Both the first and second vice presidents for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSC) plan to be nominated for second terms.
Ed Yount, senior pastor of Woodlawn Baptist Church in Conover and a former BSC president, plans to renominate Micheal Pardue, pastor of First Baptist Church Icard in Connelly Springs, for a second term as first vice president at the annual meeting in November.
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Micheal Pardue |
“It is a privilege to nominate Micheal Pardue for a second term as first vice president of our convention,” said Yount in email comments to the Biblical Recorder. “Micheal is a proven leader, a young man of great vision and promise, and will continue to be a welcomed addition to our convention officers. I want to thank our convention for electing him last year and ask that we allow him to continue to serve.”
Pardue has pastored FBC Icard since 2013. In 2018, the church gave more than $23,000 to the Cooperative Program and $1,803 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, according to BSC financial records. FBC Icard recorded 13 baptisms the same year.
He previously served as pastor of High Shoal Baptist Church in Mooresboro for five years and in student ministry in other churches in North Carolina. He has a bachelor’s degree from Gardner-Webb University and a master’s degree from North Greenville University. He finished a doctor of education degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest in 2012 and is currently pursuing a second doctorate at Southeastern.
“Serving as first vice president has been a joy,” Pardue said in an email to the Recorder. “I have had the opportunity to work with N.C. Baptist across the state, and I believe our state convention is strong and we are well positioned to reach our state with the gospel.”
Pardue said his service as first vice president “has affirmed in my heart the vision statement of our convention that ‘By God’s grace, we will become the strongest force in the history of this convention for reaching people with the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ We can be that strongest force for reaching people if we continue to pursue the fulfillment of the Great Commission.”
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Matthew Ledbetter |
He previously served as vice president of the N.C. Pastors’ Conference in 2011 and later as president in 2015. In 2010, Pardue was elected to a four-year term on the BSC board of directors where he became chairman of the communications committee in 2013. That position includes membership on the board’s executive committee.
Pardue and his wife, Rachel, have seven children. Four of those children are adopted.
While Matthew Ledbetter has changed churches recently, he still plans to be renominated as second vice president.
That nomination will come from Jason Miller, pastor at Dutch Cove Baptist Church in Canton.
“Matt loves Jesus, the preaching of the Word of God and the mission of the local church,” Miller said. “His heart beats with the rhythm of the Great Commission.”
Part of Miller’s enthusiasm to support Ledbetter comes from his strong small church background.
“Matt has served as a pastor of smaller churches his entire 20 years in gospel ministry,” said Miller in email comments to the Recorder. “Whether it’s in the mountains of Western North Carolina, or now as the new pastor of Creeksville Baptist Church in the northeastern part of our great state, Matt has led these churches to understand that a small church doesn’t mean a small ministry.”
Ledbetter, who ran unopposed last year, is pastor of Creeksville Baptist in Conway.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed serving the churches of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and have enjoyed serving with my two fellow officers as well,” Ledbetter said in a telephone interview with the Recorder. “I would count it an honor to be re-elected to serve the churches of North Carolina once again.”
Ledbetter has served on the BSC executive committee and board of directors, including time on the Church Planting and Missions Partnerships Committee. His previous mission trip experiences in Mexico and Honduras have shaped his commitment to planting churches in western N.C. as well as in Honduras.
“Under His leadership, Matt has led 15 short-term mission trips to Honduras and Mexico, recently resulting in two new churches in Mexico,” said Miller, who also emphasized that churches under Ledbetter’s leadership increase gifts to the Cooperative Program.
“Matt supports the Cooperative Program because he knows that together we can accomplish more for the glory of Jesus Christ. And there is no place with greater potential to see that great moving of God, than through the churches of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
Miller said Ledbetter takes his role as second vice president seriously and has crisscrossed the state numerous times to share that commitment and enthusiasm for cooperation with others.
He previously served on staff at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Sylva, N.C., Crabtree Baptist Church in Clyde, N.C., Hamburg Baptist Church in Glenville and Rose of Sharon Baptist Church in Doerun, Ga.
Ledbetter is a graduate of Fruitland Baptist Bible College and Liberty University. He and his wife of 23 years, Lana, have one daughter, Danyelle.
Pardue and Ledbetter are the first announced candidates for these offices. A previous Recorder story indicated that Steve Scoggins, the current BSC president and senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, would be running for re-election as well. Nominations will be made during the annual meeting.
Visit ncannualmeeting.org.
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Dianna L. Cagle is assistant editor for the Biblical Recorder.)