Today it was announced that J.D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in the Durham, North Carolina area, will be nominated by Jimmy Scroggins, pastor of Family Church in West Palm Beach, FL, to be considered for the position of Southern Baptist Convention President at this summer’s Annual Meeting in St. Louis. Greear is the first nominee for the position currently held by Dr. Ronnie Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas. Coincidentally, it was Greear who nominated Floyd for his second term last year in Columbus, OH.
SBC This Week will attempt to bring you interviews with Greear and anyone else nominated for national office over the next few months. Stay tuned to the podcast for those interviews in the weeks leading up to the annual meeting this June in St. Louis.
A full bio as well as related information about The Summit Church and SBC documentation about the office of the president is included below for reference.
About J.D. Greear
J.D. Greear is the pastor of The Summit Church, in Raleigh-Durham, NC and author of Gaining by Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches That Send (2015), Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary (2011), Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart: How to Know for Sure You Are Saved (2013), and Jesus, Continued…: Why the Spirit Inside You Is Better Than Jesus Beside You (2014). Two main things characterize The Summit Church: its gospel focus and sending culture. The gospel is not merely the diving board off of which we jump into the pool of Christianity, it’s also the pool itself. Joy, reckless generosity, and audacious faith all come by learning more about God’s extravagant love found in Christ.
God has blessed The Summit Church with tremendous growth. Under J.D.’s leadership, the Summit has grown from a plateaued church of 300 to one of nearly 10,000, making it one of Outreach magazine’s “top 25 fastest-growing churches in America” for many years running.
J.D. has also led the Summit to further the kingdom of God by pursuing a bold vision to plant one thousand new churches by the year 2050. In the last ten years, the church has sent out more than 650 people to live on church planting teams, both domestically and internationally. J.D. completed his Ph.D. in Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary where he is also a faculty member, writing on the correlations between early church presentations of the gospel and Islamic theology. having lived and served with the SBC’s International Mission Board among Muslims, he has a burden to see them, as well as every nation on earth, come to know and love the salvation of God in Christ.
He and his wife Veronica live in Raleigh and are raising four ridiculously cute kids: Kharis, Alethia, Ryah, and Adon.
The Summit Church
- Under the leadership of Pastor J.D., average weekly attendance at The Summit Church has grown from 350 in 2002 to just under 10,000 in 2016.
- The Summit Church has sent out 149 people through IMB; 75% of those are located in 10/40 window.
Over last 5 years,The Summit Church has planted 25 domestic churches in partnership with NAMB, all Southern Baptist (including 5 that we recruited to SBC). Of those churches, 15 have been sent out of the RDU congregation along with 325 church members. - This year, The Summit Church will plant 7 more churches—all in SEND cities.
- The Summit Church baptized 928 people in 2014, according the ACP data.
- Nearly 20% of the attendees in English-speaking services at The Summit Church are non-anglo, a dramatic increase from 5 years ago.
- Half of the campus pastors at The Summit Church are non-anglo.
- More than 100 of members have moved into lower-income neighborhoods as part of The Summit Church’s DWELL initiative to evangelize and plant churches in under-resourced communities.
SBC Bylaws Regarding Election of Officers and Voting
- The president, the first and second vice presidents, and the secretaries shall be elected at the Convention, their terms of office to begin at the final adjournment.
- Election of officers shall be by ballot, provided however that if there is only one (1) nomination, and no other person desires to nominate, the secretary or anyone designated for the purpose may cast the ballot of the Convention. If an officer does not receive a majority of votes cast on the first ballot, subsequent ballots shall carry the names of those who are included in the top 50 percent of the total votes cast in the previous ballot.
- Nominating speeches for officers of the Convention shall be limited to one (1) address of not more than three (3) minutes for each nominee.
- The president, in consultation with the registration secretary, shall appoint tellers. The tabulation of any vote by the tellers or otherwise (such as by electronic means) shall be under the supervision of the registration secretary. The president or registration secretary shall announce election and voting results to the Convention as soon as practicable.
