Dallas, Texas | Jeff Iorg’s election as President and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee March 21 came with sighs of relief across the Convention and in Illinois, where EC Trustee Adron Robinson had led the first attempts to find a captain for the listing denomination.
“He’ll do a good job of restoring integrity to the Executive Committee,” said Robinson, a pastor in Chicagoland, after his return from the election in Dallas. “It was definitely one of those divine synchronicity moments,” he said, as “God worked on Jeff’s heart, so it all came together.”
Iorg had declined consideration for the post three previous times and at 65 was headed to retirement in May after 20 years as president of Gateway Baptist Theological Seminary. Already known to many Southern
Baptists, especially leaders, now the whole convention will learn to pronounce his name. (Iorg rhymes with “forge, the “i” is silent. Like “orange” with no “n.”)
A well-traveled speaker and teacher, Iorg is familiar in Illinois. And appreciated.
“The unanimous vote Dr. Iorg received from the Executive Committee and the board and enthusiastic support being expressed from so many arenas of SBC life communicate great optimism for the days ahead,” said IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams. “I’m especially excited to have someone in this role who has experience as an Executive Director of a medium-sized Baptist state convention like ours in Illinois.”
“He has a keen perspective of being a sojourner, a witness for God in enemy territory,” Robinson observed. “That’s a great position for a leader to have, to understand that we are in an ungodly culture.”
Before his call as seminary president in 2004, Iorg was a pastor in Oregon, then led the Northwest Baptist Convention serving Washington and Oregon starting in 1995. Iorg’s record includes relocating Golden Gate Baptist Seminary from the San Francisco area to metro Los Angeles with a new name and a firm footing with a $60 million endowment. He expanded the school to five campuses. Iorg is the author of eight books.
Iorg served as chaplain for Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants across a decade, which made him holder of three World Series rings. He also served as bellwether for Baptists in the Midwest, alerting ministry leaders to cultural trends headed their way. He was a speaker at the Midwest Leadership Summit as recently as January, and has taught at Priority Women’s Conference.
“I have yet to meet another Christian leader as effective as Jeff Iorg,” said Sandy Wisdom-Martin, Executive Director of National WMU and an Illinois native. “He is visionary, inspirational, resilient, extremely skilled, and wonderfully gifted by God. What’s so beautiful is he so willingly pours into others. I am a beneficiary of his sacred investment.”
Iorg brings a full skillset to the denomination that needs renewed missional direction, clarity on implementation of its theological positions, and financial stability after a decade described as tumultuous.
“A huge burden has been lifted and God has given clear direction,” said Illinois EC Trustee Sharon Carty of Carlinville after the vote she attended in Dallas. “I think the vote speaks volumes…. Dr. Iorg shows strong leadership and tremendous knowledge, yet he is very humble about himself and his accomplishments.”
In all, 60 of the EC’s 85 trustees were in attendance and cast a unanimous vote that stands in stark contrast to their previous split decisions and closed-door arguments over sexual abuse allegations and their EC’s legal actions.
“In my heart I knew God had the man for the EC and gave him to us just as he had planned” Carty said. “I feel a peace that has been a long time coming.”
EC Chair Phillip Robertson called Iorg “a leader that all Southern Baptists can unite around.”
‘Wonderful day’
“Southern Baptists are a force for good,” Iorg said following the vote. “My story is just one of millions of stories of boys and girls who have been impacted by the gospel, nurtured in Southern Baptist churches, educated in Southern Baptist colleges and seminaries, and sent across the world … to make a difference.
“I am grateful to Southern Baptists for how they have impacted my life over the last 50 years.”
The call to national leadership is a significant turn for Iorg and his wife, Ann. “It wasn’t very many weeks ago that we were tracking toward retirement plans,” Iorg said. Now he has yet another calling.
The EC is often tasked with dealing with the “difficulties of Southern Baptist life,” Iorg said, noting that “we face those honestly, with greater transparency than almost any other organization imaginable.”
Iorg’s election comes two-and-one-half years after previous CEO Ronnie Floyd left the post under a cloud connected to handling of sexual abuse claims by top SBC leadership. The intervening time included naming an interim CEO, Willie McLaurin, an EC vice president who resigned when, as part of vetting for nomination to the post permanently, it was discovered that McLaurin had padded his resume with university courses and degrees he did not have. He resigned.
Before that was the consideration of Texas pastor Jared Wellman as nominee, which was led by the search committee headed by Robinson. In an ugly hours-long debate, EC trustees turned aside Wellman’s nomination, in part because he had been a significant leader in the sexual abuse investigation and was serving as EC chairman as consideration of his name for the CEO post started.
That failed vote triggered the end of service of the search committee and election of a new one, headed by Neal Hughes, a director of mission from Alabama.
The second committee was prepared to bring a nomination in February. The nominee was later reported to be Georgia Baptist Convention Executive Director Thomas Hammond, but that candidate also withdrew from consideration for “the job nobody wanted,” as it came to be called.
The nomination and election of Iorg only two months later may seem speedy, given previous failures and vetting challenges. But Iorg was actually high on the list in searches dating back to the election of Floyd in 2019.
But serving as President of Gateway Seminary and leading its relocation, Iorg did not feel released to leave for a new post.
Until now.
Asked at a news conference after the election how he intended to restore trust in the EC, given the controversies of the last several years, Iorg said, “Organizational trust is earned by… sacrificial service and demonstrated competence. You don’t gain trust by asking people to trust you. You gain trust by doing the right thing.” He promised sacrificial leadership with “competence and credibility.”
Iorg will lead distribution of mission monies from the SBC’s central unified giving system, the Cooperative Program. Some of his predecessors have considered themselves the chief cheerleader for CP, which has suffered significant declines in percentage giving by SBC churches. Iorg said his “real challenge is lifting up the mission of God and calling Southern Baptists to that. The Cooperative Program is a means to fulfilling that. I don’t see myself as trying to convince people to give more money. My role is to try to convince people that the vision is worthy of more resources.”
Carty called the EC meeting, historic with its unanimous vote, “a wonderful day.” It will be followed by years of hard work.
Return visit planned
Iorg is repeatedly described as a humble man. Robinson said the position he assumes in life gives him valuable perspective.
“He has been a member of a Black church in California,” Robinson said. “A friend of mine was there a couple of weeks ago and said Jeff Iorg was in the parking lot, helping to park cars. You don’t get much more humble than that.”
Iorg will assume the new post May 13, after he finishes his tenure at Gateway Seminary. He and Ann will move to Nashville where the EC is headquartered, with the full support of their three children and their families who live mostly on the West Coast. They will also keep a house in Oregon near relatives who require assistance.
Iorg will make Illinois one of his early stops as he visits state conventions. “I certainly wish Dr. Iorg all the best as he serves and leads,” Adams said. “And we look forward to hearing from him at our Annual Meeting here in Illinois this November.”
The IBSA Annual Meeting is set for Nov. 12-13 at Ashburn Baptist Church in Chicago’s southwest suburbs.
—Eric Reed with additional reporting by Jayne Rogers of The Baptist Paper