SBTC’s Smith elected Jacksonville College president

JACKSONVILLE—The Jacksonville College Board of Trustees unanimously elected Mike Smith  president of the two-year Baptist school during a meeting on May 23 in Jacksonville, according to the website of the Baptist Progress, newsjournal of the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas.

Smith serves as the director of minister/church relations for the SBTC. He served as director of missions for the Dogwood Trails Baptist Area in Jacksonville from 1995-2008. Smith is a graduate of Baylor University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., where he earned doctor of education and doctor of philosophy degrees.

Jacksonville College is owned by the Baptist Missionary Association and, as an affiliated ministry of the SBTC, receives budgeted funding. 

Smith will begin his work at the college on Aug. 1, spending the fall semester in transition as president-elect alongside the current president, Edwin Crank. Smith would assume the duties of president the day after the BMA of Texas Annual Meeting is adjourned in Waxahachie next November. Crank would assist Smith through Dec. 31, the Progress reported.

Smith said in a statement: “I was humbled and honored when the trustees of Jacksonville College extended to me a call a serve as their next president. I have always considered it a joy and privilege to serve as a staff member of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. I thank Dr. Jim Richards for this time of service and look forward to the continued relationship of Jacksonville College and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.” 

Smith is a Butler, Ala., native. He and his wife Susan have two grown children and five grandchildren. Their son, Lance Smith, is a Jacksonville College alumnus.