Louisville—John Mark Toby, pastor of Beacon Hill Baptist Church in Somerset, will be nominated as Kentucky Baptist Convention president during the KBC annual meeting Nov. 11 in Lexington.

Toby, who was KBC first vice president in 2005-2006, will be nominated by Charles Barnes, a member of Hurstbourne Baptist Church in Louisville who served as KBC president in 1998-1999 and is chairman of the Kentucky Baptists Connect initiative.

Toby currently is the only announced candidate for the post.

“I think the most important thing that John Mark brings to the table is his experience in KBC life,” Barnes said of Toby. “He has served in a number of different capacities in the KBC in recent years. He’ll bring … very steady, experienced leadership.”

Barnes noted that Toby’s Beacon Hill congregation has been “very supportive of the Cooperative Program (and) very supportive of missions.” According to the church’s Web site, church members have been part of mission trips to Ethiopia, India, Poland and Russia.

Discussing his nomination, Toby expressed a desire to “have the opportunity to serve (and) to help … carry out the Kentucky Baptists Connect goals.”

The Kentucky Baptists Connect emphasis began in November 2004 and called for 125,000 baptisms across the state by 2009—an average of 25,000 per year. Instead, during the first three full years of the initiative, baptism numbers have averaged less than 17,000 per year, slipping to 15,503 in 2007, the fewest baptisms in more than a decade, according to KBC Annual Church Profile statistics.

Toby said the way to baptize more new believers is through personal evanagelism.

“That would be the one goal I would really want to emphasize,” he noted. “Personal evangelism strategies for all Kentucky Baptists to share their faith, how to share their testimonies and to be trained in evangelism.”

Toby also mentioned a need to strengthen Sunday school and vacation Bible school attendance in KBC churches. In addition, he underscored the importance of Kentucky Baptist involvement in Crossover Louisville ’09 prior to next year’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. Toby said he wants to partner with the planning team already already in place and to “fill in where the gaps are … and work in those areas.”

Toby, who has served Beacon Hill since 1999, also was pastor at First Baptist Church of Fairdale and Hedgeville Baptist Church in Danville. He has served as a chaplain with the Kentucky Army National Guard since 1983. A former president of the Kentucky Baptist Pastors’ Conference, Toby recently completed a term as chairman of the KBC’s Committee on Committees. He also has served on the KBC Mission Board’s administrative committee and Business and Finance Committee.

On the Southern Baptist Convention level, Toby served on the SBC Tellers Committee in 2004 and 2007.

Toby is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond; Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville; and Luther Rice Seminary in Lithonia, Ga.

Beacon Hill Baptist Church was among the top 40 churches in the state in Cooperative Program giving in 2007, with a total of nearly $90,000 (10 percent of undesignated receipts), according to information provided by the KBC’s business services team. Data from the 2007 KBC ACP statistics showed that Beacon Hill Church reported a total of 42 baptisms last year.