Elijah Brown from Texas has been chosen. He was formally approved by the BWA Executive Committee in Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday and his name will be presented to the General Council on Friday for a final vote.
The 36 year old is currently BWA regional secretary for North America and general secretary for the North American Baptist Fellowship.
He is a member of the BWA General Council and several other committees including the Constitution and Bylaws Committee; the Nominations Committee; the Congress Committee; and the Mission, Evangelism and Justice Advisory Committee.
Brown serves substantively as executive vice president of the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, a Christian human rights organization with offices in Virginia. Prior to that, he was associate professor of Religion at East Texas Baptist University, where he was founding director of the Freedom Center.
Brown's specialty lies in human rights and religious liberty. He's done human rights advocacy work in South Sudan, Nigeria, Eritrea, Iraq, Nepal and other countries.
Neville Callam will retire from his current position as general secretary in December after more than 10 years of service.
