By Staff, The Baptist Paper DALLAS (The Baptist Paper) - Jeff Iorg, retiring president of Gateway Seminary, was elected as the next Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee president/CEO during a special-called trustee meeting in Dallas, March 21. Iorg transitions to the new role after 20 years at Gateway. He enters the position at a crucial moment in SBC life, as the EC copes with financial and legal challenges amid the denomination’s reckoning with sexual abuse and declining baptisms, among other concerns. “Jeff Iorg is who we have been praying for,” said search team chair Neal Hughes, director of missions and executive director of the Montgomery (Alabama) Baptist Association, in announcing Iorg’s nomination March 1. Sixty trustees were present at the March 21 meeting held at the Grand Hyatt in the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. The vote to call Iorg was unanimous. “Southern Baptists are a force for good,” Iorg said following the vote. GODSEND Hughes noted that Iorg’s “calm demeanor, communication skills, executive administrative ability and thorough knowledge of Southern Baptist life will be a godsend to the SBC.” EC chair Phillip Robertson called Iorg “a leader that all Southern … [Read more...]