Three candidates are in the running to be nominated as officers of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSC) when the annual convention meets in Greensboro Nov. 14-15.
Cameron McGill |
Mark Harris will nominate Cameron McGill for the office of president. McGill is pastor of Dublin First Baptist Church and current BSC first vice president. Rick Speas plans to nominate Joel Stephens, pastor of Westfield Baptist Church and current second vice president, for the office of first vice president. Shannon Scott announced he will nominate David Ethridge for the office of second vice-president. Ethridge is serving as minister to young adults at Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Raleigh, where Scott serves as pastor.
In his announcement Harris, pastor of First Baptist Church in Charlotte and a former BSC president said, “Cameron brings a number of qualities to the office of president. He certainly has shown leadership as he has served as both second vice president and first vice president of the convention. I think he also has demonstrated great shepherding skills in the life of Dublin First Baptist Church.”
He has served as pastor at Dublin for 16 years and in ministry 23 years according to the church’s website. His wife, Tiffany, is active in the church’s ministries, in mission projects and in the BSC. They have four children.
Joel Stephens |
“The leadership he has shown has been phenomenal,” Harris said. “I think everybody who knows Dublin First Baptist sees this is a man who has shepherded his people in a tremendous way, providing them not only the care and concern, but also the leadership to move forward.”
Speas, senior pastor of Old Town Baptist Church in Winston-Salem and a former BSC president, recently announced, “I am very honored to nominate Joel Stephens to the office of first vice president. I have known Joel for many years and served alongside him in the state convention. Joel is a man who is deeply committed to the Lord Jesus, to the Word of God and to prayer. He is a servant leader with a Kingdom vision.”
Stephens has been in ministry for 19 years and is currently serving his 15th year as the senior pastor of Westfield. The church gives more than 11 percent to missions through the Cooperative Program. Stephens’ wife, Lisa, serves with him in ministry. They have four children.
David Ethridge |
“Joel has led Westfield Baptist Church to take the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the world,” Speas said. “Locally they are working to impact lostness in the Westfield community and the Piedmont Triad. Internationally, Joel is a founding faculty member of the Roma Bible Institute; a school established by N.C. pastors to train Roma pastors in Hungary, Romania and Ukraine that partners with Baptists on Mission and Hungarian Baptist Aid. I’m convinced he will continue to serve North Carolina Baptists with excellence and integrity as our first vice president.”
Ethridge, whose candidacy for the second vice president was recently announced, and his wife, Janna, are natives of Atlanta and have three children.
“We met over three years ago when he was a volunteer for campus ministry at N.C. State and a member of Fairview Baptist Church in Apex,” Scott said. “We witnessed his heart for reaching the next generation, especially college students, for Christ.
Now he is serving with me as minister to young adults at Mount Vernon. Our convention would greatly benefit by having a leader who will complement our other leaders out of his heart for millennials.”
Ethridge is a graduate of Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also serves as an associate instructor with Walk Thru the Bible, and teaches Old and New Testament studies at the Roma Bible Institute in Hungary.