President of the Southern Baptist Convention

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention heads the convention and is elected at the annual meeting. The president's duties include presiding over the annual meeting; appointing members to SBC committees; serving as an ex officio member of the board of SBC entities including the International Mission Board, the North American Mission Board, and Lifeway Christian Resources; and representing the SBC to other Baptist denominations and to the press.^[1]

Although the SBC Bylaws do not specifically state that only a male may be elected as president, no female has ever served as such (the majority of presidents have been pastors of churches, which according to the Baptist Faith and Message, the office of pastor is limited to men only). Any person may be nominated and there is no requirement that a candidate announce their intent to run prior to the annual meeting (during the 2022 Annual Meeting, three candidates announced their intent to run, and a fourth candidate was nominated at the annual meeting). If only one candidate is nominated, the secretary of the SBC (or any designee) may cast the ballot. If three or more candidates are nominated, and no candidate receives a majority on the first ballot, subsequent ballots shall carry all candidates in the top 50 percent of the prior ballot. Proxy voting is not allowed.

Under SBC Bylaws, the term is for one year, and a candidate can serve a maximum of two consecutive terms, after which he must sit out a year before standing for re-election.^[2] Prior to the current bylaws, presidents could serve more than two terms and frequently did: P.H. Mell served a total of 16 years (over two terms spanning eight years each), the most of any president. The service year overlaps with two calendar years as the annual meeting is held in June, and the term starts upon completion of the annual meeting (thus, at the annual meeting, the incumbent president serves until the annual meeting concludes, after which the elected president—whether incumbent or new—will begin his term).

Since the advent of the current bylaws, the custom has been for the president to serve two consecutive terms, but not run again after the one-year stand-down period; however, it is not uncommon for a president to serve only one term and then step down and not run again. But, two persons have served as president for more than the customary two terms since that time:

Adrian Rogers served as president for a single term in 1979–1980 and then again for two consecutive terms in 1987–1988 and 1988–1989.
When the 2020 Annual Meeting was cancelled for the first time in 75 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, incumbent president J.D. Greear's term was extended to a third year despite the normal term limit, since his replacement could not be elected until the next meeting.^[3]

List

No.	President	Years in Office	State
1	William Bullein Johnson	1845–1851	South Carolina
2	R. B. C. Howell^[4]	1851–1859	Virginia and Tennessee
3	Richard Fuller	1859–1863	South Carolina
4	Patrick H. Mell	1863–1871	Georgia
5	James P. Boyce	1872–1879	South Carolina and Kentucky
6	Patrick H. Mell	1880–1887	Georgia
7	James P. Boyce	1888	Kentucky
8	Jonathan Haralson	1889–1898	Alabama
9	William J. Northen	1899–1901	Georgia
10	James Philip Eagle	1902–1904	Arkansas
11	Edwin William Stephens	1905–1907	Missouri
12	Joshua Levering	1908–1910	Maryland
13	Edwin C. Dargan	1911–1913	Georgia
14	Lansing Burrows	1914–1916	Georgia
15	James Bruton Gambrell	1917–1920	Texas
16	Edgar Young Mullins	1921–1923	Kentucky
17	George W. McDaniel	1924–1926	Virginia
18	George W. Truett	1927–1929	Texas
19	W. J. McGlothin	1930–1932	South Carolina
20	F. F. Brown	1933	Tennessee
21	Monroe E. Dodd	1934–1935	Louisiana
22	John R. Sampey	1936–1938	Kentucky
23	Lee Rutland Scarborough	1939–1940	Texas
24	W. W. Hamilton	1941–1942	Louisiana
25	Pat Morris Neff	1944–1946	Texas
26	Louie D. Newton	1947–1948	Georgia
27	Robert G. Lee	1949–1951	Tennessee
28	J. D. Grey	1952–1953	Louisiana
29	J. W. Storer	1954–1955	Oklahoma
30	C. C. Warren	1956–1957	North Carolina
31	Brooks Hays	1958–1959	Arkansas
32	Ramsey Pollard	1960–1961	Tennessee
33	Herschel H. Hobbs	1962–1963	Oklahoma
34	K. Owen White	1964	Texas
35	W. Wayne Dehoney	1965–1966	Tennessee
36	H. Franklin Paschall	1967–1968	Tennessee
37	W. A. Criswell	1969–1970	Texas
38	Carl Bates	1971–1972	North Carolina
39	Lawrence Owen Cooper	1973–1974	Mississippi
40	Jaroy Weber	1975–1976	Alabama
41	James L. Sullivan	1976–1977	Tennessee
42	Jimmy Allen	1977–1978	Texas
43	Adrian Rogers ^[5]	1979–1980	Tennessee
44	Bailey Smith	1980–1982	Oklahoma
45	James T. Draper Jr.	1982–1984	Texas
46	Charles Stanley	1984–1986	Georgia
47	Adrian Rogers	1986–1988	Tennessee
48	Jerry Vines	1988–1990	Florida
49	Morris Chapman	1990–1992	Texas
50	Homer Edwin Young	1992–1994	Texas
51	Jim Henry	1994–1996	Florida
52	Tom Elliff	1996–1998	Oklahoma
53	Paige Patterson	1998–2000	Texas
54	James Merritt	2000–2002	Georgia
55	Jack Graham	2002–2004	Texas
56	Bobby Welch	2004-2006	Florida
57	Frank S. Page	2006–2008	South Carolina
58	Johnny M. Hunt	2008–2010	Georgia
59	Bryant Wright	2010–2012	Georgia
60	Fred Luter^[1]	2012–2014	Louisiana
61	Ronnie Floyd^[6]	2014–2016	Arkansas
62	Steve Gaines^[7]	2016–2018	Tennessee
63	J. D. Greear^[8]	2018–2021	North Carolina
64	Ed Litton^[9]	2021–2022	Alabama
65	Bart Barber^[10]	2022–2024	Texas
66	Clint Pressley^[11]	2024–present	North Carolina