South Carolina Pastor Alex Sands will be nominated for second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention during the SBC’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California, June 14–15.
Sands is pastor of Kingdom Life Church, Simpsonville, which launched in 2003, and he was the first African American to serve as president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention in 2021. He also has served on the executive board of the SCBC and has been active on various committees, and has mentored church planters throughout South Carolina, according to his church’s website.
Sands is the first candidate to be announced for second vice president. Josh Powell, pastor of Taylors First Baptist Church, also in South Carolina, announced he plans to nominate Sands in a statement to Baptist Press.
‘To make disciples’
Sands said of the nomination, “I hadn’t really considered a position, really at all, but I’m humbled obviously to be thought of in that way.”
“But I really believe in the mission of the convention as a whole, the partnership of churches for the sake of the gospel to make disciples of Christ around the world. I really believe in that, and I believe that can be what unifies churches in the convention, and just to be a part of serving in that way, to see that happen, in a small way.”
In his announcement, Powell said Sands “represents the best of who we are as Southern Baptists, and I cannot commend him enough. Alex is committed to his family, his church and the fulfillment of the Great Commission in every area of his life. He has served faithfully in our convention life.
“He has served in his association (Greenville Baptist Association), on boards of our state, and most recently as the president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. His voice will be a benefit for our collective work on the national level.”
Sands planted Kingdom Life with a dozen members, Powell noted, “and the church has steadily grown to over 500 members of different races, generations and walks of life.”
Sands graduated from North Carolina State University, and he received his master of divinity at Gardner-Webb University in 2008.
He and his wife, Shana, have two children.
Other candidates
Among those who will be nominated for SBC president are Willy Rice, pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Florida; Tom Ascol, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral and president of Founders Ministries; and Robin Hadaway, a senior missions professor for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and former International Mission Board missionary.
Among those who will be nominated for SBC Pastors Conference president include Voddie Baucham, dean of theology at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia, and Daniel Dickard, pastor of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. See related story.
