JIMMY CARTER INTRODUCTION

Dunwoody Baptist is woven into Jimmy's story in a deeply personal way, and at the same time, God has used the past twenty-six years of ministry in Kentucky to prepare him and shape him for the exciting work ahead here. 

Dunwoody Baptist is where Jimmy met Christ as an eight-year-old, where he was loved, taught, and formed, and where his affection for the local church first took root—through faithful Sunday School teachers and ministry leaders who patiently poured into Jimmy’s life and helped lead him to Christ under the preaching ministry of Jim Chavis. He was deeply shaped by leaders who invested in him, including the faithful shepherding of Allen Jackson during his formative years as a student at Peachtree Jr. High and Dunwoody High School. Because of that, Jimmy carries a genuine love and respect for the people who raised him in the faith and for the legacy of gospel faithfulness that still matters so deeply to this church. 

Yet God did not leave him there. The Lord has stretched Jimmy through diverse ministry contexts—first in college ministry and immediately thereafter through leadership in the rescue and merger of a dying local church. That season was followed by a conviction that God wanted Jimmy to participate in racial reconciliation through the church, which led him to serving as a lay pastor at Consolidated Baptist, a historic African American Church in Lexington led by Pastor Richard Gaines. From there, Jimmy served for ten years as a Lead Elder/Pastor of Mosaic, a multi-ethnic church plant, working the first five years bi-vocationally as a Doctor of Physical Therapy in outpatient orthopedics. Mosaic was a "High Impact Church Plant” through the Kentucky Baptist Convention, supported and overseen by Consolidated Baptist, focused on gospel centered racial reconciliation and serving the most impoverished areas in Lexington. Throughout this time Jimmy was blessed to teach future leaders in foreign countries like Cuba and Nigeria. He also taught in Louisville, KY at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Boyce College, where he was well-loved by students and faculty alike who consistently noted the quality, strength, and faithfulness of his teaching. Through these experiences, Jimmy learned to shepherd people in complex and demanding settings. 

Over the past five years at Immanuel Baptist Church, a four-campus multisite church with regular Sunday attendance of over 3,600, Jimmy has served as the Young Adults Pastor, as a member of the Executive Team during a significant interim season, and now as the Groups and Care Pastor. In addition, he has been a consistent member of Immanuel’s teaching team, regularly preaching across all four campuses. Through this season, Jimmy has gained firsthand experience in shepherding a large, multi-campus church. He has worked as a leader on the team that grew the Church from two campuses to four, saw attendance increase by 50% in two years, and had a historic number of baptisms. Jimmy was instrumental in clarifying vision, strengthening engagement and discipleship pathways, caring for people in crisis, and cultivating unity during seasons of change. 

Jimmy has walked with people through real pain and served alongside church staff through seasons of transition and growth. Through this, Jimmy learned to lead with empathy, patience, and hope, developing a pastoral heart marked by humility, steadiness, and trust in the Lord’s work through His church. He has seen firsthand how healthy leadership, clear discipleship pathways, and faithful preaching can help a church grow without losing its heart. 

Through his long journey of faithful service and stewardship of all God has placed in his life, Jimmy has also remained a committed husband to Carrie for 27 years, and a proud girl dad to University of Kentucky sophomore CA, who publicly committed her life to Jesus at 10 years old. 

When Jimmy prayerfully holds together where he began at Dunwoody Baptist and all that God has done in the three decades of his life since, he senses a steady conviction that the Lord has been preparing him the whole time to return home, love this church well, shepherd its people faithfully, and lead it with clarity, humility, and confidence into its next season.