Co-Pastor of Southern Baptist Leader Quits
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DALLAS — The Rev. Joel Gregory quit as co-pastor of the world’s largest Southern Baptist congregation because of a rift with the longtime senior pastor, the Rev. W.A. Criswell.
He told a prayer meeting at the 29,000-member First Baptist Church that Criswell was prolonging his own ministry rather than “enabling the new pastor’s” and “I immediately and irrevocably submit my resignation.”
Gregory, 44, said Criswell, 82, had not lived up to an agreement to leave the pulpit after a short transition. Gregory was hired in late 1990 to succeed Criswell, who has led the congregation for nearly half a century.
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