NASHVILLE (BP and local reports) — Trustees of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) on Sept. 14 approved a candidate profile for the entity’s next president to replace Biloxi native Russell Moore, who departed in June to become public theologian for Christianity Today and lead the evangelical magazine’s new Public Theology Project.
Search committee chairman Todd Howard, a trustee and pastor of Watson Chapel Church in Pine Bluff, Ark., invited “every fellow Southern Baptist to lift up this organization and our committee in prayer, asking God to provide us with wisdom, humility, and discernment.” The candidate profile calls for the candidate to be:
— Spiritually mature.
— A faithful servant.
— Convictionally Southern Baptist.
— Appropriately educated.
— An excellent communicator.
— Pastoral in heart.
— An experienced leader.
— A proven unifier.
While the profile does not require the candidate to have an earned doctorate, it does stipulate a doctor of philosophy degree, doctor of ministry degree, or law degree would be preferable.
Howard told trustees the search committee plans to invite all the trustees to submit questions when it begins the interview process. When the committee is prepared to present a recommendation to all the trustees, he said, a board meeting will be called and a vote taken on the candidate.
The full candidate profile and information on how to apply for or recommend a candidate may be accessed at erlc.com/presidentialsearch. The committee will accept applications and recommendations until Nov. 30. The website also includes prayer requests from the search committee for their work during the process.
The other trustees on the search committee are:
— Lori Bova, founder of Veritas Classical Christian Academy in Hobbs, N.M., and member of Taylor Memorial Church, Hobbs.
— Traci Griggs, communications/public policy specialist, radio show host, and member of Fairview Church, Apex, N.C.
— Christine Hoover, author, Bible teacher, and member of Charlottesville Community Church in Charlottesville, Va.
— Juan Sanchez of Texas, senior pastor of High Pointe Church in Austin, Texas.
— A.B. Vines, senior pastor of New Seasons Church in Spring Valley, Ca.
— David Prince, current trustee chair and ex-officio member of the search committee. He is an assistant professor at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and pastor of Ashland Avenue Church in Lexington, Ky.
