RICHMOND, Va. — Carl Johnson, a retired denominational financial officer in Richmond, Va., will be nominated next month as first vice president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia — a position which for more than a decade has led to the state association’s presidency the following year.
Carl Johnson
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Jim Flamming, pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church in Richmond, said Oct. 19 he will nominate Johnson — a member of the church — at the BGAV’s annual meeting, set for Nov. 8-9 in Richmond. Johnson was chief financial officer of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board from 1979 until he retired in 2000.
“No one that I know of has his experience and understanding of Virginia Baptists,” Flamming told the Religious Herald. “He has served in virtually every position in Virginia Baptist life. And of course earlier he was the guy who was responsible for finances at the IMB. He took care of the funds, including Lottie Moon funds.
“He has been very active in his churches, serving First Baptist Church of Richmond as chairman of deacons and in various capacities,” added Flamming. “I am pleased to nominate him and pleased that he is willing to consider serving.”
For more than 10 years BGAV first vice presidents have subsequently been nominated — and invariably elected — to serve as the state association’s president, though the practice is not mandated by BGAV bylaws. The bylaws do restrict both offices to one-year terms and incumbents cannot succeed themselves.
Johnson served as president of the BGAV in 1987. If elected first vice president — and at this point there is no other nomination for the spot — and if elected as president in 2012, Johnson would be the first person since 1944 to serve more than one term in the BGAV’s top elected office. That doesn’t appear to be at odds with bylaw provisions, which only restrict incumbents from immediately succeeding themselves.
If elected as president, his nomination also would be consistent with a more than 50-year-old practice of rotating the BGAV presidency between ministers and laypersons — another well-established tradition that isn’t required by bylaws. Though a long-time denominational employee, Johnson is not ordained to the ministry. Before joining the IMB staff, he was an executive with a Richmond real estate firm for 11 years.
Johnson holds bachelor’s and master's degrees and an honorary doctorate from the University of Richmond, on whose board of trustees he has served. He currently is a member of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board and serves on the audit committee of the Baptist World Alliance, and is a former moderator of the Richmond Baptist Association.
In addition to serving as deacon chair at First Baptist, Richmond, he has been president of the church’s endowment board for 20 years.
He and his wife, Douglas, have a grown daughter.
Johnson will succeed Suffolk, Va., pastor Mark Croston as first vice president. If tradition holds, Croston will be nominated for president, though as of Oct. 20, no announcement had been made. If elected, Croston, pastor of East End Baptist Church in Suffolk, would succeed Bob Bass, a retired Richmond construction executive and member of Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond. He also would be the BGAV’s first African-American president.
No nominees have been announced for second vice president.
This year’s BGAV annual meeting will be the first in 30 years without a slate of nominees endorsed by Virginia Baptists Committed, a moderate advocacy group. VBC announced last May that it would no longer endorse candidates for BGAV office.
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald. Herald editor Jim White ([email protected]) contributed to this story.