Executive Director Search Committee is named for White's successor

J. Robert White grins as he announces, three years ago this month, that the debt on the Missions and Ministry Center is paid in full. It is one of the highlights in his 26 years at the helm of the agency. JOE WESTBURY/Index

The first Executive Director Search Committee in a quarter century has been announced.

Andy Childs, chairman of the Executive Committee for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, released the list to members of the policy making body on March 26. The 10-member committee includes eight pastors, one director of missions, one woman, plus two ex officio members.

The group will be charged with evaluating candidates and choosing a successor to J. Robert White, who will retire on Dec. 31 with 26 years of service. White announced his decision at the March 13 Executive Committee meeting.

Joining the Search Committee will be:

• Chairman Bob Jolly, pastor of Cumming First Baptist Church;
• Levi Skipper, pastor of Concord Baptist Church;
• Greg Bentley, director of missions for Altamaha/New Sunbury Association and Convention first vice president;
• Grady Caldwell, pastor of New Mercy Baptist Church;
• Darey Kittle, pastor of Salem Baptist Church Dalton;
• Lee Lacey, pastor of First Baptist Sandersville;
• Fred Lodge, pastor of First Baptist Blairsville;
• Matt Peek, pastor of First Baptist Pelham;
• Lisa Thompson, state Woman’s Missionary Union president and member at Dahlonega Baptist Church; and
• Al Wright, pastor of First Baptist Church of Waynesboro.

Ex Officio members will include Georgia Baptist Convention President Mike Stone, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, and Childs who serves as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Toccoa.

White, 71, celebrated his quarter-century with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board during last November’s annual meeting. His retirement will cap 26 years of strong support for the Cooperative Program and leading the Mission Board to new heights of missions and evangelism.

Perhaps his greatest achievement was the retiring of the debt on the Baptist Missions and Ministry Center in Duluth in March 2015, and – six months later in September – a restructuring and rebranding of the agency. As a result the agency changed its name from the Georgia Baptist Convention to the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.

That shift recognized the largest state convention east of the Mississippi River as a valid mission board reaching the state, nation, and international field through the Cooperative Program and its Mission Georgia state missions offering.

The Alabama native and former Georgia Baptist pastor at Tabernacle Baptist in Carrollton was affirmed as the new state director at the 1992 annual meeting. He officially returned to the Peach State in January 1993 after pastoring a church in Paducah, KY.