Council elects Patton, AZMN special-called meeting set

Following the unanimous recommendation of the Arizona Mission Network executive director search committee, the AZMN Convention Council unanimously elected Monty Patton, currently AZMN associate executive director, during a special-called meeting June 17.

The next step, according to Arizona Southern Baptists’ constitution, is that the executive director be “approved by a two-thirds favorable vote of the messengers in Annual or Special Session.”

The special-called meeting will be held at First Southern Baptist Church at Sahuaro Ranch in Glendale on Thursday, July 24, at 1 p.m. Information about messenger registration is being sent to churches and is available at azmn.org/directorsearch.

At the close of the special-called meeting, a dessert reception will be held in honor of David Johnson, who is retiring as AZMN executive director after 12 years of service.

The June 17 council meeting, attended by 20 of the 28 council members and convention officers, as well as AZMN staff, was conducted through video conferencing.

AZMN President Mark Mucklow, who served as search committee chairman and appointed the eight-member committee, reported on the committee’s process. The committee gave Arizona Southern Baptists an opportunity to communicate with the committee, set up an electronic means of submitting resumes, developed an executive director profile, looked at questions to ask candidates and made a scoring rubric.

After receiving input and resumes for a month, the committee conducted interviews, said Mucklow, pastor of First Southern, Glendale. The committee was unanimous in recommending Patton, he said.

John Ramos, council member and lead pastor of First Southern Baptist Church of Kingman, asked what made Patton stand out to the committee.

Executive Director David Johnson “put his hand on the scale when he brought Monty on as the associate executive director,” Mucklow said. “I took that as a pretty clear signal … that he was certainly giving Monty that opportunity.”

In addition, he said, the feedback given the committee from “the majority, if not even a super majority” of people from all over the state was in support of Patton. “Many people feel very confident in his leadership,” Mucklow said, and the support was even greater than he expected.

“As the committee looked at all of the resumes and references, Monty by far stood out in his experience, his skill, talents, background, his resume, all of his references,” said search committee and Convention Council member Simone Lake.

The search committee assessed the current state of the AZMN and concluded they were positive about the direction the AZMN is going, said search committee member Chad Garrison, lead pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Lake Havasu City.

“Monty provides continuity to the vision that David has set and to the culture that David has built, because they built it together these last few years,” Garrison said.

Whitney Walters, search committee and Convention Council member, said he asked Johnson what the biggest challenges were that the next executive director would face.

“Listening to his answers, talking to the people that applied, I felt like Monty was in the best situation with his experience, his relationships,” said Walters, senior pastor of Willow Hills Baptist Church in Prescott.

Patton shared his background, calling and vision.

He said he was one of the final three candidates when Johnson was called as executive director. While acknowledging the sovereignty of God in the outcome, he asked Johnson to help him discern whether it was a character or competency issue that kept him from being selected and to help him grow.

“Little did I know that would lead to a 12-year friendship that David and I have had,” Patton said. “It’s just been a great journey with David.”

While serving as director of Send Network Arizona with the North American Mission Board, a post he held before becoming associate executive director, Patton said he finally understood why God did not want him in the executive director position previously. He realized he had loved Phoenix, but he didn’t love Arizona.

However, as he served throughout the state, Patton said, “I just fell in love with this place — all areas, the deserts, the high pines … the sands, the whole place. And [I] began to hear the heart of pastors, rural churches, country churches, cowboy churches. … It made me fall in love with the state.”

Mucklow excused the staff and called the Council into executive session for further discussion and the vote by secret ballot. After 17 minutes, the staff was invited back, and the unanimous vote was announced.

For more information about Patton’s background, see this story.