Marietta minister to lead SBC

MARIETTA - A Marietta pastor has been named president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Rev. Bryant Wright is senior pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church. He got more than half of the vote during the group's annual meeting in Orlando. He will replace the Rev. Johnny M. Hunt, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock.

Wright is a native of the Atlanta area with a master's of divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and a bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina. He and his wife Anne have three children.

The 16.3 million-member Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant group in the country, but has struggled in recent years with small numbers of baptisms and stagnating membership rolls.