Executive Committee in Dallas, Texas, elects Ronnie Floyd to lead Southern Baptist Convention by 68-1 vote

Ronnie Floyd, an Arkansas megachurch pastor and former Southern Baptist Convention president, was elected to head the denomination’s Executive Committee. Meeting in Dallas, Executive Committee trustees approved his nomination 68-1, according to Baptist Press, the SBC’s official news service. Floyd spoke at a news conference after his election on Tuesday, April 2, saying, “It’s a great privilege for me to be able to accept the opportunity to become the president and chief executive officer of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee.”

Floyd is pastor of Cross Church, a congregation of about 9,000 with campuses in Arkansas and Missouri, and he is president of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. In his new role he will lead the Nashville-based Executive Committee, which acts for the SBC between its annual meetings. One of his major tasks will be promoting the Cooperative Program, which funds missions, seminary education and other ministries.

The appointment came shortly after the Houston Chronicle published a series on child sexual abuse in the SBC. The Executive Committee is expected to respond to allegations of sexual abuse coverup involving several SBC churches, including Second Baptist Church in Houston. The source does not describe what specific steps the committee will take.

The source also raises questions about pay. A commenter on the SBC Voices website claimed Floyd would be paid $500,000 a year. The source notes that leaders’ salaries are not made public, so that figure is conjecture and is not confirmed. The author writes that Floyd would allegedly earn more than the governors of most states, and questions whether the job is more complex than theirs.

The post also turns to James MacDonald, whom the author places within the SBC, though the source gives no further detail on that affiliation. According to the source, MacDonald insisted his salary remain secret and said he would rather lose members than disclose it. The source cites former elders Scott Phelps, Barry Slabaugh and Dan Marquardt, who say that MacDonald told three elders in 2013 that he would “lose 1,000 sheep” before revealing his salary. The three resigned soon after and were later publicly excommunicated. The church has since apologized for its “harsh” discipline of the men.

The source reports, citing a Julie Roys article, that Harvest reportedly paid MacDonald $80,000 per month in 2018, made up of $50,000 in regular salary and $30,000 in deferred compensation, for a total of $960,000 a year. The source says this figure does not include any money MacDonald may have received from his broadcast ministry, Walk in the Word, Harvest’s church planting network, its songwriting and worship ministry, or from book sales.

Bucur and Banaszak reported that one leader told them MacDonald’s deferred compensation plan totals $2.6 million and was first set up in 2010. Their source also said that, in addition to compensation, Harvest gave MacDonald between $800,000 and $1.2 million a year in discretionary funds. Half of that reportedly came from a senior pastor discretionary fund, and a similar amount came from a discretionary fund at Walk in the Word.

Source: Read the original report