ORLANDO, Fla. (ABP) — In a field crowded with successful pastors and marked by disagreement over the recommendations of a denominational task force, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting required a run-off to elect as their new president a Georgia church planter June 15.
Bryant Wright, senior pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., beat Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., in a run-off ballot 4,225 to 3,371. Both were supportive of the recommendations of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, which the convention's messengers approved just prior to the presidential vote. Traylor served as a member of the task force.
A candidate who ran as a foe of the task force's report didn't make it past the initial round of balloting. Jimmy Jackson, senior pastor of Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala., was outspoken against the report's recommendations.
Wright and Traylor garnered a combined 66.02 percent of the original vote against Jackson and Leo Endel, executive director of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention.
In the original vote, Wright received 3,433 votes, or 36.84 percent of the vote, while Traylor received 2,719 votes, or 29.18 percent of the vote. Jackson received 2,482 votes, or 26.64 percent of the vote, and Endel received 589 votes, or 6.23 percent of the vote.
In nominating Wright, David Uth, pastor of First Baptist Church in the convention host city of Orlando, Fla., extolled his Georgia colleague. “He’s not been on a lot of programs and you may not know his name,” Uth said. “He wasn’t waiting on a resurgence or a vote of a convention. He has been quietly leading his church … and doing the Great Commission.”
Wright started Johnson Ferry 28 years ago and has been the church’s only pastor. The congregation routinely leads Southern Baptist churches in giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. Johnson Ferry plans to give 3.5 percent of its undesignated receipts — more than $600,000 — to the Cooperative Program this year.
Regarding the relatively low percentage to the SBC’s unified budget, Wright said because his congregation is so missions-minded, key leaders of the church questioned why so much of the Cooperative Program stays in the United States.
“We had a stewardship issue and had to make a decision,” Wright said during a news conference following his election June 15. “We wanted the majority of the money to wind up on the missions field where the witness for Christ is not as prevalent” as in the United States.
“I don’t plan to encourage churches to bypass CP,” Wright said. “I do think we need to reprioritize the CP as far as where the funding goes…. More people would be more passionate about the CP if that would happen.”
Wright acknowledged the autonomy of the state conventions, but he also noted, “I would encourage state conventions to move … [toward a] 50–50 [split of CP dollars between statewide and national causes]. We could do such a greater work.
“I feel there will need to be more funding for NAMB [the SBC's North American Mission Board] and the seminaries. They are vastly underfunded,” he said.
“We are at a crossroads…. Some major changes are going to have to occur,” Wright added. “I would like to see all kinds of practical implementations that will have to occur in moving the convention in the direction it is going to have to go. A lot will have to be done.”
He will replace a fellow Atlanta-area mega-pastor, Johnny Hunt of
First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., who completed his second
consecutive one-year term and was ineligible for re-election.
In the first vice president’s race, Ron Herrod, president of the
Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists, was elected 1,653 to 1,117
over Jim Drake, pastor of Brushfork Baptist Church in Bluefield, W. Va.
Eric Moffett, pastor of First Baptist Church in Sparkman, Ark., was elected second vice president 706 to 689 over Jim Goforth, pastor of New Life Baptist Church, Forsyth, Mo. Moffett and Goforth received 66.69 percent of the vote out of a field of four candidates on the first ballot.
In the initial second-vice-presidential vote, Moffett received 436 votes while Goforth received 423 votes. Ray Newman, ethics and religious affairs specialist for the Georgia Baptist Convention, received 245 votes, and John Copeland, pastor of First Baptist Church in Fulton, Ala., received 171 votes.
Two officers were re-elected — John Yeats, director of communication for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, as recording secretary and Jim Wills, director of missions of Tri County Baptist Association in Nixa, Mo., as registration secretary.
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Jennifer Davis Rash is managing editor of The Alabama Baptist.