastor from Richmond, as president. Brannock, an attorney in Waynesboro, has been a member of First Baptist Church in Waynesboro since 1967.
Joe Lewis, a pastor from Petersburg, will be nominated to succeed Brannock as first vice president. Lewis, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Petersburg since 1996, has served widely on boards and committees in Virginia Baptist life and has also served on the staff of Ginter Park Baptist Church, Richmond, and as pastor of Fountain Creek Baptist Church, Greensville County.
Steve Pollard, pastor of Abingdon Baptist Church since 1998, will be nominated to succeed current second vice president Barbara Filling, pastor of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Charles City. Pollard has also held pastorates in Richmond and Scottsburg and served on Virginia Baptist committees and as moderator of the Dan River Baptist Association.
Brannock is a partner in the law firm of Timberlake, Smith, Thomas and Moses in Waynesboro. He has served First Church, Waynesboro, as a deacon, endowment committee chair and member of the long range and pastoral search committees. He is former chair of the BGAV's religious liberty committee; former member and first vice president of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs; and charter member and former president of the board of the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies.
The VBC nominating process reflects: (1) candidates who support the BGAV and its Kingdom Advance vision; (2) the BGAV custom of alternating presidential nominations between qualified clergy and laity; (3) the practice in recent years of nominating a successfully serving first vice president to succeed the president; and (4) nomination of candidates who support such core Baptist values as priesthood of the believer, autonomy of the local church, soul freedom and religious liberty.
In addition, Kenneth Barnes, pastor of Woodland Heights Baptist Church in Chesapeake, will be nominated for first vice president. Barnes has served on the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, including its executive committee and its properties committee. He also has been moderator of the Norfolk Baptist Association and has generally been active in Virginia Baptist life for 17 years.
Special to the Herald