President of the Kentucky Baptist Convention

Chitwood was elected to a one-year term as first vice-president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention in 2004.^[5] The following year, he was a candidate to succeed outgoing president Herschel York as president.^[10] The conservative York had been elected the previous year in a close vote of 686 to 627 over Rusty Ellison, who was seen as a moderate candidate.^[10] Chitwood was seen as the conservative candidate against another moderate, Robert DeFoor.^[11] DeFoor published a letter decrying the rise of fundamentalism within the KBC and saying that Chitwood was the choice of the fundamentalists; he later clarified that he did not know Chitwood personally very well, and was not accusing him of being a fundamentalist.^[11] Chitwood called DeFoor's comments "divisive".^[11] Chitwood won the election by a vote of 974 to 601.^[12]

During Chitwood's term as president, the University of the Cumberlands – a KBC-affiliated university and Chitwood's alma mater – was criticized for expelling a student who posted on MySpace that he was homosexual, in violation of the school's code of conduct, which stated: "any student who engages in or promotes sexual behavior not consistent with Christian principles (including sex outside marriage and homosexuality) may be suspended or asked to withdraw."^[13] Critics asked then-Governor Ernie Fletcher to use his line-item veto power to remove an $11 million state budget allocation for a new pharmacy school at the University of the Cumberlands because of the expulsion, but Fletcher, an ordained Baptist minister, declined.^[14] Chitwood supported the expulsion and Fletcher's decision not to veto the allocated funding.^[13]

Executive Director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention

In 2010, then-president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention Don Mathis asked Chitwood to consider becoming a candidate for executive director of the KBC, replacing retiring executive director Bill Mackey.^[2][4] Chitwood declined, but agreed to serve on the 15-member search committee.^[2] After the committee reached an impasse in the search process, the committee chair asked Chitwood to reconsider.^[2] Chitwood agreed and resigned from the search committee.^[2] On May 12, the committee recommended Chitwood for the position, and on June 2, he was elected by a vote of 88–7.^[2] He officially took office July 1, 2011.^[2]

In May 2012, Chitwood announced a major reorganization of the KBC, focusing more resources on starting new churches, strengthening existing churches, and reaching individuals who did not attend church.^[15] In 2015, KBC churches reported an increase in church membership and number of baptisms, reversing a decade-long trend of decline.^[16] In 2016, the KBC announced that member churches had contributed $22.3 million to the Southern Baptist Convention through the Cooperative Program, more than any other year in the organization's history.^[17]

During his time as executive director, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear proposed legalizing casino gambling in the state as a means of raising revenue for the state treasury.^[18] Chitwood opposed this effort, recording an ad broadcast on Christian radio stations and distributing a video to Southern Baptist churches in Kentucky urging them to resist the governor's proposal.^[18]

In 2014, controversy arose in the Kentucky Baptist Convention when Bill Smithwick, CEO of the KBC-operated Sunrise Children's Services, proposed dropping the restriction on the employment of homosexual people by Sunrise.^[19] Although Sunrise's board ultimately rejected the proposal and Smithwick resigned as CEO, many Southern Baptist churches in the state withheld their usual donations to the ministry out of fear that the proposal would succeed.^[19] Following Smithwick's resignation, Chitwood announced a fundraising campaign intended to raise $5 million to make up for the shortfall produced by the withheld offerings.^[19]

Chitwood and his wife, Michelle, led a campaign called "Be the One", urging Kentucky Baptists to become more involved in helping care for abused and neglected children.^[20] During his tenure as KBC executive director, Sunrise Children's Services expanded to serve 1,300 children, triple the number served at the beginning of his tenure.^[20]

In 2015, Chitwood was the chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention's Committee on Nominations.^[5]

During Chitwood's term, Campbellsville University severed its covenant agreements with the KBC in order to gain more autonomy over its affairs. In 2017, Chitwood decried the Campbellsville's decision, along with a similar previous decision by Georgetown College: "Making off with untold millions of mission dollars invested in the institutions over the generations, these schools have not only broken their promises, they have betrayed their mission."^[15] In 2018, Chitwood's alma mater, the University of the Cumberlands, also asked to dissolve its covenant agreement with the KBC.^[21]

In 2017, Chitwood opined that the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, an organization to which some Southern Baptist churches also belong, would be taking a step in the wrong direction if it were to soften its stance on hiring LGBT people.^[22] The KBC formed a committee to monitor the CBF's policies at its meeting in November 2017, and CBF lifted its ban on employing homosexual people in February 2018.^[22] At the KBC annual meeting in November 2018, the convention expelled "more than a dozen" churches who continued to support CBF after the ban was lifted.^[22] In a subsequent interview, Chitwood said "the convention could not support groups that 'embrace alternative lifestyles' and adopt policies that 'redefine what is right and wrong' when it comes to Baptist beliefs that homosexuality is a sin."^[22]

President of the International Mission Board

On November 6, 2018, he announced his candidacy for president of the International Mission Board, a position vacated by the resignation of David Platt in September 2018.^[23][24] He was endorsed by Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board; and Sandra Wisdom-Martin, executive director of the Woman's Missionary Union.^[24] On November 15, he was elected by a unanimous vote of the IMB's board of trustees and took office immediately.^[5][25]

At the 2019 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, a report was presented by the law firm of Gray Plant Mooty regarding allegations of sexual abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention generally and the IMB generally.^[26] The report, commissioned in 2018 before Chitwood's election as IMB president, found "a number of significant concerns with IMB's handling of past cases" and contained several recommendations for policy changes aimed at preventing a recurrence of such incidents.^[26] On the day the report was released, Chitwood published a statement on the IMB web site apologizing for the past incidents and promising to adopt the policy recommendations contained in the report.^[26][27]