BWA Invites Brazilian Leader to Head Evangelism and Education
The largest international alliance of Baptists found a new potential director of Evangelism and Education and Study and Research to serve through the 2005-2010 term.
“I am pleased to announce that the BWA has invited Fausto de Vasconcelos to be the new Director of Evangelism and Education,” said Denton Lotz, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, according to the group’s press release Thursday.
The invitation precedes what is expected to be unanimous approval by the Alliance’s General Council, which meets this July in Birmingham, England. The General Council will gather during the BWA’s first Centenary Congress, during which thousands of Baptists worldwide will join in celebration of 100 years of the Alliance’s heritage.
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According to Lotz, Vasconcelos will become the first Latin American Executive to “serve as part of the BWA team for 2005-2010.”
Vasconcelos, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, currently chairs the Executive Committee of Evangelism and Education. He also served as a voting delegate from Brazil to the General Council since 1995.
Robert Ricker, former Executive Secretary of the Baptist General Conference and Chair of the BWA Personnel Committee, said he has “no reservation” about electing Vasconcelos to the new position.
“I had no reservation about him at all,” Ricker said. “I like his wide ranging church experience both in his local church and his long tenure of ministry.”
According to Ricker, Vasconcelos’ service to the church in Brazil helps the BWA fulfill its role as a servant to the worldwide church.
“This is so important in his taking this role at the Baptist World Alliance because the BWA is a servant to the church,” Ricker said.
Vasconcelos, who is President of the Brazilian Baptist Convention, has held the position eight times.
A graduate of South Brazil Baptist Theological Seminary in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1972 Vasconcelos has a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas. Vasconcelos is married to Dione Pereira de Vasconcelos and the father of two daughters, Diane and Denise.
