A. Roy Medley

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The Rev. A. Roy Medley is general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA, the pastoral and administrative leader of the 1.5-million-member denomination. He has articulated a vision of ministry and service that focuses both on the local church--the fundamental unit of mission in American Baptist life--and on Christ-centered servanthood. He is committed to lifting up longstanding American Baptist distinctives of evangelical outreach, ecumenical cooperation, social justice, soul liberty, religious freedom, worship, and constructive dialog. He has challenged American Baptists to seek unity in Christ amidst the racial, ethnic, geographical and theological diversity of their denomination.

Previously Roy was executive minister of the American Baptist Churches of New Jersey, one of 34 regions within the denomination. Under his leadership from 1992-2001 the region emphasized congregational renewal, new church development and racial reconciliation. Roy previously was an area minister and minister of Mission Support for the region.

From 1979-1985 Roy was national director of the Neighborhood Action Program of American Baptist National Ministries, where he directed denominational Christian center programs, focusing on programmatic vision, recruitment, support for National Ministries home missionaries at the centers and mission interpretation with local churches. He represented American Baptist Churches USA at the National Council of Churches of Christ in the Domestic Hunger and Poverty Working Group and at the World Council of Churches through the Ecumenical Development Cooperative Fund.

Roy’s pastoral experience includes service as interim pastor at Christ Congregation, Princeton, N.J. (1977-1978) and associate pastor at First Baptist Church, Trenton, N.J. (1974-1977), where he also served as a seminary intern and was ordained in 1975.

Roy has been a member of the Baptist World Alliance Commission on Freedom and Justice and the Church Renewal Committee and served on the faculty for the American Baptist Churches USA Church Planters Institute. He has been a Bible study leader and speaker at numerous gatherings in the U.S. as well as in Haiti, the Philippines, India, Myanmar, Cuba, and Rwanda.

A native of Ringgold, Ga., Roy holds an A.B. degree (psychology) from the University of Chattanooga and an M.Div. degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. He currently is enrolled in a D.Min. program at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Ga. He has received honorary D.Div. degrees from Alderson-Broaddus College and Central Baptist Theological Seminary. He also participated in the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches, Bossey, Switzerland (1972-1973).

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