Jacksonville campus minister hired by State Board

DAYTONA BEACH—(FBC) The State Board of Missions elected a Baptist campus minister for Jacksonville-area colleges, gave church-at-large status to a Brunswick, Ga., church, and renewed the employment of a legislative consultant during the its pre-convention meeting Nov. 12 in Daytona Beach. 

Lance Beauchamp, a native of Chiefland, was named as Jacksonville’s Baptist collegiate ministry director, effective Nov. 19, filling a post left vacant with the resignation of Ben Smith.

From 1998-2004, Beauchamp served as coordinator for student services at Central Florida Community College in Ocala. During that time, he said, he defined his call to student ministry.

While pursuing his education, the 32-year-old Beauchamp served as a college minister intern at Richland Creek Community Church in Wake Forest, N.C.; archivist assistant at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest; adjunct instructor at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.; and teaching assistant at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

He received the bachelor of arts degree from Stetson University in Deland, and the master of divinity degree from New Orleans Seminary.

For the twelfth year, the Convention will mount a concerted effort to influence legislation being considered by the Florida Legislature in Tallahassee. To accomplish this, the convention retained Tampa layperson Bill Bunkley as a contract worker to serve as the lobbyist/representative in Tallahassee, a position he has served for the past 12 years, and  Fred A. Martin and Associates of Tallahassee to monitor proposed legislation.

Northside Baptist Church in Brunswick requested church-at-large status to “take advantage of training and resources in closer proximity to their church,” said John Sullivan, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention. Pastor Craig Hartzog, writing the request on behalf of the church, is a former Florida pastor and had “assured us that he had spoken to the Georgia Baptist Convention executive director.”    

Willy Rice, Florida Baptist State Convention president, asked if granting the church-at-large status would “set a bad precedent for churches along the Florida-Alabama state line.”

Sullivan responded this request “was not without precedence,” noting that several other Georgia churches along the state line are affiliated with the Florida Convention. 

The board also approved and recommended that the Florida Baptist State Convention endorse 17 newly constituted churches in the state.