The Rev. Johnny Hunt of Woodstock looks over the declining numbers and white hair of those attending the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting and sees a microcosm of his denomination.

"In 1985, with 45,000 messengers [church delegates attending the convention], 36 percent were under 40," Hunt said Wednesday from Indianapolis, the day after Southern Baptists elected him president of the national organization.

Renee Brock/Special (ENLARGE)

In this photo from 2006, Debbie Roberson was one of several hundred people to greet Senior Pastor Johnny Hunt and his wife, Janet, during a reception in his honor at the First Baptist Church of Woodstock. The reception marked his 20th year at the church.

Matt Miller/Baptist Press (ENLARGE)

Johnny Hunt's Woodstock church has defied a Southern Baptist trend, drawing many younger worshippers.

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"Last year, with 10,000 messengers, only 16 percent were under 40," he said.

This year about 7,000 delegates came to the convention.

Recent numbers show a stagnation in denominational membership, falling from 16.3 million in 2006 to 16.27 million last year. That is a warning bell to a group that has defined itself by growth in the face of losses in most denominations.

"The real challenge is, are they going to continue to lose people," said David W. Key, director of Baptist studies at Emory University's Candler School of Theology. "It's going to be a growing problem, and that is the question Johnny Hunt has to answer."

A shrinking and aging membership in the nation's largest Protestant denomination is in contrast to Hunt's First Baptist Church of Woodstock, where the average age is 33 and attendance has been climbing for years. Woodstock's membership had declined to only a few hundred in the mid-80s.

Under Hunt's leadership, the 82-acre campus sees more than 6,000 worshippers come in the doors on any given Sunday. His $54 million sanctuary hosts not only church services, but during the spring, high school graduations for regional schools because it is spacious, has plenty of parking and high-tech big screens on which the proceedings are broadcast.

Gov. Sonny Perdue attends and teaches an occasional Sunday school class.

The governor's office issued a statement Wednesday after Hunt's election.

"I have the utmost confidence that my pastor, Dr. Johnny Hunt, will not only be a great leader for Southern Baptists worldwide, he will demonstrate his love for all people just as our Lord has commanded us to do," the statement read. "... I was not surprised that the love he shows so easily was returned through the votes of Southern Baptists. He is a leader of our faith that I am proud to follow."

Hunt, a member of the Lumbee Indian tribe of North Carolina, talked Wednesday about his election, which returns the Southern Baptist Convention to conservative leadership.

He was elected with about 52 percent of the vote on the first ballot against four competitors. Among the candidates was the Rev. Frank Cox of North Metro First Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, who was Hunt's closest competitor with about 22 percent of the vote.

"Woodstock has been a model for our convention people," Hunt said. "They see the growth and the way we have tried to take care of people. There comes a point when we can say, we can do that on a denominational level."

His church sponsors numerous outreaches into its Cherokee County community beyond the evangelism that has defined Southern Baptists. It has a food pantry, a ministry to burned-out pastors, English classes for immigrants and numerous ways to reach out to young people. In October, the church plans a three-day drive that will include free food and health care for the needy and it will send volunteers in the community to repair homes and clean up public spaces.

Hunt calls the program Loving Loud and wants to inspire the convention with it as well.

He said he plans to bring younger ministers into positions of authority and hopes that will help reinvigorate the convention.

The power of the president is in his sole appointment of a committee that selects convention leaders.

The presidency is a nonpaid position and requires Hunt's involvement in meetings and travel, but he will remain as pastor of Woodstock First Baptist. The term is for one year, but presidents are traditionally elected for two terms.

The election of Hunt is a return to power of the inner circle of politically and theologically conservative Baptists who have held majority control since the 1980s, Key said. The Rev. Frank Page, the outgoing president, was seen as a reformer who tried to move the convention beyond its image as exclusionary based on conservative cultural and theological issues.

The appointments Hunt will make will define whether he plans to hew the party line or open the leadership up to those outside the traditional circle of power, Key said.

Hunt said, "We went through 12 years of conservative resurgence, which I think was wonderful."

But it seems to have sapped the energy of Southern Baptists without leaving them with clear goals for the future, he said.

"I really want to let the younger leaders know I want to hear from them. And if they want to do it different, I want to see how we can give them a part."

— The Associated Press contributed to this article