James Edward Jones

James Edward Jones (born December 2, 1934) is a Southern Baptist clergyman in Campbellsville, Kentucky, who is also the District 1 magistrate on the Taylor County Fiscal Court.

James Edward Jones (Southern Baptist clergyman and Fiscal Court magistrate)
Born	December 2, 1934 Birmingham, Alabama Resident since 1981 of Campbellsville, Taylor County, KentuckyÂ
Political Party	Republican
Spouse	Martha Elizabeth Bell Jones (married 1956) Children: Angela, Darlene, and Byron E. Jones

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Jones is a son of the late Fred S. Jones and the former Annie Dews. He attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas, but received his bachelor's degree in 1957 from Samford University in Homewood in Jefferson County, Alabama, both Baptist institutions. He holds the bachelor of divinity (1961) and a doctorate of ministry (1982) from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville in Jefferson County, Kentucky.

Prior to his pastorate of Campbellsville Baptist Church, which began in 1981 and extended for more than twenty years, he was  the pastor of the  Valley View Baptist Church in Louisville from 1964 to 1973 and the Eastern Hills Baptist Church in the capital city of Montgomery, Alabama, from 1973 to 1981. 

Jones has served on the board of trustees of Campbellsville University and a member of the CU Church Relations Council, a body established in 1978 by former president W. R. Davenport, when the institution was known as Campbellsville College. Jones was formerly a part-time assistant in the Office of Church and External Relations, an adjunct faculty member in the CU School of Theology. After retiring from Campbellsville Baptist Church, he accepted the pastorate of the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Campbellsville. He is a former moderator of the Taylor County Baptist Association, president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention from 1989 to 1990, and a member of several KBC committees and boards. He has also served on the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee from 1983 to 1991 and as chairman of the budget committee from 1990 to 1991. His mission trips have been to Brazil (four times), Russia (twice), Venezuela, Kenya, Hong Kong, China, Poland, and Honduras. He is a member of the Taylor County Ministerial Association, Kiwanis International (president in 1986), and the Masonic lodge. Beginning in 1982, he was appointed chaplain for the Campbellsville/Taylor County Rescue and Taylor County Sherriff’s Department.

Twice Jones has received the Campbellsville-Taylor County Chamber of Commerce "Citizen of the Year" award. In a CU press release university president Michael V. Carter describes Jones, accordingly, “Dr. Jones has a pastor’s heart, a servant’s humility and the passion of an evangelist and missionary. He is one of the fine pulpiteers of Southern Baptist life today. He has demonstrated servant leadership all of his life and continues to do so to this very day as he gives of himself in service to his Lord, his family and his community.” Carter's remarks accompanied the presentation in 2011 to Dr. Jones of the Algernon Sidney Sullivan Award by Campbellsville University. In 1982, Jones published The Implementation of a Perennial Program of Evangelism.

On the fiscal court, Jones, a Republican, worked for the completion in 2009 of the $15 million Taylor County Judicial Center in Campbellsville.

Jones is married to the former Martha Elizabeth Bell (born 1937), who attended school in Chilton County in central Alabama. The couple has two daughters, Angela and Darlene; a son, Byron E. Jones (born 1963), and five grandchildren.