Welch wins contested presidential election_62804

Posted: 6/25/04

Welch wins contested presidential election

By Marv Knox

Editor

INDIANAPOLIS–Bobby Welch, a Florida pastor known for his evangelistic zeal, won the first contested Southern Baptist Convention presidential election in a decade.

He defeated North Carolina pastor Al Jarrell, 3,997 to 1,020, or 79.6 percent to 20.4 percent.

Welch, pastor of First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., succeeds Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, who completed his second one-year term at the Indianapolis meeting and was ineligible for re-election.

New SBC President Bobby Welch

Welch, 61, gained SBC fame as a founder of the FAITH program, which incorporates an evangelistic emphasis into Sunday school.

He arrived in Indianapolis as the only announced candidate for the SBC's top position. Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., announced Welch's candidacy prior to the meeting and nominated him.

But in a change from recent precedent, Welch faced a challenger. Jarrell, pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Merry Hill, N.C., was nominated by Dennis Conner, pastor of Cashie Baptist Church in Windsor, N.C.

“I am under no illusion Rev. Jarrell may be elected,” Conner said of his fellow pastor. But he decided to nominate Jarrell, Conner explained, because during the past nine years, he has become concerned that the SBC's leadership is “growing further and further and further away from the grassroots of this great convention.”

During the 1980s, SBC presidential elections were hotly contested, as fundamentalists repeatedly defeated moderates for the office. They used the president's powers to control the procedure for nominating trustees of convention agencies and institutions. Over the course of a decade of unbroken victories, fundamentalists consolidated their power.

After the vote in 1990–in which fundamentalist Morris Chapman, who went on to become president of the SBC Executive Committee, defeated moderate Daniel Vestal, who went on to become the top administrator for the competing Cooperative Baptist Fellowship–moderates stopped fielding a candidate for the presidency.

In 1992, the next year an incumbent was not eligible for re-election, three conservative candidates vied for the presidency. And two years later, two candidates competed. But since 1994, all elections have been decided with only one candidate.

Messengers elected Gerald Davidson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Arnold, Mo., as first vice president in an uncontested vote. Davidson is a longtime leader in the Missouri Baptist Convention and has served as that state convention's president.

The convention's new second vice president is David Hwan Gill, pastor of Concord Korean Baptist Church in Martinez, Calif. He also is president of the Council of Korean Southern Baptist Churches in North America and first vice president of the California Southern Baptist Convention.

Gill defeated Mark Hearn, pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Indianapolis and a former vice president of the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana, in a runoff. John Hays, pastor of Jersey Baptist Church in the Columbus, Ohio, area and a former president of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio, was eliminated in the first vote for the office.

Both convention secretaries were re-elected without opposition. John Yeats, editor of the Baptist Messenger, newspaper of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, was elected recording secretary. He is a member of Council Road Baptist Church in Bethany, Okla.

Jim Wells, director of missions for Tri-County Baptist Association in southern Missouri, is registration secretary. He is a member of First Baptist Church in Ozark, Mo.

Ken Whitten, pastor of Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa, Fla., was elected to preach next year's convention sermon, and Terry Fox, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, Kan., was chosen as his backup.

Buster Pray, associate pastor of worship ministries at First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., was elected music director.