ATLANTA (BP)–Frank Cox, Atlanta-area pastor and former president of the Georgia Baptist Convention, will be nominated for first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention at the SBC annual meeting June 15-16 in Atlanta.
Paige Patterson, president of the SBC, will be nominated for a second one-year term, apparently without opposition. Junior Hill, an evangelist for 32 years from Hartselle, Ala., and longtime friend of Patterson’s will make the nomination speech.
Patterson, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, N.C., was elected for a first term in Salt Lake City at the 1998 SBC annual meeting. SBC presidents are traditionally elected for a second one-year term without opposition.
Election of officers is scheduled for June 15, the afternoon of the convention’s first day.
Cox will be nominated by James G. Merritt, pastor of First Baptist Church, Snellville, Ga., and chairman of the SBC Executive Committee.
“Dr. Cox has a rich Baptist heritage being a third-generation Baptist pastor,” Merritt told Baptist Press May 19. “He is leading one of the most dynamic congregations in the state of Georgia. He is a proven leader, theologically conservative, with a great heart for people.” Cox is also a member of the SBC Executive Committee.
A native of Florida, Cox was both licensed and ordained by First Baptist Church, Doraville, Ga. He received his bachelor’s degree at Mercer University, Atlanta; a master’s degree at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary; and a doctor of ministry from Luther Rice Seminary, Atlanta.
Pastor of the North Metro First Baptist Church, Lawrenceville, Ga., since 1980, Cox was pastor of Barataria Baptist Church, LaFitte, La., for two years and minister of youth and outreach at Calvary Baptist Church, Lilburn, Ga., for three years.
He was president of the Georgia convention in 1997 and 1998.
The North Metro congregation is one of the SBC’s fastest-growing congregations, increasing from just under 500 members to 3,774 during his tenure. Prior to 1995, the church’s 102nd anniversary, it was known as Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, Duluth, Ga.
Cox, 43, married Mary Roderick in 1987. His first wife, Debbie Holcomb, died of a brain tumor in 1986. He has three children: Stephen Franklin, 17; Jonathan Ryan, 10; and Kristen Noel, 8.
