ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (ABP) — Joseph Bunce, 50, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Bloomfield, N.M., is the unanimous choice of a search committee to become the next executive director of the Baptist Convention of New Mexico.
A special meeting of the convention will convene at Hoffmantown Church in Albuquerque Jan. 31, during the Statewide Evangelism Conference, to act on the recommendation. If elected, Bunce would succeed Claude Cone, who will retire March 1 after 20 years in the convention's top post.
The New Mexico convention has 62,926 members in 343 churches and missions.
Bunce has spent all but four of his 50 years in the Land of Enchantment. A native of the state, he was raised by a Mormon father and a Hispanic Catholic mother. Coming from a bicultural home gives Bunce “an understanding of the diverse cultures of our state,” said the search committee chair.
Bunce began his ministry as pastor of Floyd Baptist Church in 1976. He was pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Eunice in 1978-80 and Bel Aire Baptist Church in Hobbs, 1980-83. He graduated from Eastern New Mexico University in Portales in 1981 with a degree in religion.
He and his wife, Sharon, left New Mexico in 1983 to attend Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo. While attending seminary, he served as a pastor in Kearney and King City, Mo.
After graduating from Midwestern with a master of divinity degree in 1987, Bunce returned to eastern New Mexico to accept the call of First Baptist Church in Melrose, which he led for the next six years. First Baptist Church, Bloomfield, called him as pastor August 1993. New Mexico Baptists elected Bunce president in 1998 and 1999.
He earned a doctor of ministry degree from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif., in 2000. He also has served as a trustee of the two Southern Baptist seminaries he attended — Midwestern Seminary and Golden Gate.
The Bunces have two grown sons.