Messengers to the 205th Annual Meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention voted to sell their two retirement communities and elected a Taylors pastor to serve as president-elect.
Attendance at the Nov. 10–11 annual meeting, held at Taylors First Baptist Church, tallied 834 messengers and 84 guests, surpassing last year’s count of 774 in Columbia.
The proposal regarding the future of South Carolina Baptist Ministries of the Aging has been the result of 24 months of research advisement, prospective solutions, financial forecasting, legal consultations, relationship management, and strategic planning, S.C. Baptists Executive Director-Treasurer Tony Wolfe told the messengers.
“This proposal would not have been brought before you if executive leadership, SCBMA leadership, … and the (SCBC) Executive Board did not feel that this is the Lord’s will,” Wolfe said. “We sincerely believe that this is the best course of action for all of our commitments to current residents and to future ministry,” he added.
“Like you, SCBMA trustees and I love the people who live and serve at Bethea and Martha Franks,” SCBMA Executive Director Tom Turner affirmed prior to the balloting. “And this decision is one we believe will sustain the communities’ missions into the future.”
After 20 minutes of fervent discussion, with some objecting to the short time to consider the motion and a lack of information regarding potential buyers, a call for division brought a 554–114 ballot vote to sell Bethea and Martha Franks retirement communities.
Bethea in Darlington, named after Dr. Percy Bethea, opened in 1960, and Martha Franks in Laurens, named for a missionary to China, began after an estate donation in 1985.
In subsequent action, messengers approved a proposal by the SCBC Executive Board to broaden the South Carolina Baptist Ministries of Aging’s ministry assignment to develop a future statewide senior adult ministry model.
(For more on the SCBMA decision, see separate story on our website, www.baptistcourier.com.)
Elections
The 2026 president-elect, Cory Horton, pastor of Brushy Creek Baptist Church in Taylors, was elected by acclamation. Horton was nominated by Daniel Dickard, senior pastor of Shandon Baptist Church in Columbia and a former SBC Pastors’ Conference president.
Dickard noted that Horton has served as moderator of the Greenville Baptist Association and on the Southern Baptist Convention’s Committee on Committees.
“South Carolina Baptists need leaders who embody both conviction and cooperation. Dr. Horton is such a leader — a faithful pastor, a trusted ministry partner, and a good friend to many,” Dickard said. “His life and ministry testify to his love for Christ, his church and our shared mission.”
On a humorous note, Dickard concluded by kiddingly saying the only downside to Cory was that his brother is D.J. Horton, pastor of Church at the Mill in Spartanburg, after which D.J. quickly rose to make a point of order, bringing a hearty round of laughter.
Other officers elected by unanimous consent to serve with incoming president Ryan Pack include Marty Middleton, pastor of Fort Johnson Baptist Church in Charleston, registration secretary; and Carey Caldwell, pastor of Bellview Baptist Church in Woodruff, vice president.
Timothy Challenge
In his report, Wolfe announced the launch of “Generation Timothy” – a two- to three-year strategy to assist South Carolina churches in raising up, calling out, training, and sending pastors into pastor-less churches.
“For the last 19 months, our leadership team has prayed and strategized to rise to the occasion of what we sincerely believe is one of the greatest threats to the continued advancement of the gospel in our generation: the shortage of called, qualified, and capable pastors and elders,” Wolfe said.
“If every cooperating church (in S.C.) raised up and released just one additional pastor in the next two years, the pastor shortage in the entire Southeast could be solved,” Wolfe said. He asked messengers to pray expectantly, give sacrificially and send joyfully to support the effort.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Pack, the 2026 convention president and pastor of Riverland Hills Baptist Church in Irmo, site of next November’s annual meeting, announced its theme: “One.”
“We are supposed to be unified as one,” Pack explained, citing John 17:23. “I want us to rally around our oneness” by focusing on one gospel, one family and one family, he said.
Pack then challenged SCBaptists: “What would happen if every church reaches one more person with the gospel? What would happen if 600,000 South Carolina Baptists had one more gospel conversation? What would happen if we planted one more church? What would happen if every church saw one more person called out to ministry?”