Connell, Fossett to be vice president nominees

DULUTH — A Dalton evangelist and Savannah pastor will be nominated for key leadership positions at the Southern Baptist Convention to be held June 10-11.

John Connell, senior pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Savannah, will be nominated for first vice president by Bruce Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church in Roanoke, Texas.

Rusty Newman, pastor of First Baptist Church in Snellville, will nominate evangelist Brian Fossett for second vice president at the annual meeting.

John Connell

Connell has served as senior pastor at Calvary since 2003. Previously he was pastor at First Baptist Brunswick and First Baptist Sandy Springs in addition to churches in Louisiana and Alabama.

In the Georgia Baptist Convention, Connell has served as chairman of the Committee on Order of Business, the Resolutions Committee, and the strategy team for Cooperative Missions Champions. He has served as a trustee of Brewton-Parker College, including a term as the board’s vice chairman. He served on the Southern Baptist Convention’s Tellers Committee in 1996 and 2007.?Connell holds both master’s and doctoral degrees from New Orleans Seminary, where the faculty selected him as the outstanding master of divinity student in 1982.

“[He] is a man who first and foremost has a deep love of God. He has a passion to preach the holy Scripture, a dedication to fulfilling the Great Commission in the local body of Christ, and a commitment to the Southern Baptist Convention,”said Barber, who served on staff with Connell from 1996 to 2003.

Leadership qualities

Under Connell’s leadership, Calvary Baptist Church has added more than 600 new members and started a satellite church ministry, Barber noted. The congregation recently purchased 204 acres of land to relocate the church building and its school and develop a retirement village that will include garden homes, apartments, a nursing home, an assisted living facility, an Alzheimer’s unit, and a community center.?Connell and his wife Donna have two sons, a daughter, and three grandchildren.

Information from the 2007 Annual Church Profile for Calvary Baptist Church lists 52 baptisms and a primary worship service attendance of 658. The church gave $232,795, or 12.6 percent, through the Cooperative Program from total undesignated receipts of $1,842,098. According to the ACP, the church also received $35,768 for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and $8,278 for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions.

Brian Fossett

Evangelistic passion

Fossett, a member of Liberty Baptist Church in Dalton, is current president of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists and immediate past president of the Conference of Georgia Baptist Evangelists. He has served as a member of the North American Mission Board’s National Evangelism Strategy Taskforce and in America’s inner cities as part of NAMB’s Intentional Community Evangelism team. He also has preached in Israel, El Salvador, and Africa.

“Brian was radically saved in 1992 and has never gotten over it,” Newman said. “He loves God and loves people.”

Since 2008 is the 50th anniversary of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists, Newman felt it appropriate for an evangelist to serve as second vice president.

“Brian has done a marvelous job in leading these organizations in honoring the biblical office of evangelists,” Newman said. “He’s a man of God who is sensitive to the Spirit and sincere about preaching the Word. I feel God is using him in a powerful way and has His hand on Brian’s ministry right now.”

Fossett and his wife Amy have four children, Macey, Kenzey, Jake, and Marlee.

Information from the 2007 Annual Church Profile for Liberty Baptist Church lists 21 baptisms and a primary worship service attendance of 417. The church gave $57,405, or 10 percent, through the Cooperative Program from total undesignated receipts of $575,760. According to the ACP, the church also received $7,696 for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and $3,848 for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions.