By Art Toalston
Baptist Press
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Union University trustee Noe Garcia, senior pastor of North Phoenix Baptist Church, will be nominated as second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention during the SBC’s June 11-12 annual meeting, Tennessee pastor Micah Fries has announced.
Fries, senior pastor of Brainerd Baptist Church in Chattanooga, said Garcia can be “a tremendous asset to the SBC” at a time “when Southern Baptists are struggling with questions like how we can see more people trust Christ, how to reach our increasingly diverse communities, and how we can continue to see our influence spread far beyond the Southeastern United States.”
Garcia has led the Arizona church since 2016. He previously held staff positions at Cross Church in northwest Arkansas; First Baptist Church in Nashville; and Second Baptist Church in Houston.
In addition to serving as a Union trustee, he is a member of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s Leadership Council and the SBC Executive Committee’s Convention Advancement Advisory Council. He served on the 2017-2018 SBC Evangelism Task Force and the EC’s Young Leaders’ Advisory Council and, in 2017, was a member of the SBC Committee on Committees.
North Phoenix Baptist Church, according to the SBC’s Annual Church Profile in 2018, recorded 97 baptisms, averaged 1,480 in worship attendance, counted 12,365 members and gave $100,000 through the Cooperative Program, or 2.5 percent of $4,013,313 in undesignated receipts.
“When Noe arrived at North Phoenix the church was 90 percent Anglo,” Fries said. “Today their staff estimates that half of the church is made up of ethnic minorities.”
To date, Garcia is the lone nominee for SBC second vice president to be elected during the convention’s June 11-12 annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala. B&R
