DALLAS (ABP) — Veteran Texas Baptist journalist Ken Camp has been named managing editor of the Baptist Standard.
Camp, 43, has worked in the Baptist General Convention of Texas news office since 1984. For the past seven years, he has been director of news and information and has served as Dallas bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.
At the Standard, he will succeed Mark Wingfield, who has resigned to become associate pastor at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. Camp was elected to the new role by the Standard's board of directors Dec. 11. He will begin work Jan. 1.
Camp's byline has been a regular feature in the Standard for two decades, as he has reported on the ministries of Texas Baptist churches and missions endeavors.
“Baptist Standard readers are blessed that Ken Camp will succeed Mark Wingfield,” Editor Marv Knox said. “They're not only two of the top Baptist journalists. They're among the best journalists anywhere.”
His writing has won numerous awards from the Baptist Communicators Association and the Religion Communicators Council. He twice has won BCA's top writing honor, the Frank Burkhalter Award — once for coverage of healing found in Texas communities after hate crimes and again for combined coverage in the Standard of the 1999 shooting at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth. He won RCC's top writing honor for a story about the Texas death chamber in Huntsville. He recently wrote a book about the history of Texas Baptist Men, “Anyway, Anytime, Anywhere.”
“Ken will be a tremendous asset to the Standard,” Knox added. “After covering the BGCT for two decades, he knows Texas Baptists' heartbeat better than anyone. Ken will continue to help us understand the issues and challenges that face our churches, associations and convention. … Ken's commitment to Christ and his church, love and devotion to his family, and personal integrity are unsurpassed.”
Charles Wade, BGCT executive director, expressed regret for the convention's loss but delight for the Standard's gain. “No one knows us better,” Wade said of Camp. “… His integrity is a mile deep and wide. What he writes, Baptists can put in the bank.”
Wade called Camp “one of the finest Christian laymen I have ever met. His love for his family and his church encourages all who know him.”
Becky Bridges, coordinator of the BGCT Communications Center, echoed Wade's praise: “Ken Camp's great writing skills will help keep the Baptist Standard at the top tier of all religious newspapers. He is a world-class reporter whose heart for missions and evangelism is apparent in everything he does.”
A native of Greenville, Camp earned a bachelor of arts degree in English and journalism from East Texas State University in Commerce and a master of arts degree in communication from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.
He and his wife, Diane, have three sons, Daniel, Matthew and Nathan. The Camps are members of South Garland Baptist Church in Garland.
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