D.J. Horton, 32, pastor of Anderson Mill Road Church, Moore, will be nominated for president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention when messengers gather for the SCBC annual meeting Nov. 16-17 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.
Jim Goodroe, director of the Spartanburg County Baptist Network, who said he has witnessed “a concentrated effort at all levels of our denomination to involve the younger generation and include them in leadership,” told The Baptist Courier he plans to nominate Horton.
D.J. HortonGoodroe said Horton’s leadership opportunities have given him “on-the-job training in how our state convention works.” Horton has served as vice chairman of the SCBC Executive Board and is completing a term as the board’s administrative committee chairman.
“Only God’s – providence and – timing would have a gifted leader so young – available for such a time as this when we need young leaders,” Goodroe said.
Following is Goodroe’s full statement:
This November, I plan to nominate for SCBC president a man half my age: D.J. Horton, pastor of Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church in Moore. The past few years have witnessed a concentrated effort at all levels of our denomination to involve the younger generation and include them in leadership. D.J. is already involved, and his leadership opportunities to date have given him on-the-job training in how our state convention works. He has served as vice chairman of the Executive Board, and is completing his term as its Administrative Committee chairman.
D.J. is a lifelong Southern Baptist, a graduate of one of our seminaries, completing his D.Min at another of our seminaries. He is a “PK,” whose informal education in church work came from growing up in the home of a bi-vocational pastor. I met D.J. as 2003 was ending, at the church in our association which called a 25-year old pastor as 2004 began. In 2003-04, six of our churches called pastors under age 30, who had just graduated from SBC seminaries. For the next few years we met monthly as I mentored this group of young pastors. All except D.J. pastored small churches, but he never displayed an air of superiority. He continued in the group long after its other “charter members” had moved on, and he always befriended the new guys joining us.
We all need the Proverbs 11:14 wisdom which comes from a multitude of counselors.
Since I have been his DOM, rarely has a month gone by that he has not asked for my insight on something. Some of this involved handling the growth at Anderson Mill, which his great expository preaching helped bring and his godly leadership helped maintain. They had to go to three morning services until completing their new auditorium, but the administrative challenge was the two Sunday Schools it takes to have three services! Their new facilities are available for Kingdom use. The State Evangelism Conference there this February showcased his leadership, and they hosted the Upstate Sunday School & Small Groups Conference on August 28.
D.J. has preached our annual associational sermon, and then chaired our Program Team. A wise retired pastor made him the young pastor on the planning team which met fifteen months to plan and conduct our Silver Anniversary Year in 2008. He was at every meeting, and was the source of many of the good ideas used, including our slogan and logo. His church provided the sound, “techies” and choir for our Gala at Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium.
D.J. was providing Great Commission leadership even before the Resurgence! NAMB just sent me a certificate to present Anderson Mill Road for giving the most of any church in our association to the Annie Armstrong Offering for 2009. In that same year his church sent just over $58,000 to the International Mission Board through the Lottie Moon Christmas offering. He has led church mission trips from Wyoming to India.
Like so many churches, they have been impacted by the recession, and the costs involved in their recent construction project. Avoiding the temptation to cut mission percentages, they subjected mission support to the across-the-board spending freeze they had to implement during the first part of this year, so that mission gifts could be resumed at the prior level. The spending freeze was lifted mid-May and their missions giving is now back to the full amount. During his pastorate, Cooperative Program giving has always been a priority of his church. Last year they willingly gave $99,077.
Months ago, D.J. told me that several people had encouraged him to run for SCBC president, and he asked my opinion. I answered that I thought he would be the right man at the right time, and that I would be happy to nominate him if the Lord led him to do this. He called recently to share that God has given him a peace about this, and that someone in another part of the state would be calling to ask me to nominate him. Only God’s “see ahead” providence and His kairos timing would have a gifted leader so young, with already so much of the right experience, available for “such a time as this” when we need young leaders.