Passages

New presidents of MOPS, Asbury College, and the SBC’s NAMB named.

Selected • Naomi Cramer Overton, as the next president of Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) International. Elisa Morgan, the current president, will remain with MOPS International as chief executive officer.

Retired • David Mehlis, as president of Cook Communications Ministries. Mehlis worked at the publishing house for 40 years, and in 1987 became the first non-member of the Cook family to lead the ministry. During Mehlis’s presidency, Cook acquired Scripture Press, Victor Books, and other organizations. He also started training programs for international publishers seeking to print Christian literature in their native languages.

Died • Bishop Gilbert Patterson, presiding bishop of the Church of God in Christ, on March 20 of heart failure. Patterson, 67, headed America’s fifth-largest denomination since 2000. He pastored Temple of Deliverance Church of God in Christ in Memphis, Tennessee.

Selected • Geoffrey Hammond, as president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board. Hammond, a third-generation missionary, succeeds Bob Reccord, who resigned in April 2006. Hammond previously served as a pastor, church planter, and missionary to Brazil.

Selected • Sandra Gray, as president of Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky. Asbury’s first female president, Gray has worked at the college for 17 years as a professor of business management, chair of the department of business and economics, and provost. The nondenominational Christian school has ties to the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition.

Related Elsewhere:

The MOPS website has a short announcement of Naomi Cramer Overton’s selection.

MomSense, is a Christianity Today International publication and ministry partner of MOPS.

The Church Report interviewed Mehlis about his work with Cook Communications Ministries.

Bishop Gilbert Patterson’s biography and memorial page are available online.

COGIC is observing a period of mourning for him.

Geoffrey Hammond has already addressed the NAMB staff as its new president.

Sandra Gray will begin her term as president of Asbury College July 1.

- More from Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra

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