Candidate for CBF Global Missions coordinator named
By Lance Wallace
CBF Communications
ATLANTA - A former missionary kid with extensive local church ministry experience and academic credentials has been nominated to fill the vacant position of global missions coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF).
A search committee appointed by the CBF Coordinating Council has offered Robert N. "Rob" Nash Jr., dean of the school of religion and international studies at Shorter College in Rome, Ga., as the candidate for the top administrator post for CBF Global Missions. The Council will vote on the nomination at its next meeting, June 21, in Atlanta.
"We were blessed with the opportunity to review many strong resumes and to consider multiple candidates who were qualified to do this job," said search committee chair, Tim Brendle, a retired pastor from Richmond, Va. "We are convinced that God led us through this process to the candidate we are recommending. Rob Nash truly has a heart for missions and the capacity to express our shared missions calling in fresh and challenging ways. I believe he can kindle new excitement in our churches and among our field personnel."
The search committee was made up of Jana Benjamin of Tullahoma, Tenn.; Rusty Brock of Ardmore, Okla.; Frank Broome of Macon, Ga.; Beth Fogg of Richmond, Va.; Harriet Harral of Fort Worth, Texas; and Earl Martin of Jefferson City, Tenn.
"Each committee member has approached this work as a sacred task," Brendle said. "Every member has contributed significantly throughout the process. We are grateful for the input given by field personnel, staff and church members. Most of all we are grateful for the prayer support we have felt during this journey."
Nash, 47, lived 13 years in the Philippines where his parents served as Baptist missionaries. He has also studied in or made extended visits to more than 30 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and South America.
"I am humbled by the confidence that the search committee has placed in me as its nominee for this position and awed by the prospect of ministry alongside CBF's field personnel and staff in the U.S. and around the world," Nash said. "At the same time, I wait with eagerness to join the whole CBF family of churches, partners and individuals in shaping our calling to the world's most marginalized and neglected people."
CBF Global Missions currently has 164 field personnel serving among the most neglected around the world. The coordinator position has been vacant since March 31, 2005, when Coordinator Barbara Baldridge resigned.
"Rob Nash will lead CBF global missions with vision and passion," said Daniel Vestal, CBF's national coordinator. "In our brief history, CBF has been blessed with outstanding leadership in global missions. Rob will lead in a way that builds on that past and also pioneers into the future. For me, his coming represents a wonderful gift of Providence. I am truly grateful."
Serving as dean since 2000, Nash has also served as associate professor of religion at Shorter as well as assistant professor of religion and chair of the department of religion at Judson College in Marion, Ala.
Nash's local church ministry includes serving as pastor of North Rolling Fork Baptist Church in Danville, Ky., and Buechel Park Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky. He has also served as interim pastor of Hopewell Baptist Church, Marion, Ala.; North Broad Baptist Church, Rome, Ga.; Adairsville Baptist Church, Adairsville, Ga.; Smoke Rise Baptist Church, Stone Mountain, Ga.; Briarlake Baptist Church, Decatur, Ga.; First Baptist Church, Decatur, Ga.; First Baptist Church, Tucker, Ga.; and First Baptist Church, Ringgold, Ga.
Nash earned a bachelor's degree in history and English from Georgia College and State University (GCSU) in Milledgeville, Ga., in 1981. He completed his master of arts degree in history from GCSU in 1982, followed by his master of divinity degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., in 1985.
With a dissertation titled "The Influence of American Myth on Southern Baptist Foreign Missions, 1845-1945," Nash earned a doctor of philosophy from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1989. His other graduate studies include seminars in religious studies and American history at Indiana University in 1987 and a research grant at Regent's Park College, Oxford University, Oxford, England in 1999.
Books he has authored or co-authored include the popular and influential "An 8-Track Church in a CD World: The Modern Church in the Postmodern World," published by Smyth and Helwys in 1997 and the soon-to-be-published "The Idea of a Christian University: Faith-based Institutions in a Post-modern World," published by Mercer University Press.
He and his wife, Guyeth, and children, Lindsay Renee' and Douglas Andrew, are members of First Baptist Church, Rome.
