Charles Wade: nominee for president

Charles Wade, pastor of First Baptist Church, Arlington, will be nominated for a second one-year term as president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Wade will be nominated by George Mason, pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas.

Mason stated that Charles Wade is “a model of leadership that should be emulated by others. He holds up the highest and the best of God’s calling and Texas Baptist work as the focus of attention instead of undermining confidence in our cooperative work by attacking things he finds disagreeable.” Wade’s church is known for Mission Arlington which is a model for other ministries nationwide. It has launched three churches, Bible studies in over 190 apartment complexes and provided a variety of ways to meet human needs.

Mason added, “Charles Wade has given Texas Baptists every reason to trust him with another term.” The incumbent president is “a leader who includes rather than excludes people of different positions.”

Wade has provided leadership to support Texas 2000 and praised the convention’s staff leadership. “Texas Baptists are fortunate to have the quality and character of leadership we have in Bill Pinson and all the women and men who serve us. Texas Baptists are the envy of all the conventions for what we are able to accomplish,” Wade stated.

Wade is a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and Southwestern Seminary, where he earned master of divinity and doctor of theology degrees. He has served in many denominational roles, on the state level as a member of the State Missions Commission and on the boards of Hispanic Seminary, Dallas Baptist University and the Baptist Standard.

“Texas Baptists have been a standard for what it means to be Baptist through the years,” Wade stated, “and I want to do my best to preserve it and move it forward.”

October 1996