Bill McClendon has agreed to become the next vice president of administration for the North Pacific Union Conference (NPUC). McClendon’s acceptance comes after Marc Woodson, currently Northern California Conference executive secretary, declined the initial invitation of the NPUC executive committee voted at their Feb. 28 meeting in College Place, Wash. At that meeting, John Freedman, NPUC president, brought both names — Woodson and McClendon — to the committee for consideration. Committee members were nearly equal in their approval for either candidate and gave direction that McClendon should be invited if Woodson declined.
McClendon returns to the Northwest with a nontraditional but uniquely powerful pedigree for this new role. In 2000, while an owner of a computer software and consulting business, he helped plant a Seventh-day Adventist church in Tulsa, Okla., with five other families. After two years, he sold his business and focused on being a full-time pastor. In the first five years, the South Tulsa Adventist Fellowship baptized more than 300 people and grew exponentially. While continuing as pastor there, McClendon served the Oklahoma Conference as assistant to the president for pastoral development and church growth from 2005–2008, and then as vice president for church growth from 2008–2010.
The Washington Conference called McClendon to join their team in 2010 as ministerial and evangelism director, a role he provided through 2012 when he became the conference vice president for church growth.
In 2014, McClendon followed once again his pastor’s passion to serve as senior pastor for the Ellicott City Church in Baltimore, Md., where he has continued until this current invitation from the NPUC.
McClendon’s new role at the union will provide support to local Northwest conferences and churches in mission leadership and member growth, in addition to areas of church structure, process and policy.
Freedman is looking forward to working with McClendon to support local conferences in church growth efforts. “Bill brings to the table solid business accumen, as well as church planting, pastoral ministry and conference administration experience,” he says. “He has a wonderful focus on mission and will be a great support as we find ways to serve our local conferences.”
McClendon is excited about this opportunity to re-engage with church mission in the Northwest. “I strongly believe the best days for God’s church are still ahead of us,” he says. “Amazing things are happening now in our local churches and schools, but I can’t wait to see what God will do in the days ahead as we work together to fulfill the mission that Jesus left to us.”
Bill and his wife, Shirlene, a teacher by trade and recently children’s ministry pastor at Ellicott City, have one married daughter. McClendon hopes to officially begin his work for the NPUC sometime in early April.
Bill McClendon
