Rev. Rolland Slade, First Black Chair of Southern Baptist Executive Committee, Elected

(RNS) — The Rev. Rolland Slade, senior pastor of Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon, California, has been elected as the first African American chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, the group that runs the business of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination outside its annual meetings.

He was elected unanimously.

Slade was previously vice chairman of the Executive Committee and chair of its Cooperative Program Committee, which handles the denomination’s central funding mechanism.

He was nominated by Pastor Jared Wellman of Tates Spring Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas.

“He’s next in line, you could argue, as the vice chair, but that’s not why I’m placing his name into nomination,” said Wellman during an online meeting of the committee on Tuesday (June 16). “I’m nominating him because he’s the first in line when it comes to following Jesus. Whether it’s serving his family, the needs of his community, the people of his church, or the SBC and its Cooperative Program, Pastor Rolland has always been first in line.”

The 61-year-old Slade is a San Diego native who was ordained in 1987. Prior to 2014 when he began his current pastorate, he helped start a church in an apartment complex, served as a missionary and started a Southern Baptist mentoring program for men. More recently he has been recognized for promoting…