ANAHEIM, Calif. (BP) – South Carolina pastor Alex Sands will be nominated for Southern Baptist Convention second vice president at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim, Calif., in June.
Josh Powell, lead pastor of Taylors First Baptist in Taylors, S.C., told Baptist Press of his intent to nominate Sands.
“Alex represents the best of who we are as Southern Baptists and I cannot commend him enough,” Powell said. “Alex is committed to his family, his church and the fulfillment of the Great Commission in every area of his life. He has served faithfully in our convention life.
“He has served in his association (Greenville Baptist Association), on boards of our state, and most recently as the president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention (SCBC). His voice will be a benefit for our collective work on the national level.”
Sands, senior pastor and founder of Kingdom Life Church in Simpsonville, S.C., was the first African American to lead the SCBC when he served as president in 2021.
“He planted Kingdom Life in 2003 with a dozen members,” Powell said, “and the church has steadily grown to over 500 members of different races, generations, and walks of life.”
Sands said he had not considered the position before Powell and Marshall Blalock, both former SCBC presidents, approached him about accepting the nomination.
“I hadn’t really considered a position, really at all, but I’m humbled obviously to be thought of in that way,” Sands told Baptist Press. “But I really believe in the mission of the convention as a whole, the partnership of churches for the sake of the Gospel to make disciples of Christ around the world. I really believe in that, and I believe that can be what unifies churches in the convention, and just to be a part of serving in that way, to see that happen, in a small way.
“I realize that this position doesn’t have a lot of stated responsibilities, but however I can help the president, the Executive Committee, whatever I can do to help, I’m willing to do it for the sake of the Gospel and the church’s mission.”
Kingdom Life Church reported 10 baptisms while giving $41,980 through the Cooperative Program in 2021 from undesignated receipts of $958,424, according to the Annual Church Profile (ACP), a giving rate of 4.38 percent. The predominantly African American congregation averaged 410 in weekly Sunday worship before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the ACP.
Sands holds a Master of Divinity from Gardner-Webb University; bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial and systems engineering from North Carolina State University and Georgia Institute of Technology, respectively, and an honorary Doctor of Divinity from North Greenville University.
He and his wife Shana have been married for 27 years and have two teenage sons, Christian and Blake.