A top administrative body of the Southern Baptist Convention has selected its first permanent leader in nearly two-and-a-half years. Jeff Iorg will become the new president of Executive Committee of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination in May. Iorg is the longtime president of Gateway Seminary in California, which is the SBC’s only seminary outside of their historic Bible Belt heartland. Iorg was going to retire anyway, and now he starts his new job in May. He was elected unanimously Thursday by committee members meeting near Dallas. The committee has navigated controversies ranging from a sexual abuse scandal to financial struggles to its own stumbling efforts to find a new president.
