Villa Rica Pastor Kevin Williams, shown here speaking at a missions conference, is seeking a second term as Georgia Baptist Convention president. He has no announced opposition.
By J. Gerald Harris
VILLA RICA – Kevin Williams will seek a second term as president of the Georgia Baptist Convention at the annual meeting set for Nov. 8-9 at First Baptist Church of Jonesboro.
Williams, pastor of First Baptist Church in Villa Rica, is the only announced candidate for the top elected position. He was elected last November.
Four candidates are expected to be nominated for vice president at the annual meeting:
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Brian Moore, senior pastor of New Providence Baptist Church in Forsyth, will be one of the VP nominees. He grew up in the Forsyth church, was baptized at age 14 and called into the student ministry there when he was 19. He married his wife, Amisha, who was also a member of the New Providence, in 2001. In the twenty years Brian and Amisha have been married God has blessed the Moores with eight children.
After serving four years under the apprenticeship of his mentor, the Lord called Moore to serve as the youth pastor at Pine Forest Baptist Church in Macon. After four years of ministry at Pine Forest he was called to return to New Providence as senior pastor
When Moore became the pastor at New Providence fourteen years ago the church was averaging 45 people in Sunday morning worship. The church began to grow immediately and now averages more than 400 in worship and continues to see lives changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The church has been named in the top 100 churches in baptisms for five consecutive years.
Under Moore’s leadership New Providence completed the construction of a new worship center in 2015 without having to borrow any money. Moore testified, “The church’s debt-free vision has allowed us to increase the money we give to missions consistently each year. Our goal is to measure the success of our ministry by our sending capacity, not by our seating capacity.” In addition to sponsoring missionaries around the world, the church gives seven percent of their overall budget to the Cooperative Program.
Moore and his staff enjoy blessing other pastors and partnering with other churches and ministries in growing the Kingdom. The New Providence pastor has been very involved in the work of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board over the years; and looks forward to many more years as pastor of New Providence where he has spent 38 of his 42 years.
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Brian Parker, pastor of First Baptist Church in Kingsland, will be nominated for vice president of the GBC by Rev. Vernon Dillingham, former pastor of the Kingsland church. Parker accepted a call into ministry during college and took his first ministry position as a student pastor at First Baptist Church of Middleburg, Florida. He also served as a student pastor at First Baptist Church of Brandon, Florida. After graduating with his Master of Divinity degree, he became the senior pastor at New Hope Baptist Church, Sanford, North Carolina. In 2015, he was called to be the senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Kingsland, Georgia.
During Parker’s 22 years in ministry, he has always been active in the Baptist association where he has served. Currently, he is on the administrative committee of the Southeast Baptist Association and the executive committee of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. Since 2017, under Parker’s leadership, First Baptist Kingsland has baptized 165 people and added 241 new members and has regularly been numbered among the top 100 churches in baptisms in Georgia. The Kingsland pastor is passionate about personal evangelism and utilizes his gifts in teaching and encouragement to help others come to faith in Christ.
First Baptist Kingsland gives faithfully to the Cooperative Program; and is a church with a passion for missions, sending people as ambassadors for Christ to New York, Wyoming, Washington, D. C., Kentucky, North Carolina and across Georgia. The church has also been engaged in international mission trips to Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Crete and Paris, France.
Parker has earned four degrees, including a Master of Speech Pathology, a Master of Divinity, and a Doctor of Ministry specializing in church leadership. He is a graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Brian has been married to his wife, Kristi for 23 years and they have six children, four sons in college and twin girls that are juniors in high school. The Kingsland pastor is an avid reader and enjoys lifting weights and playing sports.
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Rafael Valter, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Ágape in Stone Mountain, will be nominated for Vice President of the GBC by Steve Parr, Director of the Gwinnett Metro Baptist Network.
Valter, a native of El Salvador, is a bi-vocational missionary and church planter under the banner of the North American Mission Board (NAMB). He is also a member of the administration board of the Gwinnett Metro Baptist Network and one of the ten leaders of the Hispanic Baptist Pastors Leadership Team in North Georgia working in concert with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.
The Stone Mountain church Valter serves was planted with the guidance and support of Pastor Keith Savage and Mountain Park First Baptist, just before the pandemic swept through the nation. Despite the pervasive virus the church has survived and steadily grown with 18 adults and 3 children placing their faith in Jesus Christ.
Valter and his church have resolved to faithfully support the endeavors of Gwinnett, Georgia, and Southern Baptist causes, including SEND Atlanta with its emphasis on evangelism, missions, church planting, church strengthening and pastoral wellness. Agape from its inception has faithfully given 11 percent of its total income to Georgia and Southern Baptist causes.
In July, Valter established Agape Bible Institute (Instituto Bíblico Ágape), which is registered with and supported by the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. There are currently 20 pastors and leaders enrolled in the Institute. In September the Institute reached an agreement with Rev. Otto Sanchez, president of The Dominican Baptist Theological Seminary to procure pastors and leaders in Georgia with an affordable associate and bachelor’s degree in Christian Studies. Valter explained, “All of these efforts are so that the Baptist pastors of Georgia and their church leaders are better prepared to serve the believers that Jesus Christ has purchased with His precious blood.”
Valter and his wife, Aura Jicela, have four adult children, the youngest of which is already in college. Both Rafael and Aura Jicela hold bachelor’s degrees in theology and master’s degrees in Christian Studies from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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Kyle Walker, senior pastor of Cartersville First Baptist Church, will be nominated for Vice President of the GBC by Jeremy Morton, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock.
Walker first felt God’s calling to preach and pastor while in junior high school. His call to ministry led him to become a leader in his youth group in Columbus, Mississippi as well as at First Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa while attending the University of Alabama.
A native of Americus, Georgia, Walker moved to Mississippi as a freshman in high school. After graduating from Alabama in 2007 with a degree in Organizational Leadership, he earned his Master of Divinity and Ph.D. in Preaching/Systematic Theology at Southwestern. On December 26, 2010, he was ordained to the ministry by Fairview Baptist Church in Columbus, Mississippi.
After completing his two degrees at SWBTS, Walker remained at the seminary as Director of Admissions. During that time, he also served as a pastoral associate at Tate Springs Baptist Church in Arlington.
In March 2014, Walker began his tenure as Dean of Students at Southwestern, a title he kept until attaining his position as Vice President for Student Services in February 2017. While in those leadership roles, he served first as an adjunct professor of preaching and then as assistant professor of preaching. In addition, Kyle and his wife, Lauren, co-taught a newlywed class at Tate Springs Baptist Church from 2014-16. The Georgia native also served as interim pastor of First Baptist Church in Mansfield, Texas, from April 2016-March 2017.
The author of “Let the Text Talk: Preaching that Treats the Text on its Own Terms,” Walker is a member of the Evangelical Homiletics Society and Evangelical Theological Society. In August 2012 he was presented with the President’s Thanksgiving Award at Southwestern Seminary.
Walker has presented the Gospel and trained preachers from New Mexico to Virginia. His preaching ministry has also extended to the Grand Cayman Islands, United Kingdom, Korea, Myanmar, Mexico, and India.
Kyle and his wife Lauren just celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary and have three children: Taylor, 8, Libby, 7, and Clay, 4.