David Roach, an Alabama pastor and former Baptist Press chief national correspondent, will be nominated for recording secretary of the Southern Baptist Convention during the SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California, June 14–15.
Roach has served as pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Saraland since 2020. Previously, he served with Baptist Press from 2014—2019. He has taught for three SBC seminaries (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary) and two Southern Baptist colleges (Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, and Anderson University in Anderson, South Carolina). Additionally, Roach assisted 13 SBC Resolutions Committees between 1999–2013.
Mark Snowden, director of missional leadership for the Cincinnati Area Baptist Association, made the announcement April 24 through a news release that he plans to nominate Roach. Other candidates for the position include Nathan Finn, provost at North Greenville University, and Javier Chavez, pastor of Amistad Cristiana Church, Gainesville, Georgia.
“The recording secretary is charged with recording SBC business, budgets and legal matters with technical accuracy and precision,” said Snowden, who has served more than 40 years in SBC roles with the International Mission Board, North American Mission Board and Baptist state conventions in Kentucky and Missouri. “David Roach has a track record of doing that.
“He has written more than 1,200 Baptist Press articles, including the SBC Annual Meeting Blog, a detailed, on-the-fly record of the proceedings. He has authored hundreds more articles on the SBC for Baptist state papers and Christianity Today. He has the expertise to lead us into a new era of chronicling SBC proceedings, which could include new challenges like remote annual meeting sites and recording the results of electronic voting.”
Snowden added, “Roach has the God-gifted heart of a pastor who represents the new generation of leaders needed for the SBC’s future.”
Roach also pastored Emmanuel Baptist Church in Shelbyville, Kentucky, for seven years, where he served on the Kentucky Baptist Convention Mission Board and Committee on Nominations in addition to service through the local Shelby Baptist Association. A native of New Mexico, he served on two church staffs there.
“I’ve been captivated by the business of our convention since attending my first SBC Annual Meeting at age 15 in 1995, when we adopted the Resolution on Racial Reconciliation,” Roach said. “God has called me to record convention proceedings for the past 20 years. It would make sense to continue that work as recording secretary.”
Roach holds both a master of divinity and doctorate from Southern Seminary and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Vanderbilt University. His doctoral dissertation was adapted into the 2021 book “The Southern Baptist Convention and Civil Rights, 1954-1995: Conservative Theology, Segregation, and Change.”
Roach is married to Erin, who has 20 years’ experience as a Baptist journalist, including three as BP assistant editor. They have three children.
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