Baptists pick ex-missionary chief to head Pacific region
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer
Veryl Henderson will be returning to Hawai'i's familiar climes to serve as executive director for Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention.
"Hawai'i is home," Henderson said from Centennial, Colo., where he is state director of the church planting division for the Colorado Baptist General Convention. "Our daughter was born there; older one was 2 when we moved there. They both grew up there."
On April 19, the HPBC Executive Board unanimously chose Henderson to succeed O.W. Efurd, who retired March 31 and is now serving as interim director. Henderson, 60, will begin his new duties in mid-June.
After 26 years in Hawai'i, Henderson moved to the Mainland in 1995, where his daughters had attended college. "Colorado is a lovely place, but it's a long ways to commute if you want to do both jobs," he said with a laugh.
His plan of action for the first three months is to visit all pastors of churches — quite a bit of traveling, since the Hawaii-Pacific region covers 118 churches in Guam, Saipan and the islands of Samoa and Hawai'i.
"I'll take some time and meet with staff and take a retreat, too," he said. "I come in as student, learn all I can learn, then as a group we learn where we can go next."
Henderson served as pastoral missionary at Lahaina Baptist Church, Kihei Baptist Mission and West Maui Resort Missions from 1969 to 1978; as state director of resort missions with the Hawaii Baptist Convention from 1979 to 1983; and state director of missions from 1983 to 1995.
He'll have some help from retiring executive director Efurd, or "Dub" as he is called by his friends.
"Dub and (wife) Grace are great friends," Henderson said. "They'll remain in the Islands, so I'll look to him for some counsel as well."
While at Lahaina, Henderson hosted worship services at four hotels. As a resort missionary in Honolulu, he began Bible studies in coffee shops, office buildings, apartment buildings and wherever he could meet people.
He and his wife, Cheryl, have two daughters and four grandchildren, all living on the Mainland. He has a bachelor's degree in religion from Wayland Baptist College, a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a doctor of ministries degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
