Updated Monday, March 03, 2008

For VP Leland Kerr, it's all about the churches

By Norman Jameson

BR Editor

Leland Kerr's lifetime in ministry is all about the churches.

"We need always be reminded the Baptist State Convention (BSC) and associations are to be resources for the churches," said the BSC's first vice president. "The association and state convention are not a church. Christ died for the church, so we need to support the church."

Kerr, director of missions for Wilmington Baptist Association, was born into a minister's home, studied religion in college and seminary and has been involved as a volunteer or staff member in churches or associations ever since.

Following his father's calls to various churches carried the Kerr family across North Carolina. The longest stop during Leland's youth was in North Wilkesboro, which "feels as much like home as anywhere," he says. His father, Warren, retired from New Friendship Baptist in Winston-Salem, but is a pastor at age 81.

Kerr, 57, is the oldest of four siblings, all of whom live in North Carolina.

He has been church staff, director of missions, pastor, and now director of missions again. His first vice president stint follows two years as second vice president, and previous service on the board of directors.

"My commitment goes back to my early involvement with the Baptist State Convention right out of seminary, when I saw the value of my church working with the association and state convention," Kerr said during an interview in his office. "I began to volunteer as a worker in the association and have wanted to be a part of associational work from my earliest days."

He was elected to the General Board (now Board of Directors) in 2000 and understood at new depths that the Convention "worked on behalf of our churches."

"Great things are happening in the Baptist State Convention that I want to be a part of," he said. "I like the work of the Southern Baptist Convention and I want to be there to support that, as well."

Kerr, a ruddy faced, gregarious man without pretense, defines his leadership style as "being a listener." He is utterly approachable and readily accessible and takes what he's heard with him to the discussions where decisions are made and those who have shared with him know they've had input.

"I'm supportive of Milton Hollifield as our executive director-treasurer," Kerr said, "and I want to help him develop his goals, particularly as he develops the 'seven pillars.' It will ultimately come back down to how we assist the local church to do those things."

Kerr has three sons with his first wife, before suffering through a "painful and unwanted" divorce: Jeremy, Greensboro; Joel, Wilmington, and a son who with his family, remains anonymous in overseas Christian service.

Kerr has been married to Robyn for eight years and she is pursuing a nursing degree at UNC-Wilmington.

He is grateful for the "loving, compassionate way" Kings Mountain Association - where he was director of missions - stood by him through his divorce in 1995-96. "I'll always be grateful that the association loved me as they did through that," he said.

Kerr struggled with whether to resign or stay. Through the darkest hours a cadre of four or five pastors consistently undergirded him and seemed to show up at just the right moments to encourage him.

"Had it not been for their support and their affirmation of my call for ministry to that association, I would have considered leaving the ministry altogether," he said. "Seriously."

Career Track

Born in Durham, Kerr graduated from Gardner-Webb College (now University) in 1973 with a bachelor of arts in religious education. He earned a master of arts in religious education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1976.

He started working in churches before he finished college, working with youth and music at Buffalo Baptist Church in Shelby. While in seminary, he led youth and single adults at South Wayside Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

His first church after seminary was Immanuel Baptist in Colonial Heights, Va., where he was minister of education and youth. He was minister of education and youth at Stallings Memorial in Salisbury 1980-85.

He went briefly back up to Parkwood Baptist Church in Annandale, Va., as associate pastor for education and administration before joining Gaston Baptist Association as church development director from 1988-92. Milton A. Hollifield Jr. eventually became DOM at Gaston, about a year before Kerr left in 1992 to become director of missions for Kings Mountain Association (now Greater Cleveland County Baptist Association).

Kerr went to Eastside Baptist Church in Shelby as pastor 2002-2006 and in June 2006 came to Wilmington.

As director of missions, Kerr had helped Eastside through a retirement transition, and felt called to lead them as pastor. "God blessed our ministry, we saw a lot of growth. But I still had a passion for associational work," he said.

Kerr loves working with multiple churches, helping them determine their mission, and assisting them through crisis and change.

Kerr leads through relationships: meeting, listening, discovering, then holding training events to meet the needs he's discovered, always moving a church toward missions, ministry and vision.

Wilmington Association is hosting an Intentionally Evangelistic Church conference April 1-3 at Scotts Hill Baptist Church and Kerr will be spending much of 2008 assessing what the churches of his association expect from the association and from him in his relatively new position.

Associational future

With good roads and instant, global communications tools, the need for churches to associate geographically is different from previous generations, "but there still is a strong need for local groups of churches to work together to reach their communities in ways the Baptist State Convention and Southern Baptist Convention can't," Kerr said.

Churches in his association are in six counties and the most distant are 65 miles apart. While the city of Wilmington receives the focus of work, Kerr said he met an 83-year-old woman in Wallace - 40 miles from Wilmington - who had never been to the city. "One size does not fit all, anymore," he said.

"I was trained that one size does fit all, if you tweak it a little bit," he said. "But every offering has to be customized and tailor made for each individual church. How does the Baptist State Convention do it for 4,000 churches? I don't know. How does my association do it for 68 churches? One church at a time. I think you'll see the BSC will need to become even more in tune with the associations to get its programs and messages across."

As a Convention officer, and former board member, Kerr has been involved with the major issues of the past decade. The conversation - at times rancorous - that led eventually to the colleges, Baptist Retirement Homes and Woman's Missionary Union changing their relationship to the Convention "might have taken our focus off how to help our churches," Kerr said. "The challenge now is to move to an aggressive pro-active approach to let the churches know we are about them and to reestablish our ministry to focus on the local church."

Kerr has few hobbies, other than serving churches. He likes to read and travel and subconsciously yearns for a big Harley-Davidson and a long, open road. With Robyn in school, those things may come later.

Kerr feels a deep need to challenge churches to be serious about the Great Commission. He wants churches to be involved in church planting. And, he wants to help the churches in Wilmington Association focus on church health.

He sees the need arising in the future to "rebirth" some congregations. If the core group cannot continue how can the caretaker congregation give way to something new that will more closely reflect its community?

Wilmington is fast growing and culturally diverse. Money settles on the coast, as do transients just trying to get to the beach and find work. A large single adult population feeds off university students who don't want to leave the water.

Baptists' ability to win the attention of that diverse population may well hinge on Kerr's success in focusing Wilmington churches on mission.