By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector
Two Baptist associations in Tennessee have elected directors of missions recently. Tennessee has 66 associations.
Phil Mitchell, pastor, First Baptist Church, Adamsville, for 14 years, was called as director of missions, Weakley County Baptist Association, based in Dresden, effective May 19. He also was pastor of Mount Gilead Baptist Church, Cedar Grove, for 12 years, and Davis Memorial Baptist Church, Dresden, for six years.
Mitchell is a graduate of Mid-Continent University, Mayfield, Ky.; Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., and Union University, Jackson, from which he earned the doctor of ministry degree. He is married to Susan and they have two sons.
Chris Alford, pastor, Litz Manor Baptist Church, Kingsport, for four years and Iglesia Bautista Agua de Vida (Living Water Baptist Church), which meets at Litz Manor Baptist, for three years, was called as director of missions, Sullivan Baptist Association, based in Kingsport, effective June 1.
Alford, who has been interim DOM of Sullivan for the past five months, will continue to serve in all three roles. He also has been a Harvest Plants missionary for the Tennessee Baptist Convention and a church planter who helped start two Anglo churches in South Carolina, one Hispanic congregation in South Carolina, and one Hispanic church in Oklahoma. Additionally, Alford has been pastor of a church in Oklahoma and Virginia.
Alford, a missionary kid who grew up in Mexico, Columbia, Chile, and Venezuela, is a graduate of the Baptist Seminary of the Americas in Venezuela. He also has studied at Tennessee Temple University, Chattanooga, and Liberty University, Lynchburg, Va. He is married to Kristina and they have two sons.
