RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — Michael Clingenpeel, editor and business manager of Virginia Baptists' newspaper for the past 12 years, will be the next pastor of River Road Church, Baptist, in Richmond, Va.
Succeeding James Slatton, who retired in 2003 after 31 years as pastor, Clingenpeel will assume the pulpit of one of most prominent moderate Baptist churches on the East Coast on Sept. 7
Clingenpeel left a Franklin, Va., pastorate in 1992 to edit the 176-year-old Religious Herald, newsjournal of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
The decision to return to the pastorate was the “culmination of a lengthy process of spiritual discernment on our part,” Clingenpeel told friends and colleagues in an email. “I hope you will not interpret this as a negative statement about the Herald or the value of the ministry of a Baptist state paper. My commitment to both has increased, not diminished, over the past 12 years in my role as editor. A free and responsible press is a primary guardian of freedom and deliberative process in any democratic system, and I will champion this cause among Baptists as long as I have opportunity.”
Clingenpeel is a member of the board of Associated Baptist Press, previously serving as its chair. He also has been first vice president of the BGAV and a trustee of the Baptist Sunday School Board (now LifeWay Christian Resources).
Clingenpeel is a graduate of the University of Richmond (Va.) and holds master of divinity and doctor of philosophy degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
He was pastor of Packard Road Baptist Church in Ann Arbor Mich., from 1979-1983 and of Franklin (Va.) Baptist Church from 1983-1992. He and his wife, Vivian, have one son. They have been members of Derbyshire Baptist Church in Richmond.
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