“I’m tired of having my membership in a convention that’s declining,” he said in a presidential address on the opening day of the Southern Baptists’ annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, on June 15. “Let’s get a compelling vision that people would want to give more money to.”
Taking up that charge will be Bryant Wright, pastor of a church in Marietta, Ga., who beat out three other candidates to succeed Hunt as the SBC’s next president. Wright, 57, also is founder of Right From the Heart Ministries, a broadcast and Internet ministry focused on evangelism.
Hunt’s remarks came as delegates spent more than two hours debating whether to adopt a “Great Commission Resurgence Task Force” report, which was later adopted by a clear majority.
The report noted that the number of teenagers baptized by Southern Baptists dropped from 140,000 in 1970 to 75,000 in 2008.
— Adelle M Banks
