Jack Snell

ATLANTA – Jack Snell dedicated his life to being a pastor. For nearly four decades, he nurtured congregations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Kentucky. And in recent years, his ministry of pastoral care extended to more than 150 Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel around the world.

Snell, the Fellowship’s director of global field ministries, died Oct. 2 after a nine-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Snell, 66, is survived by his wife, Anita; his son, Charles, of Atlanta; his daughter, Stephanie, and son-in-law, Henry Kahler, of Jacksonville, Fla. Information about funeral arrangements can be accessed at www.thefellowship.info/Landing/JackSnell.icm.

"Jack Snell has been an instrument of God’s spirit and a vessel of God’s grace in ways that have impacted all of us," said Daniel Vestal, the Fellowship’s executive coordinator. "We will miss him, yet his influence will continue to live and bear fruit. His love for Christ and commitment to global missions have been a profound inspiration in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. He has shaped and formed CBF as much as any individual I know."

As director of global field ministries, Snell supervised CBF field personnel and support teams. He traveled around the world, addressing not only the practical needs of field personnel – budgets, policies, strategies – but also spiritual and emotional needs. Snell nurtured and encouraged field personnel as they faced the challenges of ministering to some of the world’s most neglected people.

"There is no way to exaggerate the shaping influence that Jack Snell had upon global missions, both at CBF and beyond, over the past 16 years," said Rob Nash, the Fellowship’s Global Missions coordinator. "He has been at the forefront of our global mission engagement since the very beginning, chairing the first global missions ministry group, shaping decisions about where we engaged and why, taking his congregation in Jacksonville on short-term missions alongside our field personnel and finally, serving us so very well as a vital member of the CBF national staff. We are impoverished by his passing. We have lost a good friend, a guide, a steadying hand and the hardest worker that I have ever known."

Snell began work with the Fellowship in 2000, serving as associate coordinator for mission teams in Asia. Along with Anita, Snell provided guidance to CBF Global Missions field personnel in Asia. The Snells served as liaisons between field personnel and the CBF national office, and helped connect field personnel with churches and other partners. While living in Singapore, Snell also taught and mentored local pastors.

In 2005, Snell was named the interim coordinator of CBF Global Missions. For more than a year, he provided leadership and direction to all of CBF Global Missions staff and field personnel.

For 20 years, Snell served as pastor of Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla. He also served as pastor of Central Baptist Church, Newnan, Ga. and Long Run Baptist Church, Anchorage, Ky.

A native of Panama City, Fla., Snell earned a bachelor degree from Samford University, master of divinity and master of theology degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctor of ministry from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.