For the first time in two and a half years, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee has a permanent staff leader.
Jeff Iorg, president of Gateway Seminary in California, was unanimously elected president of the Executive Committee March 21 in a called meeting near DFW International Airport in Texas.
His election is notable for several reasons, including the choice of someone from the Western United States. Previous Executive Committee presidents since the body’s formation in 1927 have come from the Deep South. Although born in Georgia and raised in Texas, Iorg has spent the last four decades in California and the Pacific Northwest, where he is deeply respected by Southern Baptists in the West.
He is credited with transforming — and probably saving — the westernmost SBC seminary previously known as Golden Gate Seminary, founded in 1944. The seminary previously owned prime real estate in Mill Valley, Calif., just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
The cost of maintaining that property, plus the cost of living for students and faculty, plus land development challenges, plus the changing nature of theological education caused seminary leaders to rethink their approach. In 2014, Iorg led the sale of that property and a plan to relocate the main campus to Southern California while operating multiple satellite campuses and an online presence.
When approached by the Executive Committee presidential search committee, the 65-year-old already had announced plans to retire from seminary leadership. Now, he faces one of the most daunting jobs within the SBC.
The fact that he got a unanimous vote sets the stage for a level of support not recently seen among Executive Committee trustees. The Executive Committee has been at the center of addressing mishandled knowledge of sexual abuse cases in SBC churches and has spent half its financial reserves in related investigation and legal fees.
Some of Iorg’s colleagues who lead other SBC entities want to see the Executive Committee dissolved and its functions spread out among them.
At the same time, some of Iorg’s colleagues who lead other SBC entities want to see the Executive Committee dissolved and its functions spread out among them. If that plan succeeds, he could be the last president of the nearly 100-year-old entity.
The Executive Committee serves as the legal representation of the SBC between the annual meetings where the SBC meets in session and is guided by decisions of “messengers” from churches. It plays a coordinating function among the agencies and receives and distributes offering funds from churches and state conventions.
Iorg was educated in Southern Baptist schools, beginning at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in Bible, then to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, where he earned a master of divinity degree, followed by a doctor of ministry degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.
He began his ministerial career as a children’s minister before becoming pastor at Green Valley Baptist Church in St. Joseph, Mo. Then he served as founding pastor of Pathway Church in Gresham, Ore. He became executive director of the Northwest Baptist Convention and then was named president at Gateway Seminary in 2004.
The Executive Committee’s most recent president was Ronnie Floyd, who resigned abruptly in 2021 in pr0test of a trustee decision to waive attorney-client privilege in the sexual abuse investigation. He was the seventh president, following Austin Crouch (1927-46), Duke McCall (1946-51), Porter Routh (1951-79), Harold Bennett (1979-92), Morris Chapman (1992-2010), and Frank Page (2010-2018).
Related articles:
Seminary president nominated to lead SBC Executive Committee
Georgia leader withdraws from consideration for SBC Executive Committee presidency
SBC Executive Committee rejects nominee for president
Interim president of SBC Executive Committee resigns, admits to falsifying resume