FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 2020
Contact:
Brad Jurkovich, Conservative Baptist Network Spokesman
(318) 588-0819
Bossier City, La. – Today the Conservative Baptist Network is pleased to announce the addition of key Georgia leaders Javier Chavez and Tommy Fountain, Sr., to its National Steering Council.
The announcement comes on the same day as the formation of the CBN Georgia Chapter, the Network’s first-in-the-nation state chapter, by 19 Georgia Baptist leaders, including 10 current and past GBC Presidents and 8 current GBC officers.
“It is hard to imagine two men who better represent our Southern Baptist Convention today than Javier Chavez and Tommy Fountain,” said Rod D. Martin, a CBN co-founder and SBC Executive Committee officer. “They add a depth and range of perspective and experience that would be hard to match with twenty other men. They are pillars of Baptist life, and we are grateful to serve with them.”
Javier Chavez serves as the Second Vice President of the Georgia Baptist Convention, Hispanic representative for the northern regions with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, representative for Georgia on the SBC Hispanic Leadership Council, and as a trustee in the Georgia Baptist Public Affairs Committee. He is President of Amistad Cristiana International, which works to empower the Spanish-speaking communities around the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and has partnered with churches in Peru, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and soon in Japan. He was born in Peru, has served as a missionary there for more than 10 years, and as a church planter and pastor in Georgia. He has also served on the SBC Committee on Committees and currently leads the Latin American section of World Mission.
Julio Arriola, Executive Director of Hispanic Relations and Mobilization with the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee recently applauded Chavez’s work among Hispanics in Georgia and stated that, “Dr. Javier Chavez is…a church mobilizer and a leader of leaders.”
Tommy Fountain, Sr., is Chairman of the Georgia Baptist Convention Executive Committee. He has been in gospel ministry for 41 years, serving as pastor of four churches in Alabama and Georgia, as a full-time evangelist, as co-founder of Fountain of Joy Ministries, and as associational missionary for the 26 churches and missions of the Mulberry Baptist Association. A longtime conservative leader in Georgia, he has served at every level of Southern Baptist life. He has two preacher sons, Tommy Fountain, Jr. (Baptist Collegiate Campus Minister at UGA) and Stephen Fountain (FBC Buford Pastor), and six grandchildren. He is currently pastor of 1025 Church in Monroe, Ga.
“The Bible demands justice, and all Christians should seek it, but Biblical justice is not today’s leftwing ‘Social Justice,’ which defines one group as never able to repent and another as never needing to,” said Fountain. “This is just a false gospel, one that makes the reconciliation available only in Christ impossible. Ideas like Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality are as far from the oneness we share in Christ as Heaven is from Hell.”
Chavez agreed.
“I’m very concerned about many of our younger pastors, who are very open to so-called Progressive ideas,” Chavez said. “I grew up in Peru and saw what these ideas do to a country. It was horrifying, with an awful toll on our churches and on regular people’s lives. Some of the younger generation of pastors who do not understand what took place outside of the US, may be getting confused about the real focus of the Gospel message.”
The Conservative Baptist Network is a broad-based grassroots movement of Southern Baptists of all generations who are committed to the sufficiency of Scripture for all facets of life and application. Its 54-member Steering Council includes pastors and laypeople from across America, including well-known figures such as former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, and prominent Georgians including Emir Caner, Kelvin Cochran, Anthony George, Gerald Harris, Charles Stanley, and Mike Stone. It can be found online at ConservativeBaptistNetwork.com.
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