Atlanta-area pastor Bryant Wright was elected to a second term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, defeating California pastor Wiley Drake by a vote of 2,274-102 June 14 at the SBC annual meeting in Phoenix.
Wright, pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, was nominated to a second term by David Platt, senior pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala. Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., nominated himself.
Of the 2,384 votes cast, Wright received 95.39 percent; Drake received 4.26 percent.
In nominating the SBC president for a second term, Platt said Wright “possesses a deep passion for Christ and a deep love for the local church and a deep respect for this convention of churches that he’s a part of.”
During the past year as SBC president, Platt said Wright “has graciously and faithfully served Southern Baptist churches, encouraging us to work alongside one another in the advancement of [the] kingdom of Christ and the accomplishment of the Great Commission.”
Platt recounted when he had traveled with Wright to the Middle East two weeks earlier and saw him “come beside pastors and IMB missionaries, caring for them, praying for them, weeping with them, standing beside them.”
“Amidst all of our talk about the Great Commission, this is a brother who is doing it. He pastors a church full of people who are passionate about spreading the gospel both locally and globally. This is not an ‘either or’ for them. This is a ‘both and.’
“The people of Johnson Ferry are active in sharing Christ all across Atlanta, baptizing hundreds of new believers this last year, ministering to urgent spiritual and physical need all across their community. And then they are directly involved in ministries to more than 30 different countries around the world.”
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