John Mark Toby, pastor of Beacon Hill Baptist Church in Somerset, will be nominated as Kentucky Baptist Convention president Nov. 11 during the KBC annual meeting in Lexington. He currently is the only announced candidate.

Toby served as KBC first vice president in 2005-06, and is a past president of the Kentucky Baptist Pastors’ Conference. He recently completed a term as chairman of the KBC’s Committee on Committees and has served as a Chaplain Lieutenant Colonel with the Kentucky Army National Guard since 1983. Toby is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond; Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville; and Luther Rice Seminary in Lithonia, Ga.

Q: What would be your primary hopes and goals as KBC president?

My hopes for Kentucky Baptists would be that we would be found faithful. I pray that we will work together to carry out the cause of Christ to our communities across Kentucky. Our churches need to be encouraged and we need to be an influencing agent in a culture that ­often counters Christian beliefs.

Several goals for the KBC would be to carry out the “Kentucky Baptist Connect” goals, work with the Crossover 2009 event leading up to the Southern Baptist Convention in Louisville next summer, and take a long-term look at the strategy our convention will need over the next 10 to 20 years to effectively meet the needs that will face us in the future.

Q: In addition to your ministry as a pastor and elected KBC official, you have served as KBC Pastor’s Conference president, a chairman and member of committees, both on the KBC and SBC levels, and a Kentucky Army National Guard chaplain for 25 years. How have those tasks helped prepare you to serve as state convention president?

I have served the KBC in a variety of ways. It has helped me to gain a deeper understanding of how our convention works and what we are about. My military experience will be helpful in working in a team environment where life and death often hangs in the balance depending on the decisions made. As Kentucky Baptists, the lives and very souls of men, women, boys and girls can be affected based on the decisions we make. It is a high calling to serve our country but a higher calling to serve our Lord.

Q: Kentucky Baptists face ongoing challenges in seeking to increase baptisms and Cooperative Program giving. Your congregation was among the state leaders in both categories last year. How has your church maintained its focus in these areas and how do you think the KBC should address such issues?

Cooperative Program giving is something every Kentucky Baptist church can get excited about. We can do more together than we can do individually. Kentucky and Southern Baptist agencies and institutions help us fulfill the Great Commission. It is a privilege to partner with other churches to carry out the work our Lord Jesus called us to do.

At Beacon Hill we focus on missions every week, not just during special offering seasons. We want to be a missions-minded church. Each Sunday school class has a missions emphasis each month. For example, this month’s emphasis is rice bowls for world hunger; next month will be Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.

We do practical, hands-on missions emphases where people of all ages can participate. We encourage our members to go on mission projects. The more people you get to see what is going on with our Southern Baptist missionaries, the higher value your congregation will place on the Cooperative Program.

The first step to increasing our baptisms is to pray for a preceding of the Holy Spirit to convict and convince people of their sins and that they need a Savior who is Jesus Christ our Lord. We as Kentucky Baptists must have a heart for lost people. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. We have a Top 10 list of lost people in each Sunday school class that we are praying for and actively engaging in their lives in a way that we will have an opportunity to share Jesus with them. We train people to share their testimonies and memorize Scripture so that as they go and God places people in their paths, they will be prepared to present the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our convention can provide training and resources to facilitate the evangelism process.

Q: What are your thoughts on the KBC’s current “Kentucky Baptists Connect” ministry emphasis?

Kentucky Baptists Connect developed objectives and goals in 2003 from the work of the Mission Study Committee. Areas include: evangelism; missions; leader training; networking; strengthening churches; and relationship with KBC agencies and institutions. These are areas that we as Kentucky Baptists need to work on and strengthen. Identified major impact factors include resources/stewardship; technology; communication; associational partnership; organization/staffing; and spiritual foundations.

In the area of technology, we need to continue to implement training and tools available over the Web to help our churches and pastors look to the KBC for training and resources. It is a way of connecting us to be more effective.

Q: One of the president’s primary responsibilities is to appoint three members to the KBC Committee on Committees. What criteria would you use to make your appointments?

Find the best people possible. Having served as chairman of the Committee on Committees, it is important to rely on committee members to know of individuals in their areas who would be willing to serve. It provides an opportunity for people to serve who may not have been connected.

Q: How do you identify yourself within the current political/theological spectrum of Baptist life?

I am theologically conservative. I believe in and preach the divinely inspired, true, inerrant Word of God that has the power to change lives.

Q: What do you consider Kentucky Baptists’ greatest strengths? Why?

We have a heritage of faith and a future of hope. Kentucky Baptists have been blessed. Our greatest strengths are missions and evangelism. By keeping our focus on these we can accomplish more for the Kingdom and help us move forward by faith into the future.

Q: What do you consider Kentucky Baptists’ greatest needs? Why?

We are facing challenging times in our culture with addiction issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, gambling and pornography. Many of our families are under great stress. Culture is changing rapidly. We as Kentucky Baptists must respond with the timeless message of hope—the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The main thing for Kentucky Baptists is for us to keep our eyes on the Author and the Perfector of our faith and to strengthen our fellowship. Each Kentucky Baptist church is distinct and unique and we must work together to carry the cause of Christ to our communities.