BALTIMORE — The sole candidate in a high-stakes election for leadership in the nation’s largest Black Protestant denomination achieved a convincing victory Thursday, a disappointing outcome for an opposition campaign that sought to nullify the election and restart the process.
In the election for president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Connecticut pastor Rev. Boise Kimber received 69% of the total 2,538 votes cast. Officials for the Nashville-based denomination announced the results on Thursday evening in the last item of business for the convention’s 2024 annual session in Baltimore.
Kimber will succeed outgoing president Rev. Jerry Young, a Mississippi pastor who has served as the denomination’s administrative head for the past decade, amid a broader struggle in the convention for relevance. The incoming president, in addition to working to address those challenges, will face unrest over governance standards from which the latest controversy emerged.
Kimber declined to respond to media request for comment before the election results were announced. Delegates, called messengers, to the National Baptist Convention, USA, often known as the NBCUSA, voted at polling stations on Thursday between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Kimber briefly addressed the convention from the stage on Thursday evening. “This new administration is not going to dishonor this convention,” Kimber said.
Connecticut pastor Rev. Boise Kimber, president-elect of the National Baptist Convention, USA, addresses the convention following his victory in a high-stakes election during the convention’s 2024 annual session at the Baltimore Convention Center on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024.
Kimber said he would further the spirit of Young’s progress, alluding to his experience serving the outgoing president. “Whatever was asked for me to do, I did it for the president and for the convention,” Kimber said.
The NBCUSA is one of four major Black Baptist denominations in the U.S. and has between 5.2 million and 7.5 million members nationwide. It has a long legacy on issues such civil rights, criminal justice, housing, and has invested in voter rights initiatives. The president and a board of directors help manage denomination business outside the annual session.
Four candidates for NBCUSA president who were ultimately ineligible for the ballot — Chicago pastor Rev. Alvin Love, Detroit pastor Rev. Tellis Chapman, San Francisco-area pastor Rev. Claybon Lea, Jr., and Florida pastor Rev. James Sampson — led a joint campaign to mobilize supporters to Baltimore to vote against Kimber’s candidacy. The four candidates, who produced a video in May and hosted a rally in June, reminded messengers of the stakes of the election in a public letter on Thursday morning.
“A ‘NO’ vote will allow us to ensure that the next election cycle is fair for all and no registered entity is disenfranchised,” they wrote. “A ‘Yes’ vote means that Dr. Boise Kimber will lead our Convention for the next five years and that it is okay to prevent registered entities from voting.”
“Either choice has significant implications for our convention’s governance and future,” the group added.
Other National Baptist session news: Outgoing head of largest Black Protestant group condemns bigotry in US, urges voter turnout
A referendum on convention governance
The election for the denomination’s president turned into a referendum on the convention’s governance due to a controversial decision by the board of directors to restrict certain churches from nominating candidates.
Only churches registered with the convention in 2021 and 2022, and some churches registered in 2020, were allowed to nominate candidates. The board excluded churches registered in 2023, a decision that subtracted from the total nominations the candidates received and submitted in January.
Love, Lea, Sampson and Chapman argued the tighter restrictions disenfranchised churches that were faithful to the convention. The four candidates also disputed the board of directors deciding not to refer the matter to the full convention.
“We’ve been in a mourning process for nine months,” Love said in a Sept. 4 interview with The Tennessean. “I think at this point the convention is ready to get out of mourning and ready to get up, clean up and stand up.”
Love said ahead of the election results he’s willing to work with everyone to address concerns, such as inconsistencies with the denomination’s governing documents and the absence of publicly available annual reports containing information about convention registration.
Other dissenting voices had deeper concerns ahead of this week’s annual session, with some pastors saying the outcome of the presidential election will determine whether they leave the denomination. The anxieties come at a time of diminished enthusiasm and participation in convention life and its annual session — a key barometer for assessing the denomination’s yearly revenue and rank-and-file participation in its governance.
Young, in his farewell address to the convention on Thursday morning, mentioned the governance controversy and called out those who sought to protest Kimber’s candidacy.
Connecticut pastor Rev. Boise Kimber, president-elect of the National Baptist Convention, USA, and Mississippi pastor Rev. Jerry Young, outgoing president of the Nashville-based denomination, embrace one another following Kimber’s election victory in a high-stakes election during the convention’s 2024 annual session at the Baltimore Convention Center on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024.
“You can’t get in the middle of the process and then decide it ought to change,” Young said. “I’m going to agree that a lot needs to change, and it does. But it’s in the 9th inning and you just can’t change the rules.”
The number of messengers who voted in the convention’s presidential election was significantly less than that of the last major election in 2014, when 6,400 messengers voted and elected young with 49% of the vote.
Understanding larger NCUSA challenges: A leadership crisis looms in nation’s largest Black Protestant group. What are the stakes.
Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on social media @liamsadams.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: National Baptist Convention USA: Boise Kimber elected president
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Publish date : 2024-09-05 14:00:00
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