Gateway Seminary announces new president nominee as Jeff Iorg leaves for SBC post
Gateway Seminary has announced a nominee for president as its current leader is set to take a new position with the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Adam Groza, vice president for enrollment and student services at Gateway, was announced on Tuesday as the nominee for president of the Oakland, California-based SBC-affiliated institution.
"After a thorough selection process, we are thankful to be able to unanimously present a candidate to the full board," said J. Robert White, chair of the presidential search committee.
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"Adam Groza has demonstrated capable and godly leadership during his service at Gateway these past 14 years."
The nomination followed a six-month selection process that included a survey of current students, with a final vote scheduled for the trustees board's April 15-16 meeting.
Groza joined Gateway in 2010 as vice president and previously worked as director of admissions at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas and Scarborough College. He has served in churches in California and Texas, including the role of interim pastor.
Groza earned a Ph.D. in philosophy of religion at SWBTS in 2009 and is a research fellow with the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He also taught at multiple institutions, including California Baptist University of Riverside, California; Korea Baptist Theological Seminary of Daejeon, South Korea, and Logos College of Kerala, India.
Current Gateway President Jeff Iorg is slated to leave the SBC seminary in May to become president of the SBC's Executive Committee. This committee works on behalf of the SBC between annual sessions to oversee financial statements and the distribution of funds for SBC ministries. It also serves as the trust agency for convention properties.
Iorg has served as president of Gateway since 2004 and helped to oversee the campus' move from the San Francisco area to central California in 2016.
Last month, 60 members of the SBC Executive Committee unanimously chose Iorg as their new president, following a search that began in 2021.
SBC EC Chairman Philip Robertson said in a statement to Baptist Press last month that the vote signified "a significant turning point for the SBC Executive Committee and the SBC as a whole."
"You cannot overstate the importance of leadership, and Jeff Iorg is a leader among leaders. The way Southern Baptists have united around this nomination is something we haven't seen in a long time," Robertson added.
SBC President Bart Barber said in a statement released last month that "Iorg has already brought unity to the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention and to the Southern Baptist Convention, as evidenced by the acclaim from far and wide in response to the initial announcement and by today's unanimous vote."
"Jeff Iorg has said today that the SBC is a force for good. I believe that God will use Jeff Iorg as a force for good, and I will cheer him on and pray toward that end," Barber said.
