AMARILLO, Texas — The Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) elected its first female president Oct. 29.
Joy Fenner, a former missionary from Garland, Texas, won on a 900–840 vote, defeating David Lowrie, pastor of First Baptist Church, Canyon, Texas.
Fenner, 70, who has served as a church secretary and executive director of the Texas Woman’s Missionary Union, won with the smallest margin of victory in the state convention’s history, according to a BGCT news release.
Fenner’s election follows the convention’s election of its first black president in 2005 and its first Hispanic president the previous year.
BGCT Communications Director Ferrell Foster said Fenner’s gender could have affected the voting.
“Some people believed it was time that we had a woman leader,” he said in an interview from the convention in Amarillo, Texas. “Others were not ready for that step, but there were also other issues. Neither of the candidates made her gender a primary thing in why they were allowing themselves to be nominated.”
Fenner, who was first vice president of the convention before the election, pledged to emphasize increasing missions work by the 2.3 million-member convention.
Some of the more than 5,600 congregations affiliated with the BGCT are also affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, but the state convention has distanced itself from the more conservative denomination in recent years.
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