ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Florida pastor Michael Lewis is joining the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) staff to lead efforts to build closer relationships between the entity and pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
Lewis, pastor of Plant City’s First Baptist Church in Plant City, Fla., will begin working as NAMB’s executive director for church revitalization and pastoral relations in February.
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Michael Lewis |
“If Southern Baptists are mobilized to the North American mission field, it will be because pastors are leading the way,” NAMB President Kevin Ezell said. “That is why it is so important for us to have an ongoing, focused effort to serve pastors and to help them put their churches on the front lines of this mission. Michael has a heart for seeing people led to Christ and a heart for pastors. I’m excited about his leadership in this area.”
Lewis will be helping churches mobilize for church planting and church revitalization. In addition, he will look for ways to strengthen pastors, their marriages and their ministries throughout the SBC.
“I share the same heart and vision that Dr. Ezell has – that healthy pastors lead to healthy churches,” Lewis said. “We want to reach out and encourage pastors in their relationship with the Lord, then their relationships with their marriage and their family. This will lead to healthy relationships with church leadership and healthy relationships throughout the church – and reaching lost people for Christ.”
Lewis, a southeast Georgia native, is a graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary with a master of divinity degree. Before coming to First Baptist Church in Plant City, Fla., Lewis led churches of various sizes in South Carolina, Georgia and Texas.
Lewis and his wife Liliana have been married for 21 years and have four daughters.
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Tobin Perry is a writer with the North American Mission Board.)