- Any materials, instructions, and/or devices necessary to vote shall be made available to the messengers.
- No proxy voting is permitted. All propositions, decisions, and choices shall be by a majority vote of the messengers present and voting in person, except where provisions have been made for a greater than majority vote. Except for officer elections, votes may be taken by ballot, by voice, by rising, by show of hands, by common consent, or by some other acceptable method. “Ballot” shall include electronic voting that protects the integrity of the voting process and provides for messengers’ votes to remain confidential.
SBC Constitution, Article V. Officers:
- The officers of the Convention shall be a president, a first and a second vice president, a recording secretary, a registration secretary, and a treasurer.
- The officers shall be elected annually and shall hold office until their successors are elected and qualified. The term of office for the president is limited to two (2) years, and a president shall not be eligible for re-election until as much as one (1) year has elapsed from the time a successor is named. The first vice president shall be voted upon and elected after the election of the president has taken place; and the second vice president shall be voted upon and elected after the election of the first vice president has taken place.
- The president shall be a member of the several boards and of the Executive Committee.
- The treasurer of the Executive Committee shall be the treasurer of the Convention.
- In case of death or disability of the president, the vice presidents shall automatically succeed to the office of president in the order of their election.
Duties of the President of the SBC
- Credentials Committee: The president of the Convention, in consultation with the vice presidents, shall appoint, at least thirty (30) days before the annual session, a Credentials Committee to serve at the forthcoming sessions of the Convention. This committee shall review and rule upon any questions which may arise in registration concerning the credentials of messengers. Any such ruling may be appealed to the Convention during business session. Any contention arising on the floor concerning seating of messengers shall be referred to the committee for consideration and the committee shall report back to the Convention.
- Parliamentary Authority and Parliamentarians: The parliamentary authority of the Southern Baptist Convention shall be Robert’s Rules of Order (latest revised edition). The Convention president, in conference with the vice presidents, shall select a chief parliamentarian and assistant parliamentarians, as necessary, to advise the presiding officers of the Convention on matters of parliamentary procedure. The chief parliamentarian shall be a person of experience and knowledge, sufficient to qualify him or her to serve as parliamentarian to the Southern Baptist Convention, and he or she shall be certified by the American Institute of Parliamentarians and/or the National Association of Parliamentarians. It shall be the responsibility of the president and treasurer of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention to sign, on behalf of the Executive Committee, any contracts or letters of agreement related to the services of the chief parliamentarian.
- Committee on Committees: A Committee on Committees, composed of two (2) members from each qualified state and the District of Columbia, shall be appointed by the president, in conference with the vice presidents, of whom one (1) shall be designated as chairperson. Persons named to the Committee on Committees shall have been resident members for at least three (3) years of Southern Baptist churches either geographically within the states or affiliated with the conventions of the states from which they are appointed. Members so named shall be notified by the president in writing, at least 45 days before the meeting of the Convention. Their names shall be released by the president to Baptist Press no later than 45 days prior to the annual meeting of the Convention, and their names shall be published in the first issue of the Convention Bulletin. The president may fill any vacancies on the committee when those originally named do not attend the Convention. This committee shall nominate all special committees authorized during the sessions of the Convention not otherwise provided for. All special Convention committees shall transfer, upon their discharge, all official files to the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention.
- Committee on Resolutions: At least seventy-five (75) days in advance of the Convention, the president, in conference with the vice presidents, shall appoint a Committee on Resolutions to consist of ten (10) members, any two (2) of whom shall have served as Committee on Resolutions members during the prior year, and any three (3) of whom shall be members of the Executive Committee. One of the Committee members shall be designated as chairperson. Members so named shall be notified by the president in writing at least 75 days before the annual meeting of the Convention. The names of the members of the Committee on Resolutions shall be released by the president to Baptist Press no later than 75 days prior to the annual meeting of the Convention, and their names shall be published in the first issue of the Convention Bulletin.
