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Hi there. This is Sarah Zielstra, Senior Writer for the Gospel Coalition.

My job is to find and report on places where God's Spirit is at work in the world.

And so I hear a lot of stories of Christians who are living sacrificial, joyful,

kingdom advancing, God glorifying lives. And I'm so excited to share this one with you.

In a few weeks, thousands of Southern Baptist will head to Nashville, Tennessee for their annual

meeting. So will news reporters because the Southern Baptist Convention is huge. 14.5 million

at last count, making it the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. In fact,

the 47,000 churches are more than the combined number of Starbucks, McDonald's, and Subways in America.

So that means the trajectory and priorities of the SPC affect a lot of things.

From American culture to federal politics to the orthodoxy of many of America's churches.

So the person who leads the SPC then is pretty influential. Perhaps as a safeguard, he doesn't

actually hold a lot of decision-making power. The programs are mostly run by staff,

and he's limited to two single year terms in a row. Except JD Greer, who is just completing an

unprecedented three year term, extended because of COVID concerns that canceled last year's meeting.

He's a 47-year-old pastor from North Carolina whose church has sent out more than 1,400

missionaries and planted more than 40 churches. I wrote about that in my new book with Colin

...