Southern Baptist Convention President Clint Pressley has been reelected to a second term in office, defeating a last-minute challenge from Protestia publisher David Morrill.
At the SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas, on Tuesday, Pressley won on the first ballot with 5,567 votes or 92.64% of the votes cast. Morrill received 408 votes or 6.79% of the votes cast. Thirty-four ballots were disallowed, constituting 0.57% of the votes cast.
The senior pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church of Charlotte, North Carolina, Pressley was elected last year at the SBC Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, on the second runoff vote.
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Michael Criner, senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Rockwall, Texas, nominated Pressley for reelection, saying that the incumbent “has earned our trust for another year as our president.”
“Clint loves being a Southern Baptist,” Criner said. “This past year, Clint Pressley has represented Southern Baptists so well. His greatest contribution has been the stability he has brought our Convention by championing what makes us great, and not seeking to be the center of attention.”
“He simply went to work, and what a year it’s been. This last year at our Convention, average worship service attendance is up. Average Sunday School attendance is up, baptisms are up. Church plants, 767 of them. We’ve hit a third year in a row of record giving through our Lottie Moon offering, and we just hit a 20-year milestone of missionary pipeline waiting to be commissioned.”
Morrill, who identifies on his X account as an “Evangelical troublemaker,” oversees the theologically conservative online polemics publication Protestia, previously known as Pulpit & Pen.
Pastor Chris Cunningham of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Big Spring, Texas, nominated Morrill, saying he believed the Protestia publisher was “someone who has been known for their dedication to the truth.”
“He is not only a soldier in his professional life, but he is also a soldier for the truth,” said Cunningham. “He has stood up for the truth.”
“It is through him that I have learned the proliferation of all these doctrinal downgrades, whether it being partnering with ‘He Gets Us’ or it be egalitarian in the pastorate. He has exposed these things and much else.”
Cunningham said that he “cannot implore you enough to elect David Morrill,” reiterating that “he is a soldier for the truth, he stands for the truth, he stands in the truth.”
Soon after being nominated, Morrill took to his X account to express gratitude for the nomination, tweeting, “I’m truly humbled to represent the pews in some small way.”
“Honored to have Chris nominate me, and make a kind and supportive speech for the value and importance of discernment among Southern Baptist church members and pastors,” said Morrill.
