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FLINT—Todd Kaunitz, lead pastor of New Beginnings Baptist Church in Longview, was elected convention president during the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention annual meeting Tuesday morning.
Kaunitz will succeed Kie Bowman, senior pastor of Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin. Kaunitz has been pastor at New Beginnings since 2010 and was nominated by Jarrett Stephens, senior pastor of Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston.
Kaunitz was the lone nominee.
“I can tell you with confidence, he will serve our convention of churches well,” Stephens said in nominating Kaunitz. “I believe this not because he has earned this or because he deserves it, but because Todd is leading the way in the things that are most important to us.”
Kaunitz is a current member of the SBTC Executive Board and previously served as secretary. He has stated that he intends for his platform to be a continuation of that of Bowman, namely, to challenge affiliated churches to pray so that they may see a great movement of God.
Stephens said Kaunitz is a leader in missions and evangelism not only in his community, but statewide. Stephens noted that New Beginnings was meeting at a single location with about 450 people when he arrived as pastor but has grown to more than 2,600 members with 1,400 people baptized meeting in two locations under his leadership.
“If there’s anything that 2020, and now 2021, have revealed to us, it’s that when times get hard, when pandemics come, and when there’s social unrest, it reveals the true condition of the church,” Kaunitz told the TEXAN in September. “We are seeing that we have operated way too long in our own effort, and God is giving us an amazing opportunity to see a spiritual awakening that will not happen outside of God’s people praying.”
Kaunitz is a graduate of East Texas Baptist University. He and his wife, Adrian, have three children.
