Traylor is third to be nominated for SBC pres

Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church, Pensacola, Fla., will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) at the June 15–16 annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., fellow pastor Ed Litton told the Florida Baptist Witness April 22.

“In this historic moment in Southern Baptist life, God has moved upon my heart to nominate” Traylor, said Litton, pastor of First Baptist Church, North Mobile, in Saraland.

Traylor said he agreed to be nominated “in response to the Lord’s prompting and the encouragement of friends across the SBC.”

A member of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, Traylor said his involvement with the work has been “life changing.”

In November, Traylor will celebrate 20 years as pastor of Olive Baptist. He is a trustee of the North American Mission Board  (NAMB)and is chairman of NAMB’s presidential search team. Among other denominational leadership positions, he has been president of the Florida Baptist State Convention (1995–96), SBC first vice president (2000) and president of the Southern Baptist Pastors Conference (2004).

A native of Pisgah, Traylor served as pastor of two churches in his home state and three in Texas before joining Olive in 1990. Traylor holds degrees from Samford University in Birmingham and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, where he earned both the master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees.

Information from the SBC’s 2009 Annual Church Profile (ACP) for Olive lists 270 baptisms and primary worship service attendance of 3,105. The church gave $731,080, or 10.1 percent, through the Cooperative Program (CP) from total undesignated receipts of $7,213,206. According to the ACP, the church also received $33,264 for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and $10,466 for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions.

In 1989, the year before Traylor became pastor, the church had undesignated receipts of $1,923,165 and contributed $417,320, or 21.7 percent, through the CP.

Traylor is the third nominee to enter the SBC presidential race, joining Bryant Wright, pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga., (who will be nominated by David Uth, pastor of First Baptist Church, Orlando) and Jimmy Jackson, pastor of Whitesburg Baptist Church, Huntsville. (BP)