By Robert Dilday
Dale Tadlock, an associate pastor in Virginia and current president of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship youth ministry network, has been named coordinator of a new provider of curriculum resources developed by Passport Inc., a Birmingham, Ala.-based student ministry.
Tadlock, 46, will become head of PASSPORT Media on Oct. 25. He will oversee the production of new resources for youth and children, including both curriculum and program pieces. He also will serve as a summer team coordinator for Passport’s camps.
In March, Tadlock was elected at the top of the first slate of officers for the CBF Youth Ministry Network, a group of professional ministers and others who work with youth and relate to the Atlanta-based CBF.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dale to this position,” David Burroughs, president of Passport, said in a press release. “He has a long history of ministry among students and is a respected writer in his field.”
“Dale understands the very specific and thoughtful, theological voice that the Passport constituency has come to trust in our programs,” Burroughs said. “Churches have every right to expect that PASSPORT Media will produce curriculum resources with that same thoughtful theology. Dale understands that voice and is the right person to direct the production of PASSPORT Media’s resources.”
The 20-year-old Passport organization launched PASSPORT Media about a year ago as part of The Echo Initiative, designed to help churches discover God’s calling for both clergy and laity. The Echo Initiative was funded through a $750,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment.
PASSPORT Media’s first products were made available in August. Releases include Bible studies, devotions and weekend retreat resources for youth. A children’s Vacation Bible School and an eight-week Sunday school curriculum for youth are slated to be released by the end of the year.
Tadlock has been associate pastor-minister to young adults and students at First Baptist Church in Waynesboro, Va., since 2007. He previously served churches in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, and he has been active in both the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia and the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
He is a graduate of Mississippi College and holds a master-of-divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a certificate in youth and theology from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Tadlock wrote the first four sessions of Passport’s new ECHOES curriculum and has taken youth groups to Passport camps for 12 years. He regularly serves on the faculty for various conferences in Virginia and around the country and has been published by NavPress, the YouthWorker Journal and the Journal of Student Ministries.
He was one of four authors of Becoming Like Christ: Grounding Youth in Jesus, published in February 2011 by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and is on the writing team of e3, a new CBF resource for teenagers built around stories featured in CBF’s fellowship! magazine.
He was adjunct missions professor at Crichton College in Memphis, Tenn., and visiting professor of youth ministry at Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek, Croatia.
He and his wife, Laura, have two children.
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Passport hires staff member to help children, youth discover God’s calling