Florida pastor Willy Rice was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention during the June 9 afternoon session of the 2026 SBC annual meeting at the Orange County Convention Center.
Rice, pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, garnered 5,217 votes, or 57.56 percent — while South Carolina pastor Josh Powell, of Taylors First Baptist Church, received 3,821 votes, or 42.16 percent.
Rice was nominated by Adrian Taylor, pastor of Spring Hill Church in Gainesville, Fla.
“The calendar may change, the culture may change, and crowds may change, but God’s Word is still immutable, and it will never change,” Taylor said, adding that Rice would help the Convention move forward. “This is not about protecting the past. It’s about going into the future with faithfulness to the Word of God.”
– Vice Presidents
Last year’s second vice president, Craig Carlisle, was elected the first vice president. He earned 3,514 votes, 47.63 percent of the total, in the first round of a three-way race. Paul Purvis collected 2,026 votes, or 27.46 percent, and Larry Helms, 1,819 votes, or 24.65 percent. In the runoff, Carlisle led with 3,338 votes or 65.92 percent; Purvis ended with 1,719 votes, or 33.95 percent.
Carlisle is associational mission strategist for the Etowah Baptist Association in Gadsden, Ala., and a member of First Baptist Church in Gadsden, Ala.
The second vice president race required a runoff as well, as the totals from the first election were J. Allen Murray with 2,192 votes, or 42.83 percent; Ethan Jago with 2,127 votes, or 41.56 percent; and Austin Rouse with 783 votes, or 15.30 percent. Murray won the runoff receiving 2,342 votes, or 55.38 percent, with Jago receiving 1,876 votes, or 44.36 percent.
Murray is pastor of Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church in Supply, N.C.
– Secretaries
Voting for recording secretary also resulted in a runoff. In the first vote, George Schroeder led with 2,951 votes, or 37.79 percent. Travis Kerns took second with 2,944 votes, or 37.70 percent; and Jonathan Greer trailed with 1,895 votes, or 24.27 percent.
In the runoff, Kerns received 2,966 votes, or 51.76 percent, and Schroeder received 2,758, or 48.13 percent. Kerns, associational mission strategist for Three Rivers Baptist Association in Taylors, S.C., was nominated by Denny Burk, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor and an associate pastor at Kenwood Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.
Current SBC Registration Secretary Don Currence was re-elected by acclamation.
– Pastors’ Conference
Wayne Bray, pastor of Upstate Church, a multi-site church based in Simpsonville, S.C., was elected president of the 2027 Pastors’ Conference, set for next June in Indianapolis. He was nominated by Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla.
— Karen Willoughby is a national correspondent for Baptist Press.