Tommy Green has announced his retirement after serving Florida Baptists as executive director-treasurer since 2015.
Green shared his plans to retire, effective Dec. 31, with Florida Baptists’ State Board of Missions, the convention’s governing body, during its regularly scheduled meeting in Jacksonville April 4.
“We have a great peace that this is the time — it’s the right time,” said Green, noting he and his wife Karen have been praying about the retirement decision.
Reflecting on his tenure serving Florida Baptists as executive director-treasurer, Green said, “This has been one of the most joyous and blessed experiences of my ministry. To have the privilege of serving our churches and our pastors in this way has been much more of a blessing to me than to them.”
As he retires, Green said that his prayer is that Florida Baptists “know how much I love them, care for them, how thankful I am for all of our churches, all of our pastors.”
He emphasized, “The Florida Baptist Convention is not about Tommy Green at all.
“It’s not about a person; it’s about the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope we have honored Christ and brought glory to Christ through all of the years that I have had the privilege of serving in this way.”
Green said he believes, “The greatest days of ministry for Florida Baptists are still ahead.”
‘Convention exists to serve churches’
As Florida Baptists’ 10th executive director-treasurer, Green has emphasized that the “convention exists to serve the churches,” stating that God said, “I will build My church,” not “I will build My convention.”
If a state convention is not seen as “a valued partner” with local churches, he said, the convention then becomes “irrelevant.”
To that end, Green purposefully led the state convention to “align with the passions of our churches,” which include church planting, church revitalization, baptisms, mission engagement and giving through the Cooperative Program and Maguire State Mission Offering. Those six passions led to Green’s vision, Challenge 2025, presented in 2019 as a five-year plan to spur Florida Baptist churches to attain a new level of commitment to reach the nation’s fastest-growing state with the gospel.
Florida Baptists, he said, “want to see the Kingdom grow, and they realize it takes all of us to do that.
“To see the unity, the commitment that Florida Baptists have to reach Florida for Christ has been incredibly encouraging.”
To read full story and more about Green’s tenure, click here.
Prior to accepting the role as Florida Baptists’ executive director-treasurer, Green served as pastor of First Baptist Church Brandon, April 1996–June 2015; First Baptist Church Buford, Georgia, 1988–1996; Franklin Creek Baptist Church in Pascagoula, Mississippi, 1985–1988; and Chesbrough Baptist Church in Kentwood, Louisiana, 1982–1985.
An Alabama native, Green holds doctor of theology and master of divinity degrees from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and an undergraduate degree from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2013, Green was awarded the Alumni of the Year from New Orleans Seminary.
He and his wife, Karen, have three sons: John Green IV and his wife Katherine of Knoxville, Tennessee; Matthew Green and his wife Nathalie of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Philip Green, who passed away Aug. 28, 2023, at the age of 41, and four grandchildren.
As he looks toward his retirement, Green said, “I am thankful that God has brought together a family of churches that have a laser focus of reaching Florida and beyond for Christ.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This article was written by Margaret Colson, and was originally published by the Florida Baptist Witness, news service of the Florida Baptist Convention.
