Georgia Pastor Bryant Wright knew God was guiding him to wind down his leadership at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church.
The influential pastor, author and former president of the powerful Southern Baptist Convention felt it in his spirit.
He prayed about it. He talked to his wife, Anne. He discussed it with church elders, deacons and other pastors who were reaching that same point in their careers.
Where he once envisioned leading the Cobb County megachurch, which has 7,300 members, into his 70s, here he was at 66 and making plans to turn the reins over to someone younger.
“God was saying it’s time to let go of something we loved very much, but we had to trust him to lead us to the next pastor,” said Wright, who has led the church for 37 years. “We have a multigenerational congregation, which I love, yet I know it will be healthy in thinking about the future of the church. We need a pastor who can connect with millennials, younger Gen Xers and those after them.”
He announced his decision to step down in November, and the church has begun a national search.
Surveys note that churches face many challenges in reaching younger adults, many who consider themselves spiritual but not particularly religious. Although their families may have been churchgoers, many young people don’t consider church attendance to be part of their regular routine.
According to a 2015 survey by the Pew Research Center, 35 percent of adult millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) are religiously unaffiliated.
“I intuitively and instinctively think like a baby boomer,” Wright said. “We are looking for someone who intuitively and instinctively can connect with those generations” as well as respect and appeal to older members.
Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College in Illinois, said any “emotionally healthy pastor” such as Wright realizes “the church is not them and they are not the church. There’s an old church saying that there’s not success without a succession.”
Wright has been a significant figure in conservative circles, but he hasn’t been afraid to buck his counterparts on issues such as helping refugees.
His church, for instance, helped settle Syrian refugees.
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Stetzer expects Wright to continue to speak his mind. “Sometimes a pastor can speak up more on issues and can devote more time to issues. I think Bryant Wright has been a compassionate case of conservatism, pushing against the grain at times.”
W. Thomas Hammond, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, which represents about 3,600 churches across the state, said Wright has served “with humility and integrity. God has used him to lead Johnson Ferry Baptist to share the love of Christ in Atlanta and around the world. He has been a living example for everyone to learn from and follow.”
Wright said it wasn’t a decision he took lightly or made quickly.
He mulled it over and prayed about it for a year and a half. Years earlier, though, he had told church elders to start thinking about succession.
Wright grew up in Atlanta and accepted Christ as a child at Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church. He was baptized by his grandfather, the Rev. Lewis Wright, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, according to the church’s website.
He moved to Augusta around 1974 and started work at Puritan Chemical Co. He later enrolled at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
In December 1981, he became the first full-time pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta.
Credit: Jim Galloway
Credit: Jim Galloway
The church initially had 20 families in a vacant office off Johnson Ferry Road. Wright was the only staffer.
Today, the church now has a staff of 180 people, 23 of whom are ministers.
Wright, who served as president of the SBC from 2010 to 2012, is a huge supporter of global missions.
He expects the search to take about a year. He will continue to pastor Johnson Ferry, and once a successor is found, he will stay as the new pastor “learns the DNA and culture of the church.”
Wright plans to continue to lead Right From the Heart Ministries, mentor young pastors and lead mission trips overseas and trips to Israel. And he still wants to preach, perhaps filling in at churches looking for permanent pastors.
“I have perfect peace that God is leading this,” he said.
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