In 2008, Brad Atkins sat on the back row of the annual meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention and listened to a sermon by then-president Eddie Leopard, pastor of Millbrook Baptist Church, Aiken.
SCBC president Brad Atkins“I wasn’t concerned with the South Carolina Baptist Convention; I was the last guy who would have thought he might be president one day of the state convention,” said Atkins, 39, following his election as SCBC president Nov. 16.
“But, during Eddie’s sermon, the Lord spoke to me, and I rededicated my life as a husband, a father, a pastor, and a South Carolina Baptist. I thought, ‘I need to lead my church to be involved with our state convention.’ “
And that’s his advice to pastors throughout the convention’s 2,100 churches: “We have a responsibility to lead our churches within the convention and to help them understand where their money goes,” said Atkins, pastor of First Baptist Church, Powdersville.
“We need to put our churches’ feet on the street in missions and ministry. And people need to hear this message from the pulpit; otherwise it won’t get to the people in the chairs.”
As the first SCBC president to serve under the mandate of the state’s Great Commission Resurgence report, which was overwhelmingly endorsed by messengers, Atkins challenged pastors to lead their churches in support of the new direction. “Great Commission Resurgence won’t happen because of a vote at this annual meeting,” he said. “GCR will take place when pastors embrace it and lead their churches to embrace it.
“GCR belongs to all of us – and I believe it is the course God is leading us to as a convention. “It’s about missions. Why is it important for all of us to get behind the GCR now that it’s approved? We know that we will spend eternity together in heaven, but the question is, how many of today’s lost people will spend eternity with us? It’s going to take all of us – all 2,100 churches – to make this happen.”
Atkins, who has previously served as a youth and associate pastor, has been a pastor for five years. “I’m somewhere [in age] between a younger pastor and older pastor, and I’m also a relatively new pastor,” he said. “In our work together, we have to pull together all generations so that we can all learn from one another. We also have to get on our faces and seek God’s will for our convention.”
Asked what groups in SCBC life need encouragement during his year of service, Atkins named the convention and institution staff members “who are the hands and feet of our convention” and those who are disenchanted with convention life and “don’t know about or understand convention work and all the Great Commission work that we do.”
Atkins was the 2011 SCBC first vice president, 2010 second vice president, and served as a member of the SCBC’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. Originally from Motlow Creek, in Spartanburg County, Atkins and his wife Hayley have a daughter and a son.
SCBC presidents serve “gavel to gavel.” Atkins will conclude his year of service by moderating the 2012 annual meeting of the convention Nov. 13-14 in Greenville. – SCBC