NASHVILLE (BP) – The announced candidates for the 2023 SBC officer elections indicate all of the candidates will be running unopposed at next week’s annual meeting, except in the office of president.
So far, the two known candidates to be nominated for president are current SBC President and Texas pastor Bart Barber and former SBC Executive Committee Chairman and Georgia pastor Mike Stone.
Barber will be nominated by Louisiana pastor Steve James and Stone will be nominated by Florida pastor Willy Rice.
First Vice President
Fred Luter, former SBC president and pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist, announced Feb. 14 that he intends to nominate fellow New Orleans pastor Jay Adkins for first vice president. Adkins pastors First Baptist Westwego on the west bank of the city.
Adkins is the chair of the local encouragement team for the 2023 Annual Meeting in New Orleans. He has previously served on both the tellers committee and the committee on nominations.
Second Vice President
Texas pastor Kason Branch will be nominated by fellow Texas pastor Michael Criner for Second Vice President.
Branch serves as senior pastor at Creekstone Church in North Richland Hills. He served on the 2022 SBC Committee on Committees and is a part-time church planting catalyst for Send Network SBTC covering the Fort Worth region.
SBC Recording Secretary
North Greenville University provost and current SBC Recording Secretary Nathan Finn will be re-nominated for the position by Florida pastor Dean Inserra.
In addition to his service as recording secretary this year, Finn served on the 2021 Committee on Resolutions, the Historical Committee for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, and as a member of the board of directors of the Biblical Recorder for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
SBC Registration Secretary
Missouri pastor Don Currence will be nominated for registration secretary by Missouri pastor Jon Nelson. Currence is the administrative pastor at FBC Ozark, Mo. He was elected mayor of Ozark, a town of 20,000 in Southwest Missouri near Branson, in April.
Currence served the last three Annual Meetings as registration secretary—2018, 2019 and 2021. Before being elected to the role, Currence had assisted longtime registration secretary Jim Wells for 12 years.
2024 SBC Pastors’ Conference President
Oklahoma pastor Stephen Rummage will be nominated at to be the 2024 Pastors’ Conference president by Tennessee pastor Adam Dooley. Rummage currently serves as the senior pastor of Quail Springs Baptist Church in Oklahoma City and as an adjunct professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Timothy Cockes is a Baptist Press staff writer.)
