When Pastor Clint Pressley climbed into the old-fashioned wooden pulpit at his church in Charlotte, North Carolina, one recent Sunday, he wasted no time.
After briefly thanking the student discipleship minister who had brought many of the church’s Camp Paradise youth to the 11 a.m. service at Hickory Grove Baptist Church, Pressley turned to the task at hand.
“Mark chapter 14,” he intoned in his southern accent. “When you come to visit us, we’ll read the Bible and then just talk about the Bible. You’ll find that it feels a lot like a Bible study. Mark 14, starting at verse one…”
After recounting the first ten verses, which tell the story of the woman who anoints Jesus with a bottle of expensive perfume, he clarifies the lesson of this passage with a series of questions: “You only have one life to live,” he says. “Pour it out. Have you done what you could? What’s holding you back? I want your life to be a total surrender to God.”
This was Pressley’s third sermon of the day. He held the 8 a.m. service, drove 13 miles to the church’s second campus for the 10 a.m. service, and then drove back to the main campus for the 11 a.m. service.
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When he finished 40 minutes later, he took off his jacket, stopped at the door of the cavernous chocolate-brick sanctuary, and greeted the departing worshipers, including his parents.
Pressley, 55, the newly elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is a hardworking pastor of the fifth-largest Baptist church in North Carolina, whose main campus is on a busy commercial corner of a modest suburban neighborhood of 1950s ranch houses. A private Christian elementary school serving K-12 is part of the 140-acre main campus.
Pastoring a church has been his dream since he was a child growing up in the state’s Queen City. Since then, he has dedicated himself to the task, building a multi-ethnic, multi-generational megachurch that draws around 3,000 people every Sunday.
Southern Baptists, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, have faced a number of challenges in recent years: declining membership, a sex abuse crisis, a crackdown on female pastors, condemnation of artificial insemination, endorsement of Trump and MAGA policies. Yet at their last meeting in June, members elected a traditional preacher who wears a three-piece suit, tie and monogrammed cuffs and mostly stays out of the spotlight.
“At a time when there is so much cultural chaos, Clint’s consistency and reputation for integrity really impress a majority of Southern Baptists,” said Nathan Finn, professor of faith and culture at North Greenville University in South Carolina and secretary of the SBC.
Pressley does not have a national following or a large social media presence. Although he is a trustee of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and has served in various other denominational offices, he does not seek to use the presidency, which he can hold for a maximum of two consecutive one-year terms, as a platform for influence.
“My hope is really to lift some of the fog of negativity and refocus on the two things we have: our belief and our mission,” he said of his largely symbolic new role.
Pressley is the second North Carolina pastor to lead the SBC in less than a decade. JD Greear, who served as SBC president from 2018 to 2021, has a nationwide following and leads the largest SBC congregation in North Carolina, Summit Church, with an average attendance of more than 12,000 people spread across 13 locations.
Bart Barber, Pressley’s immediate predecessor, led a small church in rural Texas but was known for his expertise in denominational leadership, a large social media following, and an opinion on everything.
Pressley, on the other hand, is more reserved. His church does not campaign for elections and he only refers to current events when they are directly related to the Bible passages he is preaching about.
“He has stated publicly that his goal is not to embarrass the convention,” said Chris Justice, pastor of Lee Park Church in Monroe, North Carolina, who nominated Pressley in June. “His response to questions will be brief and biblical and delivered in a way that will not cause controversy. He wants to lead the convention thoughtfully and humbly.”
Pressley wants to tone down the bitterness.
The new president of the Southern Baptists became a Christian at the age of eleven and joined the liberal Presbyterian Church (USA), to which his parents belonged. But a few years later, when the Pressley family was vacationing in Roanoke, Virginia, a friend they had met on the beach invited them to their Baptist church. The preacher spoke with conviction. He was assertive and passionate.
“I had never heard of anything like this and thought, this is what I want to do,” Pressley said.
When the family returned to Charlotte, he encouraged his parents to attend a Baptist church. They tried Hickory Grove and became members after two weeks of attendance.
Pressley remained connected to Hickory Grove while attending Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he also played football. After graduating, Pressley’s pastor at Hickory Grove suggested he attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
There he met Connie, the daughter of a Baptist minister from Mississippi, who was in her final year of theological studies and wanted to become a missionary. After nine months of courtship, the two married.
“I told the Lord I was not going to marry a pastor,” said Connie Pressley. “But I was well prepared. My mother was a great pastor’s wife and a good role model for me.”
Even before their wedding, Connie had told Clint that she probably wouldn’t be able to have children. She suffered from endometriosis, a condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, making pregnancy difficult.
The couple considered artificial insemination, but felt that adoption would be a more biblical choice. In the New Testament, adoption is used as a metaphor for becoming rooted in the family of God.
Pressley earned his theology degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, closer to Mississippi, where he pastored two small churches and where he and Connie adopted two boys, brothers Mack and Nate, ages 2 and 6 months.
In 1999, he returned to Hickory Grove in Charlotte as an assistant pastor. Five years later, he became senior pastor of a mid-sized church in Mobile, Alabama, before returning to Hickory Grove as senior pastor in 2011.
When he became its top leader, Pressley streamlined many of the church’s offerings, eliminating some of the trendier, seeker-friendly outreach programs, such as barbecues and guest appearances by professional athletes. He also went through the church’s long membership list and weeded out hundreds of members who were no longer active.
“We scaled back our efforts to attract more people and instead tried to root the people who were there more in the Word,” said Mark Foster, deacon and Sunday school teacher.
Like most contemporary Baptist services, Hickory Grove’s services feature a modern band with drums and synthesizers singing praises. But unlike the pastors, who stand next to a stool or chair in front of the stage, Pressley has retained the traditional colonial-style wooden pulpit.
He also opposed the recent trend of pastors wearing khaki pants or jeans and a T-shirt.
He may prefer the buttoned-up look, but Pressley is warm and outgoing – a people person.
“He is an incredibly encouraging person and incredibly authentic,” said Al Mohler, president of Southern Seminary and a prominent conservative voice in the SBC. “The public Clint Pressley and the private Clint Pressley are exactly the same man.”
Last August, Pressley’s 24-year-old son Nate, who was estranged from the family and lived near Washington, D.C., died of an apparent drug overdose. Church members said the Pressleys were grieving with dignity and grace.
This year, a volunteer was arrested after church leaders learned that he had been accused of sexual abuse by a student at the church’s Christian school. The church reported the incident to Child Protective Services and the city police. Pressley informed the entire congregation by letter.
“We do not tolerate any abusive behavior,” Pressley said in his letter.
Pressley is a creature of habit and sticks to his routine. He says he gets up at 5 a.m. most days, reads the Bible, prays and then exercises – lifting weights with a group of men, mostly from church, in his garden shed. He doesn’t watch much TV and prefers to read history books. He and his wife vacation with other pastor friends – usually at the beach.
This commitment to the routine benefits him and keeps him focused, says Eric Little, a member of his church with whom he also lifts weights.
“I think the reason I’m drawn to Pastor Clint is because of his example of consistency – of what it means to be a leader, not only in the church, but at home, in the community,” Little said.
Pressley keeps his eyes on the future. His favorite Bible passage comes from the prophet Isaiah. He has it engraved on the pulpit and painted on the wall of his office: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.”
Yonat Shimron is a national reporter and senior editor at Religion News Service.
