The Rev. Dr. R. Lamar Vest, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Bible Society (ABS) and chancellor for the Division of Education of the Church of God with headquarters in Cleveland, Tenn., has been selected by the board as the executive director for ministries for the ABS. Also selected was Dennis Dickerson as chairman of the board for ABS.

Dickerson has served as professor of history at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, historiographer for the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and editor of the AME Review. He also has been the vice chairman of the ABS board, a role which James Parkinson was elected to assume.

Vest is the former presiding bishop of his church, a worldwide Pentecostal denomination. He began his new duties Oct. 1.