Foursquare Church Selects New President
The next president of The Foursquare Church was selected Tuesday by ministers and delegates gathered this week for the Pentecostal denomination's annual convention.
Amid the four-day gathering in Atlanta, Dr. Glenn C. Burris Jr. was chosen to officially succeed former president Jack Hayford, who announced last year that he would not seek a second five-year term.
Burris beat out Dennis Easter, senior pastor of Portland Foursquare Church in Oregon, who later prayed over the president-elect, encouraging him to "be strong and courageous, for the Lord will be with you wherever you will go."
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Though it will be four months until he officially takes the helm, Burris has served as interim president of 8.7 million-large church body since September. And prior to his latest role, Burris had served for a decade as supervisor of the ten-state Southeast District and for several years on the denomination's board of directors, among other positions.
In his first address to ministers and delegates at the May 31-Jun 3 convention in Atlanta, Burris noted that the position would require partnership from the Foursquare family, and said that he "can't imagine leading into the future without you."
He then added that the convention body should "look toward the rest of the week, committed to a mission of reaching the lost for Christ, birthed in our movement from the very beginning!"
When Burris officially assumes his new responsibilities on Oct. 1, he will be the fifth person to hold the title of president in the 87-year-old denomination, which was founded by evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson.
As president, Burris would give spiritual and administrative oversight as "pastor" of the denomination.
