Tulsa's First Baptist Church To Decide on New Pastor

Deron Spoo, 29, may become the new senior minister of Tulsa's First Baptist Church. Photo courtesy: First Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama. Tulsa's First Baptist

Friday, April 7th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Deron Spoo, 29, may become the new senior minister of Tulsa's First Baptist Church. Photo courtesy: First Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama.

Tulsa's First Baptist Church may get a new pastor Sunday. The congregation will vote Sunday night on whether Deron Spoo should take the position of senior minister. Spoo has been recommended by a search committee, which interviewed dozens of candidates over the last two years. The church has been without a full-time pastor since Dr. Sam Shaw left the church to lead Germantown Baptist in Germantown, Tennessee.

Deron Spoo is now the associate pastor of First Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama. Spoo, 29, is a Texas native and holds a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Spoo formerly served as pastor of Dial Baptist Church, Dial, Texas. He is married and has two children.

Spoo regularly preaches at First Baptist Montgomery and leads a contemporary worship service called "Thursday Worship."

Spoo will preach in the the 8:30 a.m., 11 am and 6:00 p.m. Sunday services at First Baptist, Tulsa. At 7:00 PM, the church body will meet in a called business session to consider the recommendation to hire Spoo as their new minister.

Reporter's Note: The story that follows was provided by Tulsa's First Baptist Church in order to help the general public understand how the Baptist denomination chooses its leaders

The Search for a Pastor: How First Baptist Tulsa Finds its Leaders

TULSA, OK â€“ During its 103-year history, only 14 men have served as senior pastor to First Baptist Church of Tulsa. Affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, the method First Baptist uses to identify and select its lead pastor is one that few mainline religious denominations follow.

"There is no Southern Baptist Church hierarchy with the authority or the responsibility to assign a pastor to our, or to any, congregation," Ken Warren, Administrative Pastor, said. "That often makes our pastor search committee process seem foreign to our Roman Catholic, United Methodist and Episcopalian friends, among others."

The search committee process stems from two basic Southern Baptist theological concepts: the autonomy of the local church and the priesthood of the believer, a conviction that each believer represents himself or herself before God. "The bottom line," Warren said, " is that Baptist churches are independent organizations composed of autonomous believers. These believers, or members, have chosen to cooperate to accomplish the work of the church and the denomination."

Those beliefs enable the church to fulfill many ministry goals. Those beliefs also can make some tasks, such as getting several thousand people to agree on a pastor, a complicated process. FBC Tulsa's by-laws provide its members guidelines to follow when filling ministry-level church positions.

First, the church deacons recommend a diverse group of members to serve on a search committee. These committee members must be endorsed through a vote of the church's members. Once approved, the committee begins the process of finding a prospective pastor. When the committee is ready to recommend a candidate, it must have that person endorsed by the deacons. Finally, a special meeting for all church members is scheduled to approve or reject the candidate. An affirmative vote of three-fourths of those members present is required in order to extend the "call" to the candidate.

During the two-year search that FBC Tulsa just completed, search committee members examined 185 resumes, listened to countless tapes, watched many videos and made over 50 visits to hear pastoral candidates in person. This exhausting work, woven between the committee members' job and family responsibilities, did not result in immediate consensus regarding any candidate until the members met Deron Spoo.

"From the very first video tape we watched, every member of our committee was excited about the possibilities of Deron Spoo and First Baptist Church," the committee said in a letter to FBC church members dated April 2. "Our initial impressions were confirmed in several visits with Deron and his family in his home and church, and in our homes and church. Deron not only is a gifted preacher, he has a winsome personality, a spiritual maturity anchored in the Word of God."

The search process is difficult and, at times, frustrating. But it continues to result in leaders who are placed at First Baptist Church with perfect timing. Each has helped the church fulfill critical aspects of its God-centered ministry. Each has enabled the church to successfully meet its spiritual role in serving downtown Tulsa and the rest of the city. No doubt, Deron Spoo will continue that tradition.


Senior Pastors of First Baptist Church of Tulsa
Rev. H.T. "Tip" Jones 1897-1898
Rev. Robert Owen 1898-1902
Rev. Abraham Carlin 1903-1904
Rev J.B.Youngblood 1905
Rev. T.J. Slaughter 1907
Rev. W.T. Scott 1909-1912
Rev. Harley H. Merriott 1912-1914
Dr. Luther E. Floyd 1914-1918
Dr. William O. Anderson 1919-1929
Dr. Robert W. Bateman 1929-1931
Dr. James W. Storer 1931-1956
Dr. Warren C. Hultgren 1957-1992
Dr. Sam Shaw, Jr. 1993-1998
Rev. Deron Spoo 2000-