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Travis Kerns has been elected as recording secretary of the Southern Baptist Convention, according to election results announced Wednesday morning (June 10). Kerns won in a runoff with a vote of 2,966 (51.76%) against Texas pastor George Schroeder, who drew 2,758 (48.14%). Denny Burk, a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, nominated Kerns, who is a South Carolina associational mission strategist for the Three Rivers Baptist Association in Taylors and a member of Greer First Baptist Church. The other candidate for recording secretary was Jonathan Greer, pastor of Franklin Creek Baptist Church in Moss Point, Mississippi, also was nominated.
SBC president
On Tuesday, Florida pastor Willy Rice was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Rice, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, Florida, won with 5,217 votes (57.56%) against Josh Powell, pastor of Taylors First Baptist Church, Taylors, South Carolina, who received 3,821 votes (42.16%). Rice was nominated by Adrian Taylor, pastor of Springhill Church in Gainesville, Florida.
Before coming to Calvary, Rice, 62, served as pastor of churches in Florida and Alabama. He is a graduate of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and has an M.Div. and a D.Min. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Cheryl, have three children and six grandchildren.
Rice served as president of the Florida Baptist Convention from 2006–2008, and he served as president of the SBC Pastors Conference in 2015. He has also served as chairman of the SBC Committee on Committees (2010), chairman of the SBC Committee on Nominations (2016), president of the Florida Baptist Convention Pastors Conference (2004), along with other local, state and national positions.
Rice also served as a trustee for the North American Mission Board from 2018–2022, including stints as second and first vice chairman.
In his own words
Weeks before the annual meeting, Rice shared why he allowed his name to placed in nomination for SBC president.
“I feel like we are at a strategic and pivotal moment in SBC life,” he noted. “So many people are troubled by what they have seen and felt over the last decade. They feel a familiar drift taking place.
“We need a renewal in Baptist life that emphasizes convictional clarity, denominational accountability and missional intentionality,” he said. “We don’t need a cheerleader or a cynic, but we do need someone who will tell us the truth about the current situation and listen to concerned voices.”
He added the SBC needs leaders who “love our convention enough to call us back toward real doctrinal and missional health. I love our SBC, and as a fourth generation Florida Baptist, I want to be a voice for renewal and reconciliation.”
Asked if he could improve one thing in the SBC as president, Rice said he “obviously” wants the Convention to be “focused and energized by our global mission.”
“However, that isn’t going to happen when we have leaders who seem embarrassed by our people and unwilling to trust grassroot churches and leaders with appropriate information,” he noted. “We need leaders who demonstrate humility and accountability. I think the SBC functions best when it is led by local churches and pastors, not entities and executives. Right now, we need to restore trust with local churches and pastors.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This article was written by The Baptist Paper, with reporting from Baptist Press.
