After 30 months without a permanent leader, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee could be on the brink of hiring a president.
California seminary president Jeff Iorg, 65, has been nominated for the post by a search committee that has had three failed nominations in the past. Iorg is a known quantity in the SBC, although Gateway Seminary is perhaps the least-known of the six SBC seminaries.
The search committee will present Iorg to Executive Committee trustees at a called meeting near DFW International Airport March 21. If elected, he would succeed Ronnie Floyd, who resigned in October 2021.
“Jeff Iorg is who we have been praying for,” said search committee chairman Neal Hughes of Montgomery, Ala., who said Iorg’s “calm demeanor, communication skills, executive administrative ability and thorough knowledge of Southern Baptist life will be a God-send to the SBC.”
Iorg will walk into an agency struggling to survive due to both financial constraints and the desire of other SBC agency heads to eliminate the coordinating and oversight group. The Executive Committee has taken the brunt of the fallout over allegations of mishandled knowledge of sexual abuse in SBC churches.
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.
There, he presided over the small school’s transformation from being known as Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, a school with a physical campus in Mill Valley, Calif., near the Golden Gate Bridge, to becoming an online campus based in Ontario, Calif.
Baptist Press quoted numerous denominational leaders praising Iorg and his administrative abilities.
“He combines character with great ability and incredible commitment to the SBC and its churches. He is exactly what we need as president of the Executive Committee at this historic moment,” said fellow seminary president Al Mohler.
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