Indianapolis (BP)—More than 90 percent of the newly elected trustees of Southern Baptist Convention entities have never before served on an SBC board.

Messengers to the convention’s annual meeting approved 145 nominees June 10 from the Committee on Nominations, 71 of whom were eligible for second terms and agreed to serve.

Of the remaining 76, committee chairman David Hill pointed out that the overwhelming majority have not previously served on a denominational board.

“It really speaks highly of (former SBC President) Dr. (Frank) Page and his tenure as our president for the past couple of years,” Hill said. “His focus has been on really broadening the outreach to every area of the convention, not only ethnically, but small churches, large churches, regionally. So we worked very hard at really bringing everyone to the table.”

Of the nominees, 59 were laypeople and their churches gave an average of 9.2 percent through Southern Baptists’ Cooperative Program missions and ministry support channel.

Hill, senior pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Springfield, Ohio, noted that the nominees come from a diverse array of churches, ranging in attendance from several dozen to several thousand.

“The diversity was really exciting because we had people from very large churches—thousands of members—all the way down to people who were in very small churches. We had denominational workers (and individuals from) every ethnic group that you can imagine. It was a great diversity in those nominees.”

Ethnic diversity was of particular concern in the selection process for boards and committees, Hill explained.

“We actually had people from various state conventions on the committee that voluntarily gave up their nominations for at-large positions so that minorities from other states could actually serve in those positions,” he noted.

Hill emphasized that Southern Baptists should be pleased both with the quality of the newly elected trustees and the quality of the Committee on Nominations. He added that every decision of the committee was unanimous.

“The committee was absolutely incredible to work with,” he said. “I have never worked with a group of people that were more gracious. They were so unified.”