PENSACOLA, Fla. (BP)–Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., will be nominated as president of the 2004 Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference, according to a report in the Florida Baptist Witness.
Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., and a former Pastors’ Conference president, confirmed in a telephone interview with the Witness he will nominate Traylor for the post during the June 15-16 Pastors’ Conference in Phoenix.
Hunt said Traylor has “led his church well” and is respected by his peers of all church sizes within the Southern Baptist Convention. “Ted Traylor is a gifted pastor, preacher and communicator himself,” Hunt told the Witness. “He is one that will be held in high esteem and will serve our denomination well.”
Traylor, 49, has served as pastor of the 10,000-member Olive Baptist Church since 1990. He has preached at the 1994, 2001 and 2002 Pastors’ Conferences.
He was elected president of the Florida Baptist State Convention in 1995 and first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2001. He also has been a trustee for the North American Mission Board and a member of the SBC Resolutions Committee.
He is the host of a weekly radio and television ministry, “At the Heart of Things,” and reaches thousands along the Gulf Coast region and throughout the country through conferences and revivals.
Traylor earned a doctor of ministry degree in 1986 and a master of divinity in 1981 from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He is a graduate of Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.
Traylor and his wife, Elizabeth, have two children, Rachel, 20, and Bennett, 17.
Traylor is slated to speak at 2:10 p.m. June 16 at the 2003 Pastors’ Conference. Sessions will take place at the Phoenix Civic Plaza prior to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 17-18 in Phoenix.
Traylor’s election would be the second time in three years a Florida pastor has led the Pastors’ Conference. Ken Whitten, pastor Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa, served as the 2002 president.
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(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at https://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: TED TRAYLOR.
