Paducah—E. Lee James, pastor of Bellview Baptist Church in Paducah, will be nominated as Kentucky Baptist Convention second vice president during the Nov. 11 KBC annual meeting in Lexington.

James, 64, is the first announced candidate for the post. He will be nominated by Don Mathis, staff evangelist at Eastwood Baptist Church in Bowling Green.

Mathis said he has known James for more than 40 years when the two were bivocational pastors at neighboring churches. He described James as one who “has been and is deeply committed to evangelism and missions … not only on the local church level but (through) international missions.”

“I have preached in many revivals in churches where (James) has served. He is a man of God, a soul winner, a Bible believer, a man of integrity and leadership, and an excellent pastor,” said Mathis, who was KBC president in 1985-86. “He will make an outstanding officer in our convention.”

Among the concerns James said he would like to address as KBC second vice president is to make evangelism and missions the top priorities in Kentucky Baptist churches.

Churches must “keep the main thing the main thing of reaching the unsaved with the clear message of Jesus Christ,” James noted. He added that he also intends to advance the priorities of the KBC president and first vice president.

Bellview Baptist Church, which James has served since 1992, gave 9.3 percent of undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program and reported 14 baptisms last year, according to the KBC’s 2007 Annual Church Profile statistics.

James has served five terms with the KBC’s Executive and Mission Boards, and was chairman of the missions/church services committee. He also has served as moderator and evangelism director for West Union Baptist Association, and was a member of the nominating committee for the 2007 Will Graham Area Crusade in Paducah.

A pastor for 43 years, James has led First Baptist Church of Clay; Kevil Baptist Church; Sherman Baptist Church in Dry Ridge; Robards Baptist Church; Independence Baptist Church in Beaver Dam; and Edgemont Baptist Church in Bluefield, W.Va. James is a graduate of Campbellsville University and Luther Rice Seminary in Lithonia, Ga.