South Carolina pastor Frank Page has been elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The vote total was announced shortly after 4 p.m. today (June 13).
Messengers to the SBC’s annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C., chose Page over two other candidates, Ronnie Floyd of Springdale, Ark., and Jerry Sutton of Nashville, Tenn.
Frank PagePage received 4,546 votes, or 50.48 percent, of the 9,005 votes cast in the three-person race. Floyd and Sutton split the remaining votes almost evenly, with Floyd receiving 2,247 votes (24.95 percent) and Sutton garnering 2,168 votes (24.08 percent). Forty-four ballots (0.49 percent) were disallowed by the convention’s tellers, according to convention registration secretary Jim Wells, who announced the results from the podium.
SBC president Bobby Welch declared Page the official winner of the election and told messengers that despite Page’s narrow victory, he believed Page would be a convention president who will represent all Southern Baptists.
Page had said the election of the denomination’s next president should be be “primarily about methodology … how we do missions and how we do convention work.”
His candidacy was viewed by many as a referendum on the future of the Cooperative Program. His church, Taylors First Baptist, historically has been a strong supporter of the CP, last year giving $534,000, or 12.2 percent, of undesignated receipts.
By contrast, Floyd’s church, Sprindale First Baptist, contributed $32,000 (0.27 percent of undesignated receipts) and Sutton’s church, Two Rivers Baptist Church, did not contribute through the Cooperative Program, instead directing a combined $183,482 (4.47 percent of undesignated receipts) in gifts to the state and national conventions to support CP missions.
Page has served as pastor of Taylors First Baptist for the past five years.
He grew up in Greensboro, N.C., and graduated from Gardner-Webb University and Southwestern Baptist Seminary, where he earned master of divinity and Ph.D. degrees. He held previous pastorates in Texas, North Carolina and Georgia. His books include “Trouble with the Tulip,” an examination of the five points of Calvinism.
Page served twice on the resolutions committee of the Southern Baptist Convention and is a member of the Executive Board of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
Page, who earned his doctorate at the age of 28, has been an adjunct faculty member at Southwestern, teaching Christian ethics from 1976-80 and personal evangelism from 1987-91. He also was an adjunct faculty member in pastoral ministry at Southeastern Baptist Seminary’s extension center in Augusta, Ga.
He and his wife Dayle have three grown daughters.