Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) President Bryant Wright broke with tradition following his re-election to a second term June 14 as he asked SBC entity leaders Frank Page, Kevin Ezell and Tom Elliff to join him in the customary president’s news conference.
Wright, senior pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga., was elected to a second term as president of the SBC, defeating Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church, Buena Park, Calif., by a vote of 2,274–102 June 14 at the SBC annual meeting in Phoenix.
Wright thanked “the people of the convention who felt led for me to serve in this role another year” and noted that Page as Executive Committee (EC) president, Elliff as International Mission Board president and Ezell as North American Mission Board president all took office within the past year, marking a historic change of leadership in the SBC.
Wright called for unified support of the three colleagues: “As your president, I am asking Southern Baptists to join me in covering these men in prayer and support as we enter a new era of leadership.”
The annual meeting in Phoenix marked an opportunity for renewed focus on unity rooted in “love for the Lord and in carrying out His Great Commission together,” Wright said. “Unity is a byproduct of being in the will of God and on mission together.”
Noting two crucial challenges before the convention — planting churches in unreached North American areas and engaging unreached people groups internationally — Wright called on Baptist Press and state papers to keep those two issues in front of Southern Baptists.
Wright also asked churches to keep their state conventions informed of new church plants and people groups they engage with the gospel, “so we can publish reports about what God has accomplished through our churches as we work together.”
Wright said: “The Spirit of the Lord is moving in a unique way in these days, and we hope Southern Baptists will lead the way in building up the Kingdom of God to fulfill our Great Commission.”
Asked how the four men’s peacemaking personalities would influence Southern Baptists generally, Page replied: “We’re pastors. We’ve learned in church what it takes to get along and what it takes to not get along. And we’re committed to dialoging in the way Christ wants us to. We had enough of church members not doing that, and we’ve seen what happens when disagreements or even differences of opinion or differences of emphasis are dealt with in a Christlike way versus a non-Christlike way. So I hope we are setting examples.”
Other SBC officers elected included Fred Luter Jr., senior pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, New Orleans, La., who was elected first vice president over Rick Ong, a deacon at First Chinese Baptist Church, Phoenix.
Of the 2,012 ballots cast June 14 in Phoenix, Luter received 1,558, or 77 percent, of the votes, while Ong received 441, or 22 percent, of the votes; 13 votes were disallowed.
In 2001, Luter became the first black to preach the SBC convention sermon. He also has served as a SBC second vice president.
Luter, according to some sources, is the first black to be elected as first vice president in the SBC. In 1974, Charles N. King, pastor of Corinthian Baptist Church, Frankfort, Ky., was elected as second vice president at the annual meeting in Philadelphia. He was nominated for first vice president in 1972 but lost in a run-off.
This was the first time a black had been nominated for a top post. In 1994, Gary Frost, then pastor of Rising Star Baptist Church, Youngstown, Ohio, was elected second vice president.
In 1995, Luter was elected to that same post. Several other ethnic leaders have since been elected as first or second vice president.
Virginia pastor Eric Thomas was elected unopposed as second vice president of the convention. Thomas is senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Norfolk, Va.
By acclamation, messengers elected John Yeats, director of communications for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, as SBC recording secretary — a position he has held since 1997 — and Jim Wells, director of missions for the Tri-County Baptist Association in Nixa, Mo., as registration secretary for the ninth year.
In other action, messengers elected David Uth, pastor of First Baptist Church, Orlando, Fla., to preach the convention sermon at the 2012 annual meeting in New Orleans. Kenny Qualls, pastor of First Baptist Church, Arnold, Mo., was elected as the alternate. Mark Cottingham, of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga., was chosen as the 2012 music director, and Michael Adler of Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Vestavia Hills, as alternate. (Compiled from BP stories)
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