Joy Fenner Elected President of BGCT
Joy Fenner of Gaston Oaks Baptist Church in Garland was elected president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) earlier this week, narrowly defeating BGCT pastor David Lowrie by a margin of 900-840 votes to become the first woman to occupy the post.
The Baptist General Convention of Texas is the largest Baptist state group of its kind in the nation, with over 5,000 affiliated congregations and more than two million members. Despite its size, less than one percent of BGCT pastors are women.
A former missionary to Japan, church secretary, and executive director emeritus of the Women’s Missionary Union of Texas, Fenner has been involved in missions work for over thirty years. Many in the BGCT working in recent years to increase BGCT missions work and multicultural awareness see Fenner and her longstanding commitment to missions a natural fit to the presidency. She comes as the third in a line of ‘first’ presidents that in recent years has included the first Latino BGCT president in 2004 and the first African-American president in 2005.
Steve Wells, pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Houston says of Fenner and her handling of multicultural affairs, ‘She led our state to develop multi-lingual mission literature because, long before the rest of us knew that Texas was multicultural, Joy knew and understood what it is to be in a multicultural state.’ Fenner herself has stated that she hopes to reach out to those members of the BGCT who are gifted for leadership but may currently be sidelined for one reason or another.
