By Bob Allen
Alabama Baptist pastor Jay Kieve has been elected coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of South Carolina effective March 25, according to a press release made public Jan. 21. He succeeds Marion Aldridge, who is retiring after 15 years as head of the statewide Cooperative Baptist Fellowship affiliate organized in 1991.
Kieve, 44, pastor of Crosscreek Baptist Church in Pelham, Ala., since 2005, is a former pastor in South Carolina, serving at First Baptist Church in Allendale, S.C., from 1999 until 2005. Before that he was associate pastor at University Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, N.C., from 1992 until 1999.
A native of Atlanta, Kieve holds a bachelor’s degree from Mercer University, a master of divinity degree from Duke University Divinity School and a doctor of ministry degree from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. He and his wife, Melanie, are parents of a son, Jesse, and a daughter, Emma Katherine.
“I am honored and humbled to be called back to ministry in South Carolina,” Kieve said in a statement. “I am excited to join with CBFSC Christians and churches in God’s mission of grace, healing and love.”
Aldridge, pastor of First Baptist Church in Batesburg, S.C., and Greenlawn Baptist Church in Columbia, S.C., before becoming coordinator of the South Carolina CBF on June 1, 1998, described the Kieves as “two of my favorite people in the world.”
“Jay pastored at First Baptist of Allendale and helped us start CBFSC’s rural poverty initiative there,” Aldridge posted on Facebook. “Jay was chair of our Missions Committee. Melanie did a lot of our communications stuff for CBFSC. And they are truly cool people. More importantly, they are fine Christian people. I like them a lot.”