The pastor of a Bowling Green church is the new president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
Tom James of Eastwood Baptist Church was elected to a one-year term during the Convention’s annual meeting in Bowling Green Tuesday.
James told WKU Public Radio his primary focus will be on missionary work both abroad and at home.
"We've turned our churches into observers and they no longer take ownership of the Great Commission which tells us to reach our neighbors beginning in our Jerusalem and go to the ends of the earth," said James. "What we have to do is recast the vision for our people of their own personal responsibility to share the gospel."
James replaces Chip Hutcheson of Princeton as KBC president.
The KBC is the state’s largest religious organization and is made up of about 2,400 churches with a total membership of more than 750,000.