Chris Bolt, pastor of Elkton Baptist Church in Elkton, Tenn., has announced his intention to nominate Stephen Feinstein, pastor of Sovereign Way Christian Church in Hesperia, Calif., for second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention at the SBC annual meeting in June 2020 in Orlando. Bolt announced Feinstein’s intended nomination Dec. 31, 2019.

Bolt said Feinstein is a representative of the future of the Southern Baptist Convention — “a future which likely includes more bivocational pastors serving smaller and more diverse churches in increasingly hostile ministry contexts,” Bolt said. “[Which is] similar to what Pastor Feinstein has done for years.”

Feinstein said his main goal with the position is to be an example of a small church pastor who gets a seat at the SBC table. “The vast majority of SBC churches are small,” he said. “Yet our convention celebrates large churches and the pastors of large churches. It would be nice for other pastors of small churches to know that the convention values us [small churches], too.”

According to ACP records, Sovereign Way Christian Church has reported no Cooperative Program giving, no Lottie Moon Christmas Offering giving, and no Annie Armstrong giving in any of the past three years. The church did, however, report Great Commission giving of $7,857 in 2019 with a budget of $235,226.22 (3.3 percent Great Commission giving). The church also reported a membership of 95 and average worship attendance of 123 in 2019.

Feinstein holds a master of arts degree from Liberty University and a master of divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.