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Southern Seminary’s Greenway to be KBC Presidential Nominee
09/08/2011
Florence—Adam Greenway, a professor and associate dean at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, will be nominated as Kentucky Baptist Convention president when the KBC annual meeting convenes Nov. 15 in Florence.
Greenway, a former KBC first vice president, will be nominated by Tim Alexander, pastor of Florence Baptist Church at Mount Zion, the site of this year’s annual meeting.
Greenway is the first announced candidate for the post.
“My nomination of Dr. Greenway will be made out of a deep burden for the future of our convention,” Alexander said in a letter to the Western Recorder.
Noting that Kentucky and Southern Baptists’ “vital statistics” have been in decline for several years—including baptisms, church membership, Cooperative Program giving and denominational participation—Alexander said of Greenway: “I am convinced that given the seriousness of these times, there is no other Kentucky Baptist better equipped and experienced to lead our convention toward revival and renewal.”
This summer, Greenway has filled in for Alexander at Florence Baptist as the longtime pastor has been on a “medical sabbatical.”
“I believe he will bring to the Kentucky Baptist Convention the same passion and compassion that he demonstrated in our church,” Alexander said.
Despite serving primarily at Southern Seminary for the past four years, Greenway said he still sees himself as a pastor. “I just tell people I’m on loan to the seminary for this season of life training pastors,” he said.
If he were to be elected KBC president, Greenway said not being a full-time pastor would allow him to travel all regions of “our very unique state.”
“I’d want to be preaching somewhere every Sunday across our great commonwealth, encouraging folks (and) meeting with pastors,” he noted.
Greenway said that will allow him to encourage Kentucky Baptists to accomplish the goals set forth by the Kentucky Great Commission Task Force and build on the “More for Christ” foundation laid by current KBC president, Floyd Paris.
“For that report to really accomplish its goals, it can’t just be seen that we’re redistributing percentages,” he explained. “We’ve got to grow the pie, and to do that, we’ve got to inspire greater confidence in cooperation—that Kentucky Baptists see that every dollar they send through the Cooperative Program really is accomplishing more.”
If elected, Greenway would be the first president to serve a full term alongside new KBC Executive Director Paul Chitwood. And at age 33, it is believed Greenway would become the convention’s youngest-ever president, surpassing Chitwood, who was elected in 2005 at age 35.
Greenway has served as an assistant professor of evangelism and applied apologetics at Southern Seminary’s Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism since 2007. He became the Graham School’s senior associate dean in 2010. He also serves as the seminary’s associate vice president for extension education.
A Florida native, Greenway came to Kentucky in 2002 as pastor of The Baptist Church at Andover in Lexington. Prior to that, he served as a pastoral assistant in Alabama and as an interim pastor at churches in Florida and Texas.
Since joining Southern Seminary, Greenway has been active as an interim pastor, serving five churches in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.
In addition to serving as KBC first vice president in 2009-10, Greenway currently is the convention’s parliamentarian, has served on the Mission Board and chaired the Mission Board Size Study Committee in 2009.
On the Southern Baptist Convention level, Greenway is president of the Southern Baptist Professors of Evangelism Fellowship and has been a LifeWay Christian Resources trustee since 2005.
A graduate of Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., Greenway also holds a master’s degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and a doctorate from Southern Seminary.
Greenway is a member of First Baptist Church of Mount Washington. According to the 2010 Annual Church Profile report, the church gave $106,988 (8.18 percent of its undesignated receipts) to the Cooperative Program and reported 50 baptisms. (WR)
Western Recorder issue date: September 6, 2011.
The Kentucky Baptist Convention is a cooperative missions and ministry organization made up of nearly 2.400 autonomous Baptist churches in Kentucky. A variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated through its administrative offices in Louisville, including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more. For more, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
by Drew Nichter, Western Recorder
