Updated Oct. 9 and Oct. 14 with additional content.
Upstate pastor D.J. Horton will be nominated to serve as the next president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
Horton, 35, is pastor of Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church near Spartanburg.
He will be nominated by Sonny Holmes, pastor of Northwood Baptist Church in North Charleston and a former SCBC president, at the Nov. 12-13 annual meeting of the state convention in Columbia.
“There’s an urgency about these times that demands aggressive, youthful, yet wise leadership to guide us into the future,” Holmes told the Courier. “D.J. Horton possesses the passion, vision, determination, and spiritual discernment to lead us now. He understands the unique pulse of our state and the many challenges of engaging a culture like ours.”
Horton, originally from Montevallo, Ala., was 25 when he became senior pastor at Anderson Mill Road Church in 2004, and he says his Southern Baptist roots run deep. “I was dedicated, baptized and married in a Southern Baptist church,” he said. “I was raised going to RA camp, participated in Bible drills and remember praying with my family about our Lottie Moon offering. I was called, licensed and ordained to preach in a Southern Baptist church. I received a fine education from two different Southern Baptist seminaries. At every major intersection in my life, Southern Baptists were there to guide and encourage me.”
During Horton’s tenure at Anderson Mill Road, the church has tripled in size to about 2,000 members and grown its financial support of missions. In 2012, Anderson Mill Road set aside 12 percent of its budget for missions and plans to increase that amount to 20 percent by 2020. More than $300,000 is targeted for missions this year. The church has partnerships with missionaries in China, North Africa, Madagascar and Nicaragua.
According to figures published in the South Carolina Baptist Convention Annual, Anderson Mill Road Church forwarded 3 percent of undesignated receipts of $2,253,474 through the Cooperative Program in 2012. The church also gave $77,094 toward prayer week missions offerings. Horton told the Courier he is “very proud” of his congregation’s commitment to Great Commission giving. He said his church is on track this year to give more than $100,000 to the International Mission Board, $75,000 to the state convention (through the Cooperative Program) and $92,000 to “strategic and local missions.” Also, his church awarded more than $100,000 in scholarships to offset the expenses of more than 400 members who participated in mission trips.
Offering his views on Great Commission giving versus Cooperative Program giving, Horton said that “voluntary cooperation is just that — voluntary. The mandate or hope that all Southern Baptist churches should or will give 10 percent of their budget to the CP is a thing of the past and will not be resurrected. If a church wants to cooperate by giving 15 percent, then praise the Lord. If a church chooses to give even 1 percent — or, better yet, take the 1 percent challenge to increase their giving — then we should be thankful for it and move forward.
“The autonomous local church, freely cooperating, is the heartbeat of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Horton said. “In my experience, churches and pastors are not motivated to give to programs. They give to vision, direction and mission. The greatest way to encourage the next generation of pastors to financially support Southern Baptist causes is to make sure our focus is singular, our mission is biblical and our stewardship is responsible.”
Horton has served on the SCBC Executive Board and is a past chairman of the board’s administrative committee. He also has served as chairman of the SCBC Committee on Committees. He was previously nominated for SCBC president in 2010. He currently serves as a trustee of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in special education from Auburn University, a master of divinity degree in expository preaching from New Orleans Seminary, and a doctorate of ministry in expository preaching from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Horton and his wife, Laurel, have four children: Ty (10), Micah (8), Lily (5) and Grey (3). They are in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia.