Lee Tate, pastor of Benton Baptist Church, a little southeast of Selma, will succeed Tom Stacey as leader of the newly formed West Central Baptist Association.
Stacey has served 25 years in the director of missions role for Selma Baptist Association — which recently joined with Cahaba Baptist Association to become West Central Association. He plans a Jan. 11 retirement and Tate begins his service Jan. 1 under the adapted title of associational mission strategist.
Unanimous vote
West Central Association’s executive committee voted unanimously Oct. 28 to call Tate.
Search committee chairman Tim Mathis, pastor of Westwood Baptist Church in Selma, said, “Our committee could not be more delighted to have Lee Tate accept the call to be our associational mission strategist. He is a man who loves and lives the great commandment and the Great Commission. Not only that, but he has led each church he has pastored to [do the same]. When it came down to it, Lee was the man we wanted leading our association to greater cooperation around the great commandment and Great Commission. We’re eternally thankful for the foundation Tom Stacey has laid over these last 25 years and cannot wait to see how the Lord uses Lee to build on top of that.”
Born and raised in Selma, Tate came to Christ as a sophomore in college at Troy University. He and his wife, Sondra, were married in 1983 and he served in the Air Force from 1985 to 1990. They have three children and five grandchildren.
After attending Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, from 1997 to 2000, Tate served as associate pastor at First Baptist Church Selma (2001–2004) before becoming a senior pastor. He served as pastor of Uniontown Baptist Church for three years (2004–2007) and has spent the last 18 years as pastor of Benton.
Leader of a ‘missions-giving and missions-going’ church
Tate led Benton to be an extremely generous missions-giving and missions-going church, according to Mathis. In 2020, the 46-resident member church gave $46,000 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and through the years at least 29 of the 46 members have participated in international missions trips. The church also recently commissioned four of its members to be church planters in Whitehall at Imago Dei Church at the 45.
“I’m grateful to the Lord for this opportunity to serve the pastors and local churches of the WCBA,” Tate said. “We are looking forward to God doing great things in and through us during our time together.”
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