SUFFOLK, Va. — Mark Croston, a Suffolk, Va., pastor, who currently serves as first vice president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, will be nominated next month as president of the state association, it was confirmed Oct. 21.
If elected, Croston — pastor of East End Baptist Church in Suffolk and the only announced candidate for the top elected office at this point — will become the first African American president in the BGAV’s 188-year history. He would succeed Bob Bass, a retired Richmond, Va., construction executive and member of Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond.
Mark Croston
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John Robertson, a pastor on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, told the Religious Herald he will nominate Croston at the BGAV meeting, set for Nov. 8-9 in Richmond, Va.
“Mark is just one of those pastors who can do it all — really preach, grow his church, even sing,” said Robertson, pastor of Red Bank Baptist Church in Marionville, Va.
For seven years Robertson was director of missions for the Portsmouth Baptist Association and became acquainted with Croston, whose congregation is affiliated with the organization of about 25 churches in Portsmouth and Chesapeake, Va. Croston is a former moderator of the association.
“We became really great friends,” said Robertson. “He did a great job both in his church and in the association. I’m honored to be able to nominate him.”
Croston has been pastor of the Suffolk church since 1987 and long active in BGAV life, serving as its second vice president in 2005 and as president of the Virginia Baptist Pastors Conference from 2006-2008. He has been a trustee for Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and for more than 15 years has been a board member of the National African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention, serving as its president from 2005-2008.
He also has been involved in the Virginia Baptist State Convention, one of two historically African American Baptist conventions in the state. He currently serves as first vice president of that organization as well.
A Philadelphia native, Croston is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a master of divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and a doctor of ministry degree from Virginia Union University in Richmond.
He and his wife, Brenda, have four children.
For more than 10 years BGAV first vice presidents — who, like the presidents, are restricted to one-year terms — have been elected to the top office in the subsequent year, though the practice is not mandated by BGAV bylaws. Croston’s nomination also follows a more than 50-year-old practice of rotating the BGAV presidency between ministers and laypersons — another well-established tradition that isn’t required by bylaws.
In 2010, Croston’s nomination as first vice president was endorsed by Virginia Baptists Committed, a moderate advocacy group which for about three decades selected a slate of nominees prior to each year’s BGAV meeting. Last May, however, VBC announced it would no longer endorse candidates for BGAV office, saying “we do not believe it is necessary for VBC to take the lead in this effort any longer.”
Robert Dilday (rdilday@religiousherald.org) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.