Two pastors elected to leadership positions in the two state Baptist conventions representing nearly 600,000 Baptists come from the Tri-Cities area.

The Rev. Jeffery B. Ginn started as the executive director-treasurer for the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia this month. He had served as senior pastor of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Colonial Heights since 2000.

The Rev. Joseph T. Lewis was elected president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia at its annual meeting in November. He has been pastor of Second Baptist Church in Petersburg since 1996.

The two men are friends, but their faith views are aligned with those of their organizations.

They talked recently about their new positions, work and vision as leaders of their respective organizations.

. . .

Ginn has hit the ground running.

"Already I've been to Suffolk and Roanoke and Zuni," he said in his office in Glen Allen. "I'll be going to very small churches in rural places as well as large urban churches."

The Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia's 540 churches not only are different geographically, but also racially and ethnically -- Hispanic, African, Middle Eastern and Eastern European, Ginn said.

"Formerly, I was pastor of a local congregation," he said. "I had significant influence on one congregation. Now I have more moderate influence, but it'll be over many churches."

Ginn said his vision is to add churches, help churches grow in their faiths, and to mobilize them to have impact around the world.

The goal is to have 1,000 churches by 2020, Ginn said.

"We don't want to start churches that flounder in a week," he said. "We want to start churches that are vigorous and strong and thriving."

The idea is to have churches help and evangelize their neighbors and people in the state, the country and the world, he said. "We would do disaster relief. We would do hunger relief. We would do evangelism, the whole range of ministries."

Ginn is replacing Doyle Chauncey, who remains the foundation and ministry services president of Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia until next year, when he will be taking on a new role with the foundation to try to build its endowment.

"He is superbly qualified," Chauncey said of Ginn. "Experienced missionary, having served in the international field."

Ginn and his wife, Nell, have done missionary work in Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica.

"He brings to us a pastor's perspective but with a missions heart," Chauncey said. "And that's the profile we were looking for because we are a mission-sending organization."

Ginn said the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia has bucked the national Baptist faith trends of declining church attendance and charitable giving.

"We've grown fourfold in the last 10 years," he said.

Walking the same path as his predecessor, Ginn said, he plans to speed up the group's work.

"We would like to accelerate the good things that are happening," he said. "It's just put the pedal to the metal, full speed ahead."

. . .

Lewis, who is halfway through his one-year term, said his priorities are to fine-tune the Kingdom Advance ministry and the Virginia Baptist Mission Board's work.

"We're getting there," he said. "Serving one year, you can't accomplish a lot. But my primary goal from the get-go is to be a servant of the general association and to try to help in the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom."

Lewis, who replaced Boyce Brannock, an attorney from Waynesboro, said some initiatives addressing his priorities will be unveiled in October.

The 175-year-old Baptist General Association of Virginia represents about 1,400 churches in Virginia, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, West Virginia and Maryland, Lewis said.

He said he has found "a great interest among Virginia Baptists to do mission work. "A lot of times people talk about doing things and never get around to it," he said. "We have structured ourselves in such a way that we are actually providing ways for folks to connect to the world in ministry."

As the association grows and forms local, national and international partnerships, there's a greater demand for people resources, said Lewis, who has two children with his wife, Teresa.

"We get calls all the time from here and around the world and the challenge is to get those folks to meet those needs," he said.

Financial contributions, meanwhile, are decreasing and worsening with a slow economy, Lewis said.

"I'm convinced that is not a resource problem, it's a faith problem," he said. "The resources are out there to take care of the ministries that we feel God is calling us to do . . . The question is, are we willing to take that step of faith and do those projects?"

On behalf of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, Lewis has been to India for the dedication of a shelter built in partnership with Precious Children International Village in India for children orphaned by the 2004 tsunami. He is planning trips to Switzerland and Rome and to Africa for a possible partnership, he said.

"When you [travel], it broadens your own horizons," he said. "We tend here in America to think that we're it. It also reminds me of our responsibilities to the rest of the world. We are among the haves and when you spend two weeks among the have-nots, you realize what your responsibility is to those folks."

While serving as president of the association, Lewis also leads Second Baptist, which has about 430 members. It's a balancing act, he said.

"It would be extremely difficult to serve as president if I did not have the support of my congregation. "It's time-consuming. But the congregation has granted me the time to do this, and I bless them for it."

The job is demanding, but Lewis said he is enjoying the opportunity to serve.

"I've learned more about the Virginia Baptist life," he said. "I thought I knew a lot . . . now I know more. Everything I learn is pleasing."
Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or jlizama@timesdispatch.com.