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Rick Dunbar to succeed Hance Dilbeck as IMB chair
Baptist Press staff
December 04, 2017
3 MIN READ TIME

Rick Dunbar to succeed Hance Dilbeck as IMB chair

Rick Dunbar to succeed Hance Dilbeck as IMB chair
Baptist Press staff
December 04, 2017

International Mission Board (IMB) trustees have a new chairman, Rick Dunbar of Mississippi, replacing Hance Dilbeck, who has been nominated as the next executive director-treasurer of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (BGCO).

Rick Dunbar

Dunbar is a member of First Baptist Church in Madison, Miss., and an emergency medicine physician. He has served as an IMB trustee since 2009 and was reelected as first vice president during the trustees’ June 2017 meeting in Phoenix.

Dilbeck, senior pastor of Quail Springs Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, resigned as an IMB trustee in advance of a Dec. 11 vote by board members of the Oklahoma convention. If elected, Dilbeck would take office Jan. 15, succeeding Anthony Jordan, who is retiring after nearly 22 years of Oklahoma Baptist leadership.

Dunbar thanked Dilbeck “for his godly leadership” and said he is “humbled to follow his leadership and, together with the other trustees, wish him the best.” Dunbar asked Southern Baptists to pray “that God will be glorified” as he leads the IMB trustees.

IMB President David Platt said, “By God’s grace, Hance Dilbeck has led our trustees well, and I am completely confident in God’s grace in Rick Dunbar to continue the same. I am deeply thankful for a trustee board and trustee leaders who love God, who love the nations and who love missionaries who are spreading the glory of God among those nations.”

Dilbeck, in a letter to the trustees regarding his resignation Nov. 27, said that while he was aware of the possibility he might be asked to lead the BGCO, “the search committee surprised me with how rapidly they progressed. Thus, a transition that I was anticipating might come late spring is already upon us.”

Dilbeck said he had talked to Platt and Dunbar, noting, “As you would expect, both were very kind and gracious. I so appreciate Dr. Dunbar and have every confidence in his capacity to carry on as chairman.

“It has been my pleasure to serve with each one of you. … Know that I will be doing all I can to continue and even increase support for the IMB coming from Oklahoma Baptists,” Dilbeck wrote.

Tim Simpson, pastor of Greenridge Baptist Church in Clarksburg, Md., will move from the role of second vice chair to first vice chair of the trustees, while Lisa Lovell, a member of First Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Ark., continues to serve as recording secretary.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Compiled by Baptist Press senior editor Art Toalston from reporting by Julie McGowan of the International Mission Board.)