ST. LOUIS (BP) – Jim Wells, a church consultant and retired Missouri Baptist Convention staff member, will be nominated for a 15th term as Southern Baptist Convention registration secretary, Missouri pastor Eddie Bumpers announced June 2.
“Jim has served as registration secretary for over a decade and has proven himself to be a man who is faithful, competent and joyful in welcoming messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention,” Bumpers, pastor of Crossway Baptist Church in Springfield, Mo., said in an email to Baptist Press announcing his intention to nominate Wells during the June 14-15 SBC annual meeting in St. Louis.
Wells is “a man who loves the Lord Jesus and walks with Him,” Bumpers said. “Jim has spent his life serving Southern Baptists. He has a love for the Word of God, church of God and man of God. As members of the church I serve as pastor, I have observed firsthand that Jim and his wife Judy have servant hearts.
“He has a strong commitment to prayer, evangelism and missions and a burden to see the nations come to know Christ. Jim models that in his life. I think he’s a great example to all of us who seek to do the work of the Kingdom,” Bumpers said.
Wells, who was first elected registration secretary in 2002, served from 2012-15 as strategic partners team leader at the Missouri Baptist Convention before retiring in December. Prior to that, he served nearly 12 years as director of missions for the Tri County Baptist Association in southwest Missouri. His current Praying 10 Ministry helps local churches develop prayer ministries.
He has served as a member of the SBC Executive Committee, president of the Missouri directors of missions fellowship and as a leader in various Baptist associations.
Wells has been in ministry since his days as a student at Hannibal-LaGrange College (now Hannibal-LaGrange University) in the late 1960s when he concurrently pastored two country churches.
He was Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s 2004 national alumnus of the year, and HLGU awarded him an honorary doctorate of sacred theology degree in 1999.
He and his wife Judy have a grown daughter and a granddaughter.