Cobb pastor leads nation's Baptists

Wright was elevated from the pulpit of a successful metro church to head the largest Protestant organization in the country. It’s a one-year term, traditionally followed by a second.

“I’m still pretty amazed that I was elected,” said Wright.

Amazed, perhaps, but ready. He has the confidence of others and a firm belief in what the convention should do. Wright takes the helm of an organization that has suffered from internal dissension.

Wright, supporters say, will need his considerable leadership skills to focus the convention on what’s important.

And nothing, said Wright, is more important than the Great Commission — spreading the teachings of Jesus. That’s Wright’s goal, and his target is the world.

The proper focus

Wright is 57, a native Atlantan who said he committed his life to Christ at 16 during a Young Life camp in Colorado. He’s young-man lean, with a runner’s body. He works out nearly every morning and wishes he could play more golf. Wright came to Johnson Ferry Baptist in 1981, when the young church met in a doctor’s office. Today, the sprawling church is a landmark on Johnson Ferry Road, its steeple white as an angel’s wing.

Wright also is founder of Right From the Heart Ministries, a radio, TV and Internet ministry that debuted in 1992. His drawly voice, Southern as pan-fried corn bread, is heard on more than 200 radio stations and airs in seven countries. He’s been on CNN, ESPN and Fox News. Each month, people download more than 8,700 sermons from rightfromtheheart.org.

About 7,700 people are members of Johnson Ferry. They attend eight Sunday services that take place at different times in different places. The services vary — a choir in the sanctuary, guitarists and drummers in the activities center — but share the same message: a sermon delivered by the senior pastor. Wright appears in person at one location; his image is beamed to other sites on the church campus. He usually delivers three sermons every Sunday.

On July 4, Wright stood at the lectern in the sanctuary, a white-domed room where 1,500 people can worship. Bunting hung from the balcony. A camera operator followed his movements.

Wright, smiling, shook hands as the faithful left the sanctuary. He’d preached for 35 minutes, pacing the stage with restless energy. Not once did he refer to a note.

‘Clear direction’

The Southern Baptist Convention was born in 1845 in Augusta. Delegates from 165 churches across the South agreed to form a “society for the propagation of the Gospel.”

Today, the convention is based in Nashville and comprises more than 16 million members who worship in more than 42,000 churches across the United States. More than 10,000 missionaries serving locally and abroad count on the convention for support.

Wright becomes the ninth Georgia minister to lead the convention. Only Texas, with 11 presidents, has produced more. He succeeds Johnny Hunt, senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Woodstock. Other Atlanta-area past presidents include Charles Stanley of First Baptist Atlanta and James Merritt, formerly senior pastor at Snellville First Baptist.

Each president brings different strengths to the job. Wright’s friends say he’ll lead the convention with a clear vision.

“He’s extremely focused and disciplined,” said the Rev. Paul Jimenez, a Johnson Ferry teaching pastor who also specializes in global ministries. “He’ll be able to set his sights on his objectives.”

Wright is creative, too. Convention officials asked Wright to organize the 2006 pastors’ conference — traditionally, a lineup of speakers. Not that year. Wright created break-out sessions that allowed smaller groups of ministers to discuss issues facing their churches.

“It was an experience that worked,” said SBC spokesman Roger S. Oldham.

Younger pastors are enthused about the new president, said the Rev. Freddy T. Wyatt. A native of Tennessee, Wyatt, 32, is senior pastor of the Gallery Church in New York City. Gallery Church is a “plant,” sponsored by older, more established churches.

“He’s a model for young guys like myself, someone who has planted a church and stayed with it,” Wyatt said. “I think the direction we’re going in is a clear direction. And I like that direction.”

Growing church

Becky Smith remembers a preacher who spoke plainly when she and her husband, Dr. Gregory B. Smith, were considering joining Johnson Ferry church.

“He told us he did not want to be a puppeteer, behind the scenes and pulling strings,” Smith said. Members, Wright said, should have a role in the growing church.

That was enough for the Smiths. They joined the church in 1999 and stayed eight years, leaving only to be closer to Gregory Smith’s radiology practice in Cumming. While members, Becky Smith said, she went on a church-sponsored missionary trip to Kenya, one of many the church routinely underwrites. She got involved in women’s studies and still drives to the church every Tuesday for evening Bible study.

As the church grew, Smith said, so did she and other church members. Their confidence as Christians matured, grew stronger.

“We knew we had an umbrella of protection because of his leadership,” she said. “At the same time, we knew we were ... responsible, too.”

She thinks Wright will bring the same delegation expertise to the convention. “It’s not by accident that he’s going to have an influence on that assembly.”

Smith paused, choosing the next words carefully. “I hope,” she said, “that he’s a peacemaker.”

‘Influenced by world’

The SBC’s inner turmoils are well-known. Moderate and conservative delegates have fought over who would lead the convention, and in what direction. Southern Baptists also have clashed over such incendiary issues as the inerrancy of the Bible and the role of women in the church.

In 1990, some moderate churches broke away from the SBC and formed the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship over the role of women in the pastorate. Based in Atlanta, the CBF counts about 1,900 churches, including historic, established churches in the metro area, Rome, Augusta and Savannah — onetime SBC churches.

Wright thinks the convention’s turmoils, especially over leadership, are in the past. “I think it’s not nearly as divided as it was,” Wright said.

As president, Wright said, his message will be simple. “Instead of being an influence in the world, we have been influenced by the world,” he said.

What should unify the Baptists, he said, is a commitment to spread the Gospel — in backyards and far-off countries, in churches and street corners. Wright wants to remind the convention to remain true to Jesus while spreading his teachings across the world.

That calls for everyone to participate, Wright said. Teams of believers should fan out across the globe, marching as to war. Baptists should be soldiers.

He thinks of David, the shepherd boy turned king. He was deeply flawed, but “he had a heart for God.”

And Moses. When the burning bush told him to go to Egypt, Moses quailed. But he went, and liberated a nation.

And so it is with Wright. The new president of the Southern Baptist Convention burns with conviction.