South Carolina pastor Josh Powell will be nominated for the position of Southern Baptist Convention president at the 2026 SBC Annual Meeting in Orlando. Powell, a 51-year-old pastor, serves as the lead pastor of Taylors First Baptist Church, a position he has held since 2021.
Among two announced candidates for the SBC presidency, Powell is expected to face off against Florida pastor Willy Rice. Rice, a 62-year-old pastor, has served as the senior pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater for 21 years.
At every SBC annual meeting, convention messengers have elected a president since the convention commenced in 1845. But what are the specific responsibilities and influence associated with the role of convention president?
Probably the most apparent is presiding at the SBC annual meeting. Prior to 1932, the president assumed the role at the beginning of the annual meeting. Since then, the president has assumed the role at the meeting’s conclusion and presided the following year.
Outgoing SBC President Clint Pressley, senior pastor at Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., since 2011, has strong ties to South Carolina. He graduated from Wofford College in Spartanburg and subsequently attended New Orleans Baptist Seminary in Louisiana. His initial ministry experience was at First Baptist Church of Leesville, S.C.
The 65th president of the SBC, Pressley was elected in June 2024 at the annual meeting in Indianapolis. After serving two terms as president, Pressley recognizes the significant responsibilities of the role, particularly in shaping the long-term impact through the appointments of the Committee on Committees and the SBC Resolutions Committee, which voices the collective perspectives of attending messengers.
The 68-member Committee on Committees is responsible for naming members of the Committee on Nominations. The Committee on Nominations, in turn, chooses the members of the Executive Committee and the trustee boards of the North American and International Mission boards, the six seminaries, Lifeway Christian Resources, GuideStone Financial Resources, and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. These nominees are then presented to messengers at the next annual meeting for their approval.
The president also appoints the Credentials Committee, which is tasked with considering questions as to whether a specific church is in “friendly cooperation” with the convention, and he appoints the SBC tellers, who collect ballots during the upcoming annual meeting.
He also serves as a member of the SBC Committee on Order of Business, which plans the next annual meeting, and he is an ex officio member of the boards of the Executive Committee, International Mission Board, North American Mission Board, Lifeway, and GuideStone. Thus, serving as SBC president entails a busy schedule.
“In addition, serving as a champion for the Cooperative Program and the gospel ministries of all our entities is incredibly important,” Pressley added.
For Pressley, however, the most enjoyable part of the role has been attending the IMB’s Sending Celebration, at which new missionaries are sent to share the gospel with the nations. The least enjoyable part, he said, has been monitoring social media, a task with which presidents several decades ago did not have to contend.
The SBC president often is the face of the convention between annual meetings and frequently is called upon to represent the convention to the media and at various denominational and public engagements. As a result, each president’s tenure is often shaped by current events and the president’s perspective.
“I didn’t have to face anything outside the normal responsibilities of the SBC president, and I can’t think of anything I wish I hadn’t had to deal with,” Pressley noted.
Pressley was elected to a second term, but according to SBC bylaws presidents are allowed to serve multiple terms, but no longer may serve three consecutive terms.
“I would gladly serve again, and with equal enthusiasm,” he said. “I am grateful that my tenure is coming to an end,” he added.
While Pressley is a pastor, one does not necessarily have to be a pastor to serve as SBC president. The only official qualification required of convention officers is that they be “members of Baptist churches cooperating with this convention.” Hence, those elected to the office have also included denominational workers, laymen, educational institution heads and political leaders.
Texas has the largest representation of elected SBC presidents with 12, followed by Georgia with 9, and Tennessee with 8.
Four South Carolinians have served as SBC president, including the very first president, William Bullein Johnson, then president of the South Carolina convention, who was elected 1845, 1846, and 1849. James Petigru Boyce, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary when the school was located in Greenville, S.C., was elected in 1872–1879, and later in 1888; and William Joseph McGlothlin, then president of Furman University, was elected 1930–1932.
More recently, Franklin Stuart Page, then senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Taylors, was elected in 2006 and 2007. He is among two others who went on to serve as president of the SBC Executive Committee.
Pressley offers these words of counsel to whomever is elected as the next SBC president: “Work hard, walk with the Lord, and celebrate all that He is doing through Southern Baptists.”
— This article includes data adapted by The Baptist Courier from a 2014 Baptist Press article compiled by Andy Beachum and Rebecca Wolford.