Meet New SCBO President: Pastor Dave Welsch 4 | January 2025
God is doing great things in Ohio! We have been blessed with tremendous leadership from our Executive Director, Dr. Jeremy Westbrook, and our entire state staff. I was deeply honored to be elected as your SCBO President this past November at our Annual Meeting, and I look forward to partnering with our state staff to serve the churches and pastors in Ohio. As this is my first article, I simply want to introduce myself and share my heart for our state. My name is Dave Welsch, and I have had the joy of serving as the Lead Pastor at First Baptist Church, Heath, for the past eight years. Our church is passionate about making disciples and deeply committed to the Cooperative Program. I personally have benefited from it, having earned both my M.Div. and D.Min. through Southern Baptist seminaries.
SCBO President Dave Welsch and family.
While I love being a pastor, the most important ministry God has given me is at home —serving my wife and our six children. Yes, six! In 2020, God blessed us through the adoption of two boys from our local foster care system. With four teenagers in the house, we welcome all your prayers! After twenty years in full-time ministry—and fifteen as a Lead Pastor—I’ve learned that ministry can be incredibly hard and lonely. The average church in America has 65 attendees each Sunday, and it’s estimated that 70% of churches in Ohio are revitalizations. Pastoring is hard work, and the kingdom of darkness is working hard to make sure our efforts are stalled, our pastors and their wives are discouraged, and the gospel isn’t proclaimed. I truly believe one of the most significant things I can do as your president is to encourage, energize, and support our pastors and their wives. “Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:11 The two things that I am passionate about doing as your SCBO President are: 1. Championing the Cooperative Program. We are better together, and God can use our cooperation to turn the world upside down for his glory. 2. Strengthening and encouraging pastors and their wives. We cannot have healthy churches if we do not have healthy pastors. If there is any way that I can be an encouragement to you or be praying specifically for you and your church, please don’t hesitate to email me at President@scbo.org. It has been incredible to see how God has blessed our state over the past five years—and I cannot wait to see what he has in store next. In Christ, Dave Welsch SCBO President
Made with FlippingBook Converter PDF to HTML5