HOUSTON – Texas pastor Bart Barber will be nominated for first vice president at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting next week (June 11-12), while Texas denominational leader Don Cass will be nominated for second vice president.
Barber, lead pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas, will be nominated by Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn.
“He has faithfully served our Lord, local churches and our convention for many years in various capacities,” Gaines said of Barber in comments to the Southern Baptist TEXAN. “His church is committed to the Cooperative Program and to SBC missions. He is well-qualified to help our president, Dr. Fred Luter, as we all seek a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit and revival on our churches and our institutions. I pray that others will join in support of Pastor Barber’s nomination.”
Barber, 43, has led the Farmersville church since 1999, after serving pastorates across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
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Bart Barber |
According to Annual Church Profile (ACP) statistics, last year FBC Farmersville had an average Sunday School attendance of 292, with 10 percent of its undesignated giving directed to the Cooperative Program. The church also gave more than $33,000 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
FBC Farmersville has developed a presence among an unengaged, unreached people group in Senegal. Over the course of three visits, the church has seen 17 professions of faith among tribes that had no evangelical presence only a year ago.
Barber earned an M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1996, and continued there to earn a Ph.D. in church history in 2006. He served as an adjunct professor at Southwestern from 2006-09.
Currently, Barber serves as a trustee of Southwestern Seminary and was selected last year to chair the board’s academic administration committee. He also serves as vice chairman of the executive board of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.
Barber also has served on the Southern Baptist Convention’s Committee on Committees.
Born and raised in Lake City, Ark., Barber came to Christ at the age of 5 and was called to preach when he was 11. He was ordained to preach and graduated from Baylor University in 1991 and married his wife Tracy a few months later. They have two children: Jim, age 10, and Sarah, age 6.
“I’m deeply moved by the confidence placed in me by Steve Gaines and, should they concur with him, by the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Barber said in response to the announcement by Gaines. “Any role I can play in carrying our cooperative mission work into the coming decades is something I can get excited about.”
Barber is on Twitter @bartbarber and blogs at www.praisegodbarebones.blogspot.com.
Don Cass, second VP nominee
Cass, longtime pastor and denominational leader in Texas and New Mexico, will be nominated for second vice president by Bob Pearle, pastor of Birchman Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Pearle told the Southern Baptist TEXAN. Cass has been a member of Birchman Baptist since 2004. He faces Jared Moore, pastor of New Salem Baptist Church in Hustonville, Ky. (See story.)
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Don Cass |
Cass directed evangelism at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC) from 2004-12 after completing a pastorate at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas. In addition to pastorates in Lubbock, Abilene and Plainview, Cass also pastored in the smaller Texas towns of Tahoka, Aledo, Josephine and Dimmitt.
“Don’s vast experience and love for Southern Baptists makes him eminently qualified for this honored position,” Pearle said. “Don knows well the value of Cooperative Program giving through his pastoral ministry and then leading in the evangelism division of three state conventions.”
Reflecting on Cass’ commitment to evangelism, Pearle said, “He has instilled a culture of evangelism in the churches he pastored and the state conventions he served. His life and experience in evangelism are a model for our denomination to emulate, particularly in this period of declining baptisms.”
During his tenure at the SBTC, attendance for the Empower Evangelism Conference grew from 1,500 to more than 3,200 and the Student Evangelism Conference more than doubled and expanded to two locations.
He received the W.A. Criswell Lifetime Achievement Award for Pastoral Evangelism and the Roy Fish Lifetime Achievement Award for Vocational Evangelism from the SBTC. Cass authored manuals and gospel tracts to equip laymen to share their faith, including his most recent work, All Things New, a discipleship study for new Christians.
Cass served nine years as associate evangelism director at the Baptist General Convention of Texas and six years as director of evangelism at the Baptist Convention of New Mexico.
He graduated from Wayland Baptist University and holds a master of divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and doctor of divinity from Criswell College.
Cass and his wife Barbara have a daughter and three grandchildren. He continues to serve SBTC as a consultant in evangelism.
Birchman Baptist contributes 13.6 percent of undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program.
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Based on stories by Rob Collingsworth and Tammi Reed Ledbetter of the Southern Baptist TEXAN and Diana Chandler, staff writer for Baptist Press. See SBC 2013 for more about the annual meeting.)