Members of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee will vote today at a special meeting in Dallas on the nomination of the Rev. Ronnie Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas, as its new president.
If approved, Floyd said, he will accept the position, resign as pastor of Cross Church and relocate with his wife, Jeana, to Nashville, Tenn., where he will lead the 86-member executive committee. The executive committee handles public relations, financial and fiduciary matters for the convention, which at more than 15 million members is the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States.
Floyd, 63, announced Sunday in a video released through Cross Church that he was approached by the committee in November regarding the nomination and was offered the formal recommendation in late February.
Floyd has served as senior pastor for more than 32 years at Cross Church, which has around 20,000 members, according to spokesman Brian Dunaway, and between 9,000 and 10,000 people who interact with the ministry each week. The vote in Dallas also coincides with the release date of Floyd's latest book, a revised and expanded version of How to Pray: Developing an Intimate Relationship with God.
"While Jeana and I were humbled by the request, we were also overwhelmed with a deep sense that God may be at work to call us away from here after all of these years we have shared together," Floyd said.
Floyd is well-known throughout the Southern Baptist denomination and beyond, having served in many roles for the convention, including two years as a member of the executive committee, from 1995-97; as convention president for two consecutive one-year terms beginning in 2014; and as a president of the pastor's conference at the denomination's annual meeting in 1997. He also has been president of the National Day of Prayer Task Force since 2017.
The announcement comes during a time of transition for the denomination. The executive committee has remained without a leader since Frank Page, its president since 2010, retired last March after admitting to a "morally inappropriate" relationship. LifeWay Christian Resources, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, announced plans a week ago to close of all its 170 brick-and-mortar stores in a shift to online sales and plans to grow its digital resources.
"Ronnie Floyd's passion for prayer and spiritual awakening, combined with his strong support for our cooperative mission, his tireless energy, and his demonstrated commitment to raising up the next generation make him a unique gift to the [convention] at this hour of transition," Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear said in a convention news release.
If confirmed, Floyd will announce his resignation in person Sunday at all 11 services at the church's four campuses.
Arkansas Baptist State Convention Executive Director Sonny Tucker said in an email Monday that Floyd is a visionary who leads with "incredible excellence."
"[Floyd] is an innovator in Arkansas in multi-site church campuses, fueling a growing prayer movement, modeling racial diversity among his staff and church, and investing in local business leaders and the next generation of church leaders," Tucker said. "Despite the demands of leading a large congregation, he continually models being a great husband, father and personal friend."
That commitment to family was something that Cross Church board member Ted Schneider -- one of the five members of the church search committee that brought Floyd on board as senior pastor in 1986 -- noticed early on.
"It probably impressed all of us that he was so great with his family," said Schneider, who noted that Floyd was committed to devoting Fridays to spending with his wife and two sons, who he said were around 4 and 6 years old at the time Floyd became senior pastor of what was then First Baptist Church of Springdale.
"He made it really clear right up front that family was his priority," Schneider said. "God came first, family came second and church came third."
In a Twitter post Sunday, Floyd expressed gratitude from well-wishers during what he described as a "very difficult time."
"The thought of parting from you has been gut-wrenching for Jeana and me," Floyd said in the video to church members. "Words cannot describe it. The sense of loss is undeniable, but the sense of calling at this point is greater. Yet I have told you for years and years, we do not belong to ourselves, to you or to any church, but only to the Lord's will for our future."
Dunaway said he can relate to Floyd's sense of loss.
"I have been in this church since I was a baby," Dunaway said. "It's definitely a sense of loss that he feels ... and just from a [member's] standpoint, I'm like, 'This is my pastor.' So as a longtime church member myself, who grew up under [Floyd's] teaching and now all of a sudden he may be leaving, I feel a deep sense of sadness."
Schneider recalled Floyd's organizational skills and noted that he was one of the only candidates for pastor who didn't try to impress the committee. He said those two aspects pushed the church search committee toward the unanimous vote they'd agreed upon requiring in order to usher in a new senior pastor in 1986.
"We hate to lose [Floyd], but [the Southern Baptist Convention] needs somebody with the qualifications he has," Schneider said.
State Desk on 04/02/2019