Craig Carlisle, director of missions for Etowah Baptist Association and current president of the Alabama Baptist State Convention, was re-elected to a second one-year term during the Nov. 13 morning session of the 2024 annual meeting. He ran unopposed.
Carlisle is the first director of missions/associational mission strategist to serve as convention president and has served Etowah Baptist Association since November 2017.
In nominating Carlisle, Derek Allen, senior pastor of First Baptist Church Tillman’s Corner in Mobile, said, “Craig embodies the leadership we need in this moment. Craig sees and is grateful for the unique way God has blessed our family of churches. However, Craig sees this is a moment where we need to recommit ourselves to the Great Commission.
“He will lead us well because he has led us well.”
Carlisle also was instrumental in the launch of a new emphasis on bivocational ministry — Calling Out the Called Alabama (callingoutthecalledal.org), Allen noted. The initiative was introduced during the Nov. 12 afternoon session of the annual meeting.
Carlisle’s ministry journey
Carlisle was ordained to the ministry by Twelfth Street Baptist Church in Gadsden in 1987 and later served as pastor there from 2008 to 2017.
He was pastor of Central Park Baptist Church in Decatur from 1991 to 2008 and pastor of Munford Baptist Church from 1987 to 1991.
He has served in a number of denominational positions, including as chair of the Alabama Baptist State Convention’s Sexual Abuse Advisory Task Force (originally the Sexual Abuse Task Force), moderator of the Etowah Baptist Association (2014–2016), a member of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (2013 to present) and the Lifeway board of trustees (2008–2016). In 2023, he was elected to serve as a member of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
He holds a doctorate of ministry in evangelism and church growth from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky; a master’s of divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas; and a bachelor’s degree in religion and history from Samford University in Birmingham.
Carlisle and his wife, Tammy, have one daughter, Jordan.
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