VANCOUVER, Wash. (BP) — Randy Adams, the Northwest Baptist Convention’s (NWBC) executive director-treasurer since May 2013, has asked the convention’s executive board to begin an executive transition plan to find his successor and allow him in the next year to move toward retirement.
“To say that I am most grateful to have been entrusted by Northwest Baptists to lead our convention is a huge understatement,” Adams, 63, told the board during its regular June meeting. “[My wife] Paula and I have thoroughly enjoyed serving you and working with you.”
In his statement to the board, Adams noted his willingness to serve until a successor is in place and then work alongside him for a period that the board and new executive director deem helpful. Adams said he anticipates a new executive director being in place next spring.
“Even as I transition away from convention leadership, Paula and I will continue to live in the Northwest and hope to continue serving with Northwest Baptists for many years to come, as God enables us to do so,” he said.
“Dr. Randy Adams has faithfully served Northwest Baptists with integrity, courage and humility,” said Bryan Bernard, pastor of Redemption Church in Corvallis, Ore., and current NWBC president. “As the executive director, Dr. Adams has shown a commitment to the Great Commission and working together for the kingdom of God.”
With Adams’ announcement, NWBC officers will recommend an executive director search committee to the NWBC Executive Board in the coming weeks. In addition to Bernard, the convention officers include Michael Crisp (first vice president), pastor of Chehalem Valley Baptist Church, Newberg, Ore., and Chad Harms (second vice president), pastor of Pathway Church in Gresham, Ore.
Once approved by the board, a search committee will identify a potential candidate to then recommend to the full board. If affirmed, the board will recommend the candidate for election by NWBC messengers, either during the convention’s annual meeting or at a special called meeting.
“The Northwest Baptist Convention is strong and strategically positioned to proclaim the gospel, plant churches and train new leaders in the next generation,” said Bernard. “Dr. Adams will be missed, but his legacy will have a lasting impact on the churches in the Northwest.”
Prior to his NWBC leadership role, Adams was on staff at the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma for eight years, leading that convention’s evangelism and missions team. Before that, he served as pastor of several churches in Texas and Oklahoma. He ran for Southern Baptist Convention president in 2021.
Adams first became involved in Baptist ministries as a student at Montana Technical University in Butte, where he was asked to serve as the Baptist Student Union (BSU) director during his senior year.
“God moved that year as many students came to faith in Christ, and we grew greatly in student involvement in BSU,” he recalled. “Experiencing God’s work in that ministry led us to seek God as to whether He was calling me to vocational ministry and away from petroleum engineering. God used a variety of means to show us that His plan for our lives was that we serve Him vocationally.”
Adams credited Floral Park Baptist Church in Butte for affirming that sense of God’s call in the early 1980s and encouraging them to enroll at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, where he earned a master of divinity and then a doctor of philosophy in preaching.
“Over the past 40-plus years I have served on the staff of four churches, three as the pastor, and have served in two state conventions,” Adams said. “Paula and I will continue to serve in various ways, and we are excited about some of the possibilities that are already beginning to emerge.”
