New Leaders Nominated for Evangelism, World Missions
Members of the General Council of the Church of God have finished nominating leaders for departments at the International Offices. By the close of the Tuesday afternoon business session, the Council had selected all the executive and department leaders slated to be nominated.
With the nomination of Wallace Sibley to the office of secretary general earlier in the day, the body of ordained bishops chose to elevate Jimmy Dale Smith, who for the past two years had served as assistant director of Evangelism and Home Missions. Smith has served the Church of God as a state overseer in the states of Michigan, Florida, Northern Ohio and Southern New England and pastored churches in Mississippi and Alabama.
“I have been doubly honored by this group of men,” Smith said. “It is a high water mark for me. My father, as a pastor of small Mississippi churches, taught me the principles of evangelism at an early age. I hope we can make a difference in people’s lives for evangelism.”
To fill the position of assistant director of evangelism and home missions, the General Council nominated Larry Timmerman, former director of the department and current state overseer of Alabama.
“My wife Jan and I pledged a long time ago that whatever this church asked us to do, we would do it with all of our heart,” Timmerman stated. If elected by the General Assembly, I pledge my total support to the Executive Committee and to Jimmy Smith.” Timmerman has a long tenure of service to the Church of God in several capacities including state youth and Christian education director in Pennsylvania and Mississippi, state overseer in Florida, Rocky Mountain region and Southern Ohio, and pastor in Ohio, Georgia and Michigan. The Timmermans are parents of two grown children.
In the final votes for department leaders, the General Council nominated to elevate current assistant director of World Missions, J.B. Douglas LeRoy to the director’s office. LeRoy began his ministry as a pastor in North Dakota and Kentucky and served as state youth & Christian education director of North and South Dakota, Oklahoma and Florida before entering missions work where he has been field director of Western Europe/Mediterranean/Middle East.. He and his wife, Wanda, have three grown children.
“I want to thank this body for voting to allow me to continue my 26 years of mission work,” LeRoy stated to his ministerial colleagues. “I pledge myself totally to reach the unreached people groups, to finish the Great Commission and to reach this next generation.”
In another historic vote of the day, the General Council chose Victor Pagan to become assistant director of world missions, the first time in the history of the Church of God that a Hispanic has been nominated to fill a department post. Victor and his wife, Ada, are career missionaries, even graduating together from the Church of God Pentecostal Bible College in Puerto Rico with missionary ministry diplomas. Pagan has 20 years as a pastor, 16 years in supervisory positions, and three years as the Field Director of South America. The Pagans were recognized earlier this week with the International Chaplains Award for the establishment of a chaplaincy center in Ecuador.
“I have noticed as men have approached this platform, they struggle to find appropriate words, with English as their first language,” Rev. Pagan told the Council as he accepted the nomination. You have honored me beyond my imagination and I don’t have the words to express.” Pagan went on to deliver his acceptance speech in Spanish as well, another historic first.
