Jenkins leaves state board for FBC Athens pastorate

After nearly 10 years of service with the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), state missionary Edwin Jenkins has announced his resignation.
   
Effective May 1, he will be pastor of First Baptist Church, Athens, in Limestone Baptist Association, leaving the position of director of the SBOM office of leadership and church growth.
   
This move marks a return to the pastorate for Jenkins, who served churches in Alabama and Texas for 25 years before joining the state board as the inaugural director of the leadership and church growth office.
   
“We’re excited about (the move),” he said about his and his wife’s feelings. “We feel that definitely God has led us in this direction.”
   
Jenkins noted that in every place he has served, his wife, Joan, has been by his side, serving as both a pastor’s wife and in her own right in the areas of leadership and administration.
   
“We feel like (First, Athens) is a perfect match for us in terms of our calling,” Jenkins said.
   
Rick Lance, SBOM executive director, said the couple is a “dream team in terms of their relationship to each other,” partnering together to teach leadership seminars.
   
Jenkins has developed several church health tools and resources for Alabama Baptists, including Church Health Review and the Church Health Review Pastor’s Manual, and wrote “Celebrate Your Church” and several articles on church health for The Alabama Baptist newspaper. Prior to his work at the SBOM, he wrote “LifeLift: A Model for Church Life and Organization.”
   
“(Jenkins) devoted himself tirelessly to helping church leaders, as well as associational and state missionaries, to develop their innate leadership skills,” Lance said.
   
And while he’ll miss the SBOM staff and being involved with a variety of churches statewide, Jenkins said he plans to continue being involved in Alabama Baptist life on many levels.
“First Baptist Church, Athens, is a very missions-minded church,” Jenkins said, noting that the church is involved in associational and state Baptist work, as well as helping other churches around the state. 
   
“We want to be a teaching church,” he said.
   
Prior to joining SBOM in 1996, Jenkins was pastor of Hilldale Baptist Church, Center Point, in Birmingham Baptist Association. 
   
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Samford University in Birmingham, as well as a master’s and doctorate from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. (TAB)