By Bob Allen
A flagship Cooperative Baptist Fellowship congregation in Oklahoma voted April 12 to call a northerner as its next pastor.
First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, a historic congregation once led by revered Southern Baptist statesman and theologian Herschel Hobbs, extended a pastoral call to Kent Berghuis, currently senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Lansdale, Pa., and affiliate professor at Palmer Theological Seminary, affiliated with American Baptist Churches USA.
Berghuis, who came to the Landsdale church in 2004, has a Ph.D. in theology from Trinity International University in Deerfield, Ill. His master’s degree is from Dallas Theological Seminary, where he taught as assistant professor of theological studies. His doctoral dissertation on Christian fasting is published as a book.
Hobbs, pastor of FBC Oklahoma City from 1949 to 1972, was a two-term president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1961 to 1963. He is best known as chairman of the committee that recommended the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message, the convention’s consensus faith statement narrowed in 2000 after conservatives took control of the denomination long led by moderates.
First Baptist left the SBC in 2001, aligning with the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Gene Garrison, pastor at First Baptist for 23 years, was an early leader in the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma.
Berghuis’ immediate predecessor is Tom Ogburn, a former CBF missionary who served as pastor of First Baptist, Oklahoma City, for nine years until he resigned in February 2014 to become pastor of First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn.
Berghuis has served in pastoral ministries in Illinois, Ohio and Texas and taught as a full-time professor and an adjunct at numerous seminaries and universities. He serves the Baptist World Alliance, representing American Baptists on the Commission for Doctrine and Christian Unity.