ST. LOUIS (BP) — Illinois pastor Doug Munton will be nominated for first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Missouri pastor John Marshall announced April 26.
Munton has been pastor of the St. Louis-area First Baptist Church in O’Fallon, Ill., for 20-plus years. He is a former president of the Illinois Baptist State Association and a current member of the SBC Committee on Committees.
“Doug cares about souls,” Marshall, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Springfield, Mo., said according to a news release from First Baptist. “He has demonstrated a constant passion for winning the lost to Christ. The St. Louis Metroplex is a tough place to do the Lord’s work, but Doug has led his congregation there effectively. He has been a longtime role model for those of us who serve in the Midwest.”
During Munton’s pastorate, First Baptist has baptized approximately 2,000 people and grown in average worship attendance from 550 to more than 1,600, according to the release. Data from the SBC’s Annual Church Profile indicates an average of 116 baptisms over the past five years for which statistics are available.
First Baptist reported giving approximately 8 percent of its undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program in 2014-15, a figure confirmed by the Illinois Baptist State Association. For the same period, the church’s Great Commission Giving totaled approximately 11 percent of undesignated receipts, according to reports from the IBSA and First Baptist.
Great Commission Giving is a category of giving established by SBC action in 2011 that encompasses giving through CP, Southern Baptists’ unified program of funding state- and SBC-level ministries, as well as direct gifts to SBC entities, associational giving and giving to state convention ministries.
Munton said he wants “to be a great encourager to our convention in the areas of missions and evangelism.”
“Since my first international mission trip, God has stirred my heart for the nations,” Munton said. “And with a daughter and her family serving as career missionaries with the International Mission Board in Madagascar, the issue is even more personal. But I also want to see us with a passion to see our friends and neighbors and classmates come to know the Lord right here in our own nation.”
Munton holds both doctor of philosophy and master of divinity degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and an undergraduate degree from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill.
The author of four books, Munton has taught at multiple institutions of higher education, including Southwestern Seminary and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo. Before moving to Illinois, he had pastored a church in Texas and served as youth minister at another Texas church.
He and his wife Vickie have four children and are expecting their seventh grandchild.
Munton is the first announced nominee for first vice president. Announced presidential nominees are Louisiana pastor David Crosby, Tennessee pastor Steve Gaines and North Carolina pastor J.D. Greear. Recording Secretary John Yeats also will be re-nominated.
