Pictured above from left to right: David Perez, pastor of Iglesia Casa de Bendicion in St. Cloud; Mike Orr, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Chipley; Layperson Jeffery Crick, a family physician at Mayo Clinic and member of Fruit Cove Baptist Church in St. Johns.
LUTZ– Four Florida Baptist leaders were elected to serve as 2023-24 officers of the Florida Baptist State Convention during its annual meeting Nov. 13-14 at Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz.
Mike Orr, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Chipley, was elected to serve his first term as FBSC president. He was nominated to his first term as president by Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola.
Orr has pastored First Baptist Church in Chipley for 23 years, and he has led his church to be among the state convention’s top 100 churches in number of baptisms. Over the past 10 years, First Baptist Chipley has baptized 218 people. He has also led his church to be one of the convention’s top ten givers to the Cooperative Program, giving 15% of its undesignated receipts to Southern Baptists’ unified plan of giving.
Orr served on the Florida Baptists’ State Board of Missions for two terms, 2016-19 and 2019-22, serving twice as its president, 2017-18 and 2018-19.
In his nomination, Traylor said that Orr is a “proven servant leader.” In his church, Orr is an “expository preacher Sunday by Sunday and a faithful shepherd of his people day by day.” Orr is “heart deep” in Florida Baptist life, said Traylor.
Orr will serve alongside David Perez, pastor of Iglesia Casa de Bendicion in St. Cloud, who was elected to his first term as FBSC first vice president.
Perez also serves as director of prayer for the National Hispanic Baptist Network. Manuel Barahona, pastor at Westside Baptist Church in Boynton Beach, nominated Perez for the 2023-24 role.
As COVID was raging during 2020, Perez traveled throughout the state and encouraged Florida Baptist Hispanic pastors to launch concerts of prayer, resulting in what has been described as a “Great Commission movement.”
Perez currently leads a daily morning devotional and prayer time on Facebook.
Today the state emphasis on prayer among Hispanic pastors has grown into a national concert of prayer.
Perez is a leader among leaders, said Barahona. “Prayer is his focus; David, along with his wife and his children, lead a growing church. Pastor David Perez has been an example to us Spanish pastors as a true leader of Hispanic Florida Baptist churches. David has allowed us to see Florida Baptist work advance, not just among Hispanics, but to unite us multiculturally,” he said.
Layperson Jeffery Crick, a family physician at Mayo Clinic and member of Fruit Cove Baptist Church in St. Johns, was elected to serve in his first term as FBSC second vice president. He was nominated to the post by Tim Maynard, recently retired lead pastor of Fruit Cove.
Crick has been a member of Fruit Cove since 2017 and has held various leadership roles in the church.
Crick is “a dear friend, my personal doctor,” said Maynard. “I have known Jeff for a number of years. He had led us well as a layman. He is a kingdom-minded man,” said Maynard.
Janey Frost, who serves at The Point Church in Pensacola, was elected to a second term as FBSC recording secretary. She was nominated to the post by John Vickers.
Vickers, next gen pastor at The Point Church, said, “Janey is one of my ministry heroes in our community. She is a prayer warrior; she is a disciple-maker, and she is a servant of Christ,
Through the good days and the bad days, she has been serving the Lord faithfully.”
Photos by Michael Duncan