Brad Whitt, who anticipates a role of “encouraging and equipping pastors as they seek to lead their churches to engage the culture with the Great Commission,” is the new president of the South Carolina Baptist Pastor’s Conference.
Brad Whitt (center), pastor of Temple Baptist Church, Simpsonville, was elected president of the 2010 South Carolina Baptist Pastor’s Conference Nov. 9. Other officers for 2010 include vice president Ty Childers (left), Fairview Baptist Church, Spartanburg; and treasurer Mack Tester, Pope Drive Baptist Church, Anderson.Whitt, pastor for the past eight years of Temple Baptist Church, Simpsonville, was elected at the group’s annual meeting Nov. 9 at Riverland Hills Baptist Church in Irmo.
The Simpsonville pastor was chosen by a margin of 10 votes over Bryant Sims, for five years the pastor of First Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Greenwood.
Whitt and Sims had served as co-vice presidents of the pastor’s conference following a close vote for that office in 2008. Sims also has been treasurer of the conference.
Ty Childers, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church, Spartanburg, was selected as vice president, and Mack Tester, pastor of Pope Drive Baptist Church, Anderson, was re-elected secretary-treasurer.
The new pastor’s conference president is a native of Fort Worth, Tex., and grew up in Tennessee. He is a graduate of Union University in Jackson, Tenn., Mid-America Baptist Seminary and Southeastern Baptist Seminary, where he earned his doctorate.
Early in his ministry, Whitt worked with college students at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, under the leadership of Adrian Rogers.
More than 500 persons have been baptized at Temple, where evangelism has been a priority during Whitt’s eight-year pastorate. Worship and Sunday school attendance has doubled in that time, leading to the addition of a second Sunday school and worship service.
Asked the significance of his election, Whitt told the Courier, “I believe that I represent the type of pastor that many of the leaders in the South Carolina Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention are seeking to engage in denominational service. I’m young in age (35), conservative in theology and evangelistic in methodology.”
Whitt said he understands “the demands and struggles that virtually every pastor faces,” adding, “That is why I desire to connect with pastors from across the state during the year as well as at the annual pastor’s conference itself. I believe that the highest calling in all of the world is to serve the Lord as pastor in the local church.”
The Simpsonville pastor expressed his belief that the annual gathering of the state’s pastors on the day prior to the opening of the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s yearly meeting should be “the most exciting, powerful and equipping conference of the year.”
“As pastors,” he pointed out, “we need to be energized, exhorted and challenged regardless of our ages. For that reason, I envision a conference that incorporates a celebration style of worship and some of the most effective SBC leaders to engage pastors through preaching as well as interactive sessions.”
The theme for this year’s meeting was “To Know Christ and to Make Him Known.”
Tester, the only current South Carolina pastor on the program, delivered the first message of the day-long conference, declaring that pastors too often are guilty of “getting so busy they forget about the work of God in conforming us to the Lord Jesus Christ.”
He lamented the loss of the devotional life among too many ministers.
Some, he pointed out, “have been delivered by their faith in Jesus Christ, but have lost their desire” to continue to grow in likeness to the Lord.
Not so with Paul, said Tester, drawing from Philippians 3:10. “Paul wanted to experience everything about Christ,” said the Anderson pastor, “so that what was true of Christ would be true of himself.
“We must come to the place in life where we are not satisfied until we walk in the fullness of Jesus Christ, not just knowing, but also experiencing Christ,” Tester said.
Pope Drive’s senior pastor declared, “Paul wanted the life of Christ to be expressed through him. People have seen enough of us and what we do. They want to see Christ and what he can do.”
He issued a challenge for the pastors to both know and experience Christ so that “he can express himself through us.” He then asked the pastors and himself, “How much of him are people seeing in us?”