COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) – Joshua Hedger, a pastor and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary administrator, will nominate John L. Yeats for a 19th term as recording secretary of the Southern Baptist Convention at the June 16-17 annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio.
As executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention since 2011, Yeats has demonstrated leadership and invested in pastors’ lives, said Hedger, pastor of preaching and vision at Emmaus Church in the Kansas City, Mo., area and director of the Center for Church Planting and Partnering at Midwestern.
“I had the privilege of serving with John for two years when I was the second vice president of the Missouri Baptist Convention,” Hedger said. “It is my joy to say that you would be hard pressed to find a more gracious, humble and shepherding leader than John Yeats. His leadership has been used by God to bring vision and unity to the Missouri Baptist Convention, and as a young pastor of that convention, I am thankful for his investment in my family, our church and our convention.”
This spring, Yeats proposed forwarding an additional 2 percent of Cooperative Program gifts received through the Missouri convention to SBC missions and ministries. If approved by messengers to the MBC annual meeting in the fall, Yeats’ proposed allocation of CP funds would move the convention to a 42.5/57.5 percent split of CP funds between Missouri and SBC causes after shared expenses.
“It is my honor to nominate John L. Yeats as recording secretary of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Hedger said. “He has proven to serve our convention faithfully, and I have no doubt he will continue to do so.”
Yeats was first elected as SBC recording secretary in 1997. He designed the annual meeting’s process of communicating from the convention floor to the platform and to the Committee on Order of Business, an achievement credited with enhancing the accuracy of the official record.
The SBC recording secretary records proceedings of the Southern Baptist Convention, trains volunteers for convention business sessions and submits the final edit of the SBC Book of Reports and the SBC Annual. Yeats is an ex-officio member of the SBC Executive Committee and served this past year as the EC’s vice chairman.
Yeats has overseen communications and public policy for the Louisiana Baptist Convention and is a former editor of state Baptist papers in Oklahoma and Indiana. He has served churches in six states during 40-plus years of pastoral ministry.
He received an undergraduate degree from Dallas Baptist University, a master of divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and a doctor of ministry from Midwestern Seminary in Kansas City.
His wife Sharon serves beside him on the annual meeting platform. The couple lives in Lohman, Mo., and has three sons and nine grandchildren.