State missionary Ken Allen has been transitioning into the role of director of associational missions and church planting. He officially takes the position July 1 with the June 30 retirement of Rick Barnhart.

Allen, who has been serving with the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions since 2019, previously served as a pastor and associational leader in Alabama Baptist life. His work at SBOM included directing the office of LeaderCare and serving in the area of church health.

While with LeaderCare, Allen worked to provide leadership training to pastors, deacons and other church leaders. The training often dealt with handling conflict, bivocational ministry, transitional pastor training and search committee training, among other topics.

“As someone who already has relationships with associational leaders that are out there, and having been one myself, it was just a natural fit for me move from (LeaderCare) to (director of associational missions and church planting),” Allen said. “I am really looking forward to sitting down and listening to these guys … really just working together on these critical issues that we face and how to find solutions.”

Principles of church health

Regarding his work in church health in the LeaderCare office, Allen said, “I’m going to bring those principles that I’ve learned in training pastors into this role.

“I’ll take those principles of leadership training and bring them into this role and together, with (the associations), come up with the best, most effective way to assist the local church to fulfill her mission.”

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This article was originally published at TheAlabamaBaptist.org.