PHOENIX -- Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn., was elected to a second term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention at Tuesday's annual meeting.
Gaines was nominated by his son, Grant Gaines, and Convention Secretary John Yeats cast the sole ballot in the uncontested election at the Phoenix Convention Center.
Gaines' re-election came on the opening day of the two-day meeting of the largest Baptist denomination in the world and the largest Protestant organization in the country. The group also adopted a resolution on moral leadership among church, government and business leaders and called for the defunding of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
After his re-election, Gaines called for the appointment of a task force to study ways to increase effectiveness in personal evangelism and evangelistic preaching.
"This past year, I have emphasized prayer everywhere I went," he said. "This year, I'm going to emphasize soul-winning everywhere I go."
Gaines called for Baptists to bring more people to Christ.
"If you'll do things God's way, you'll get God's power," he said.
Gaines also announced a plan to create an "evangelism soul-winning task force" that will look into ways to increase soul-winning, or the bringing of other people to Christ, and evangelistic preaching.
"If we will share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with lost people and the power of the Holy Spirit, not all of them will be saved, but some of them will be saved," Gaines said.
Gaines also spoke about a three-step path that ministry must take. He said people must first minister to the Lord through prayer, the Lord must minister to people with his Holy Spirit, and people must then minister to other people by preaching about the Gospel.
Two vice presidents also were elected Tuesday.
Walter Strickland, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary's adviser to the president, was chosen as vice president for the 2018 Southern Baptist Convention.
Jose Abella, pastor of Providence Road Church in Miami, was elected second vice president.
In other business, North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell moved that Gaines appoint a committee to study the possibility of merging the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board. The Southern Baptist-affiliated organizations both partner with Southern Baptists to facilitate volunteer missions, chaplaincy and creating new churches.
Frank Page, president of the convention's executive committee, reported on the committee's promotion of its cooperative and stewardship programs, the latter of which was the third of three initial aspects of the denomination that Gaines said he would emphasize if he were elected president shortly after his nomination last year.
The Cooperative Program, which was created in 1925 to help fund the Southern Baptist Convention and state convention missions and ministries, also received a gift Tuesday of $3.1 million dollars from the Florida Baptist Convention, which was 51 percent of the proceeds from the sale of a Baptist building in Jacksonville, Fla., that was completed June 7.
"Our prayer is that God will multiply these dollars in taking the good news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth," Tommy Green, executive director of the Florida Baptist Convention, said while presenting the gift.
Among the resolutions adopted by the denomination Tuesday was a statement on moral leadership that urged church, government and business leaders to set a positive example and thanked public officials who "displayed consistent moral character and uncompromising commitment to biblical principles."
The resolution comes on the heels of the U.S. presidential election in which Donald Trump was voted into office, but it avoided pointed criticism of current political officeholders.
The convention is home to prominent evangelical supporters of Trump, but some leaders within the denomination have questioned whether Trump, a casino and real estate mogul who has been married three times, is morally fit for office.
Other resolutions included:
• A statement urging Congress to defund Planned Parenthood immediately and completely of all federal government support because of its role as the leading abortion provider in the country. Citing a series of undercover videos, it also urged the U.S. Department of Justice to pursue criminal charges against the organization related to the handling of fetal tissue.
Planned Parenthood has denounced the videos as deceptive and denies profiting from programs that supply fetal tissue to medical researchers.
• A statement restating the group's long-standing opposition to gambling and discouraging all Southern Baptists from taking part in games of chance.
• A statement recognizing "the tremendous Gospel opportunity on college campuses across America" and moving to strengthen ties and connections with church ministries.
The denomination also rejected a proposal that would have condemned the "alt-right," a political movement that came to the forefront during the presidential election that mixes racism, white nationalism and populism.
The resolution was proposed by a prominent black pastor, the Rev. Dwight McKissic of Arlington, Texas. In a plea from the floor of the national meeting, McKissic tried to persuade participants to take up the statement despite opposition from denomination officials.
Barrett Duke, a Southern Baptist executive who shepherded the statements through the meeting, said the resolution contained inflammatory and broad language that potentially implicated conservatives who do not support the "alt-right" movement.
Information for this article was contributed by staff members of the Associated Press.
State Desk on 06/14/2017