The Baptist Paper
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church Farmersville, Texas, and active denominational leader, was elected 64th president of the Southern Baptist Convention on June 14 during the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California.
Barber received 3,401 votes on a second runoff ballot, garnering 60.87 percent of the 5,587 total votes cast in the runoff. In a four-way presidential bid that included Florida Baptist pastor Tom Ascol, senior professor of missions at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Robin Hadaway and pastor of Georgia’s North Metro Baptist Church, Frank Cox, Barber and Ascol claimed the top two spots for the runoff. Ascol received 2,172 votes for 38.88 percent of the votes in the runoff. At the time of the presidential runoff election, 8,098 messengers were registered.
On the first ballot, Barber received 3,258 (47.58 percent) of the 6,847 votes cast. Ascol received 2,332 (34.06 percent) votes, Cox received 887 (12.95 percent) votes and Hadaway received 340 (4.97 percent) votes. At the time of the first ballot for the presidential election, 8.095 messengers were registered.
‘Encouragement of others’
In announcing his intention to nominate Barber as SBC president, 2022 SBC Pastors Conference president Matt Henslee said, “Barber is what Southern Baptists are when they are at their best,” referencing FBC Farmersville’s support of the Cooperative Program and direct support of missionaries and church planters as well as Barber’s personal involvement in the local Baptist association, state convention and denomination.
Although Barber said he had “rebuffed the encouragement of others to accept the nomination” for several years, he “relented” this year … “accepting the possibility that God might want me to help improve the health of the convention while holding an official position for a while.”
Acknowledging numerous challenges facing the SBC, Barber believes that today’s challenges “pale in comparison to those faced by our forefathers,” who were often martyred for their faith. He wants to call Southern Baptists “to lean into our historical doctrinal commitments. … I believe when all of these challenges have passed, we will still be standing.”
What about the SATF report?
In response to the May 22 report of the Sexual Abuse Task Force, Barber wrote in his blog that the report “demonstrates very well that these bad decisions (deliberate mishandling of abuse allegations) arose out of a fundamental misunderstanding of the distinctive Baptist belief in the autonomy of the local church.”
He concluded, “Sometimes our assertions of local church autonomy have seemed insincere to the people on the receiving end of them. Do we want people to take seriously what we say about local church autonomy? Then we should demonstrate with actions our commitment to love them to the fullest extent and seek justice for them to the fullest extent that we can achieve within our beliefs.”
More about Barber
Barber, who has served FBC Farmersville since 1999, joins a long list of pastors who have served in the SBC president’s role in recent years. The past 11 SBC presidents served as pastors, primarily of megachurches in the South, during their term of service. Almost a quarter century ago, the most recent SBC president who was not serving as a pastor during his tenure was Paige Patterson, SBC president in 1998 and 1999, while he was serving as president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. The most recent Texas Baptist pastor to serve as SBC president was Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano (2004, 2005).
In addition to his pastoral role, Barber, 52, chaired this year’s SBC Committee on Resolutions. The native of Lake City, Arkansas, preached at the SBC Pastors Conference in 2017, served as SBC first vice president (2013–2014), and served on the SBC Committee on Committees in 2008. Additionally, he served on the executive board of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (2008–2014) and as a trustee of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas (2009–2019), where he also taught as an adjunct professor (2006–2009). He also is involved with Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. B&R