SBC Executive Committee President Ronnie Floyd tests positive for COVID-19

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Thursday, January 07, 2021

Ronnie Floyd, president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee, addresses the convention for the first time in his new position June 11 during the morning session of the SBC annual meeting at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex in Birmingham, Ala. I refuse to believe that division strife and disengagement is the will of God, he said. He believes God is calling the SBC to a future that is healthy and life-giving in every way. | Marc Ira Hooks

Former Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd announced that he has tested positive for the coronavirus, having contracted it last month.

In an email to supporters, Floyd explained that he began feeling ill on Dec. 26 and eventually got a test, having been delayed due to the upheaval cause by the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville, Tennessee.

“While that first day brought my worst symptoms and a few days following have been challenging, it has been nothing like so many others have experienced,” Floyd said.

“By God’s grace alone, I have felt blessed each day as God has seen me through. Thankfully, Jeana has remained negative and we are grateful God has preserved her thus far from this virus.”

Floyd went on to note that “the personal diagnosis of COVID-19 and the horrible, lonely deaths of so many reported everywhere” has had “a real effect on me.”

“This global pandemic has reminded us again and again that we need God more than ever before, and we need each other more than ever before,” he continued.

“Over these past few days, I have sensed this deeply and know it more personally. Fear of the unknown has been real, but God has seen me through.”

Amid the uncertainty of his health situation, Floyd wrote that he felt inspired by Psalm 56:3, which reads: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”

“I enter 2021 with hope, as I am sure each of you do. My hope rests in Jesus Christ, and I know that no matter what happens in our world, I can trust in Him when I am afraid, when I am joyful, and when I am uncertain,” Floyd added.

Currently the president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, Floyd was elected president of the SBC in 2014 and held the office until 2016.

While president, Floyd championed efforts to advance racial reconciliation between the SBC, which was originally founded by slave-owners, and historically African American churches.

For example, in 2015 Floyd participated in a summit on racial unity held in Jackson, Mississippi, alongside Jerry Young, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA.

The following year, Floyd was involved in a panel discussion titled "A National Conversation on Racial Unity in America" in St. Louis, Missouri.

“The sin of racism is a spiritual stronghold in this nation and now is the time this wall must come down,” wrote Floyd in 2016.

“As we repent of it personally, repent of it in our churches, and repent of it in our nation, we will perhaps see the next great spiritual awakening in our generation.”

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