NASHVILLE (BP)–Doug Mulkey, pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Canton, Ga., will be nominated for second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, a fellow Georgia pastor announced June 2.
Wyman Richardson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dawson, Ga., said he will nominate Mulkey for the post during the SBC’s June 10-11 meeting in Indianapolis.
Richardson said Mulkey has served the Canton congregation for 19 years, the longest tenure of any pastor in the church’s 178-year history. Mulkey previously was pastor of a church for two years while he was a student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
When Mulkey came to Mt. Zion in 1989, worship attendance averaged 200 and Sunday School attendance was 140. The congregation now averages 650 in worship and 450 in Sunday School. In 2000, Mt. Zion constructed a new $3.5 million facility.
Richardson said Mt. Zion Baptist Church was 135th among the approximately 3,600 churches in the Georgia Baptist Convention in giving through the Cooperative Program in 2007 and 129th in total mission gifts.
“I first met Doug almost 10 years ago and immediately came to have a great deal of respect for him as a brother in Christ and as a pastor,” Richardson said. “I believe the convention would be well served by having a man like Doug Mulkey serve in this leadership capacity.
“He will bring to the convention the same sense of integrity and commitment that has made him a faithful and strong presence for the cause of Christ in north Georgia for almost 20 years,” Richardson added. “Doug has a pastor’s heart, a love for people and a love for the body of Christ.
“He also has a missionary heart, which has been made evident in his involvement in reaching his own community, in his leadership in the area of Cooperative Program giving through Mt. Zion Baptist Church and in the various mission causes he has led his church to participate in and contribute to around the world.”
Mulkey and his wife Terry have three children and two grandchildren.
Information from the 2007 Annual Church Profile for Mt. Zion Baptist Church lists 12 baptisms and primary worship service attendance of 650. The church gave $75,454, or 10.8 percent, through the Cooperative Program from total undesignated receipts of $699,253. According to the ACP, the church also received $19,000 for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and $11,100 for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions.
Mulkey is the fourth announced nominee for SBC second vice president this year. The other announced nominees are Jim Hamilton, executive director-treasurer of the Dakota Baptist Convention; Brian Fossett, a vocational evangelist from Dalton, Ga.; and John Newland, senior pastor of Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis.
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Compiled by Baptist Press assistant editor Mark Kelly.
