First Baptist Fort Lauderdale pastor resigns, search begins

James Welch, lead pastor of First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale, one of South Florida’s oldest churches, has resigned after four years of controversial stewardship.

A search for a replacement will start this week with the help of a committee consisting of parishioners and an executive recruiting firm that has yet to be hired, church officials announced to parishioners on Sunday.

Initial word of the resignation came last Thursday in an emailed statement to parishioners from the board of trustees and a deacons group.

“We’re writing today to let you know that James Welch resigned as lead pastor this week to pursue other interests,” the statement said. “We wish James, Amy, and his family only the best as they continue to faithfully live out God’s plan for their lives,”

Welch could not immediately be reached for comment. Stephen Blount, a trustee and executive director of ministry services who will help steer church operations in the interim, was not immediately available to answer questions.

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The resignation was initially reported by the online Florida Bulldog investigative website and online publications that follow the Baptist church. It comes after a number of contentious issues that enveloped the church over the last four years.

Since taking the helm in 2019, Welch came under fire from dissident church members and other critics. The issues included the cancellation of a popular annual Christmas pageant produced by the church, the sale of church property to a developer and the ouster of dissidents who sought to “fire” the pastor.

The church and some critics landed in court before a Broward Circuit Court judge who ordered the parties to arbitration. Throughout the controversies, according to Welch’s opponents, attendance entered a steep decline during his tenure.

The sprawling church, which was organized in 1907, maintains a complex of worship and event spaces that dominates most of a city block along East Broward Boulevard between Northeast 3rd Avenue and a retail mall at the corner of U.S. 1.

At a well-attended service Sunday morning, church officials and a substitute pastor from the First Baptist staff offered generous words for Welch.

“Pastor James has been a fantastic pastor preaching from God’s word over the last four years,” said Leighton Lindo. eliciting applause from the audience. He delivered a sermon that was a continuation of a series inaugurated by Welch entitled, “God, Is that You?”

After Lindo spoke, trustees Timothy Mowrey Jr. and Jose Luiz Paes-Leme took the stage and formally announced Welch’s resignation and to discuss the next steps for the church.

“Our pastor, James Welch, has been a strong leader here in the past time for First Baptist Church a time that was a deep transformation for our church,” Mowery said, adding that Welch had submitted his resignation last Monday after consulting with his family.

Without referring to any of the church’s internal controversies, Mowery said Welch endured more challenges in his four years at the church “than most pastors would ever face in a lifetime.”

Mowery credited Welch with leading the church in “a new era for outreach” to the city during the COVID-19 pandemic, “a time that severely challenged the survival of thousands of churches across America.”

First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale acknowledged Sunday that it is now searching for a new lead pastor after James Welch, who held the post for four years, resigned last week. (Rafael Olmeda)

The process of finding a replacement “has already begun,” Mowery said, a process that has occurred 16 times before in the church’s history.

There will be a pastoral search team consisting of church members at large, and the panel will be assisted by an executive search firm that has yet to be chosen, according to Mowery.

The search is likely to take a number of months.

In the interim, guest pastors will lead the Sunday services, including O.S. Hawkin, who served as lead pastor at First Baptist between 1979 and 1993. He will deliver the sermons for Palm and Easter Sundays.

While the search unfold, the church apparently will be subjected to an uninvited review of its financial practices.

Last Monday, Ministry Watch, a website that tracks the financial fortunes of Christian churches around the country, reported that First Baptist’s membership with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability had been suspended for a compliance review.

The council, according to the website, is a nonprofit organization whose membership includes churches “that commit to abide by certain practices of financial transparency.”

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According to Ministry Watch, the review is focused on First Baptist’s compliance with a standard that calls for “appropriate management and controls necessary to provide reasonable assurance that all of the organization’s operations are carried out and resources are used in a responsible manner and in conformity with applicable laws and regulations, such conformity taking into account biblical mandates.”

In response, Blount told Ministry Watch “that the church certainly understands ECFA’s review, and we aren’t surprised by the review given the sustained campaign of unsupported and unsubstantiated public criticism we have endured these last three years,”