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Tim Lubinus named Iowa Baptists’ exec


DES MOINES, Iowa (BP) — Church missions leader and former missionary Tim Lubinus has been elected as the Baptist Convention of Iowa’s new executive director/treasurer.

Lubinus, a native Iowan, was elected by the BCI Executive Board on March 10. He will replace interim executive director/treasurer Tom Law on March 24.

Lloyd Eaken, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Anamosa and president of the Baptist Convention of Iowa, said Lubinus “will be a great asset to the work of the Lord here in Iowa.… I believe God has led us to this moment and this man. I encourage all Iowa Baptists to support Tim and lift him to the Lord daily.”

Lubinus, 50, was recommended by the BCI’s executive director search committee Feb. 22 after what a convention news release described as a “year-long process of prayerfully sifting through resumes and interviewing applicants.”

Lubinus has been the regional and global ministry director at Cornerstone Church in Ames the past eight years. His responsibilities have included Cornerstone’s church planting strategy, which has started six new BCI churches with nearly 2,000 attendees.

He isn’t done planting churches, telling members of the search committee he has “more vision and energy for church planting and church health/development across the state.” Lubinus also was involved in the sending of Cornerstone short-term mission volunteers, preparing long-term missionaries and creating new ministries to reach the needy in Ames.

Lubinus was baptized while attending Iowa State University and became a member of Grand Avenue Baptist Church. He was called to the ministry in 1982, recounting that he and his wife Darlene “went forward after IMB missionaries to the Philippines Bill and Lyn Hyde [for whom the Iowa State Missions Offering is named] spoke at Grand Avenue Baptist Church. We pledged to serve Jesus wherever He would call us.” Hyde was among 22 people killed in 2003 when a bomb exploded at the Davao City airport.

Lubinus completed his undergraduate degree in public service administration in 1985 at Iowa State. The couple then moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where he earned a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1988. Following graduation, Lubinus became the university student ministry director at Northern Illinois University for the Illinois Baptist State Association.

In 1990, the couple and their children became International Mission Board missionaries in Korea where he was a university student ministry director for the Southern Baptist International Mission Board.

The family moved to Central Asia in 1996 where Lubinus started, led and expanded a team of more than 100 IMB missionaries in 12 cities while serving as the strategy associate on IMB’s Central Asia regional leadership team. In 2005, Tim also became a trainer for ministry supervisors in Central Asia.

“While in Central Asia I worked hard to create a quality organization that missionaries joined because they wanted to, not because they had to,” Lubinus recounted. “As a result of high growth and low attrition rates, our team became one of the fastest-growing IMB teams at that time in one of the most closed countries in the world. I have a similar vision for the Baptist Convention of Iowa in which pastors are excited about participating and inviting their friends to join for the vision, strategy, structure and excellence provided and because of the benefits they receive from being part of the organization.”

Search committee chairman Dan Doolin, pastor of Solid Rock Baptist Church in Wappelo, said Lubinus comes to the BCI “with a depth of experience and with a heart to reach not only his community and state where he lives, but also the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is an exciting day for me to think that God has raised up a native Iowan to lead the ministry of the BCI and has given to us a person that not only understands our culture but the cultures of the world.”

The Lubinus family returned to Iowa in 2006 when he began work with Cornerstone Church in Ames. He recently completed his doctor of ministry degree through Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City with an emphasis in church planting and church revitalization.

Lubinus thanked all the people God has used to bring him to the state convention staff, saying, “God used Grand Avenue Baptist Church and [then-pastor] Tom Nesbitt, the Baptist Student Union and Jack Owens, Bill and Lyn Hyde, the International Mission Board, North American Mission Board, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Cornerstone Church to develop my faith. I love the opportunity to give back to Iowa Baptists what I have received from them.”

Ken Livingston, pastor of First Grace Baptist Church in Sheffield and BCI first vice president, said, “It is wonderful to see how God worked with and through the search committee and the Executive Board to bring Tim and Darlene Lubinus to this place in their lives. I see God in this decision and therefore I am anticipating great things for Iowa. It will be an honor to minister with them and support them as we serve the Lord Jesus together.”

In addition to Doolin, members of the search committee appointed by the Executive Board were Mike Carlson (vice chair), Eugene Guthrie, Ted Keys, Jerome Risting, Chuck Spindler, Bob Stout and John Faulkner (alternate).

Lubinus and his wife Darlene have four grown children: Jacob Lubinus, 20; Nathan Lubinus, 21; Andrew Lubinus, 24 and Linsey Gravlin, 26, who is married to David Gravlin.
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Reported by Jon (Ole) Olsen, publication editor for the Iowa Baptist News. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).

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