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Akin to nominate N.C. pastor as SBC 2nd vice president


WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)–North Carolina pastor J.D. Greear will be nominated for second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, according to a March 30 news release by Daniel L. Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Greear has been senior pastor of the Summit Church in Durham, N.C., for nearly five years. After graduating from Southeastern Seminary in 1999 with a master of divinity in international church planting and serving for two years as a missionary in Southeast Asia, Greear returned to the Durham area, serving first as college pastor at Homestead Heights Baptist Church (now Summit Church) while he earned his doctorate from Southeastern in systematic theology, which he received in 2003.

“J.D. represents the best of the growing number of young leaders in the SBC,” Akin said. “He believes in both the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. His is also on the cutting edge in terms of creative and dynamic ministry.

“Dr. Greear understands what it takes to effectively communicate the Gospel to a culture that is post-Christian,” Akin continued. “He would be an asset to the president of the SBC with the perspective he would bring to the table. I will be delighted to place him in nomination before our convention.”

After Greear became the church’s senior pastor, the congregation sold its existing property and re-launched itself under the new name in an effort to reach its surrounding community, which included several universities and the rapidly growing Research Triangle area.

The church has since grown in its Sunday morning worship attendance from 400 to 1,700, about 450 of whom are college students. In years past, the church had difficulty reaching those same students.

“My life’s goal is to prove that there is no dichotomy between complete relevance and absolute exposition,” Greear said. “Depth and relevance are actually -– I find the more I get into it -– together rather than separate. If you’re not going to be deep, you’re not going to be relevant.”

Information for the most recent year from Southern Baptists’ Annual Church Profile survey, 2005, for the Summit Church lists 109 baptisms; $16,500 in gifts through the SBC Cooperative Program; total undesignated receipts of $1,709,907; and total mission expenditures of $478,430, including $87,591 for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and $10,349 for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions.

Greear is the second nominee for SBC second vice president, following the announcement in early March by Kentucky pastor Bill Dodson that he will nominate Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif.

The SBC’s June 13-14 sessions will be held in Greensboro, N.C.
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