Month: June 2010

Brunson: Focus on Jesus Christ’s pre-eminence

ORLANDO, Fla.?Preachers today are like Richard the Lionheart, who in 1191 could not win a victory of his own, but instead compromised with his enemy, according to Florida pastor Mac Brunson in his convention sermon June 16 to messengers at the SBC annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

Brunson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, recounted that Richard the Lionheart, king of England, could not re-take Jerusalem from his Muslim counterpart, Saladin, during the Third Crusade after he angered all his allies over differences in how to display his flag. Left to fight alone, Richard eventually negotiated with the enemy to open the city for every faith, disguised himself and fled to Austria.

“I’m afraid that in our convention and across the ministry today we are far better preachers at battling one another than at battling our enemy,” Brunson said.

Describing a biblical confrontation in John 3 when two disciples were baptizing in the Jordan River and a “debate” arose, Brunson noted that even the disciples had competition and dissension.

Brunson cited a study by Kenneth Chafin, a late seminary professor and pastor, who said he discovered pastors “tend toward the negative, they are highly competitive, and they don’t like preachers.”

Meeting with a leading evangelist recently, Brunson said he was told some pastors would rather hear that a fellow pastor had fallen from ministry than about individuals putting their trust in God.

“There is something happening among pastors today that absolutely has the watching world astounded, the devil laughing and our almighty God grieving,” Brunson said. And in the same way, he said, the disciples “were jealous, they were annoyed, they were upset, and it was all because they had begun to focus on themselves instead of the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ.”

It’s interesting, Brunson said, how John the Baptist refocused their priorities.

After John had already pointed the disciples to Christ, Brunson said they returned to him and said, “Our crowns aren’t here, we are not mentioned in Baptist Press as much as we used to, we don’t get as many hits as we used to, nobody’s coming to us, and they’re getting more attention in that ministry over there.”

At that point John says, “There must be a focus on the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ,” Brunson said.

Looking at 1 Corinthians 3, Brunson said there must be a focus on the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ likewise in each person’s life.

Understanding that salvation is based solely on God’s grace, Brunson said all of what he has in ministry has been given to him by God as well.

Sharing a word picture from John 3:29 of a best man putting a bride’s hand into her groom’s hand in a marriage ceremony, Brunson said he knows, as a pastor, he is not the bridegroom but just the best man.

Problems begin when believers take their eyes off of Jesus, Brunson said.

Pointing to a need for men

Unity, missions priorities for new EC head

ORLANDO, Fla.–Unity around the gospel and a new image before the world are priorities the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee will pursue when he takes office in October.

“My hope is that we can have a unified voice at every level, hope that there will be a strong encouragement to do missions more than we’ve ever done before,” Frank Page declared in a news conference on June 15.

Asked how he viewed receiving only 60 percent of the vote of Executive Committee members after several hours of closed-door discussion on June 14, Page responded, “It says to me that we’re a very divided group of persons. I think that which we see on the Executive Committee is indicative of what’s happening in our convention?that we have multiple opinions and are very free to voice those multiple opinions, sometimes very vocally, very strongly.”

Knowing that trust comes over time, Page said he is hopeful that a consistently positive and unified vision will build confidence in others.

“I think I have a track record of encouraging people in ‘followship’?that’s a part of leadership. I would hope those that may not have been initially voting for me realize that I can be a partner with whom they can work.”

Calling it a “mostly civil meeting,” Page said EC members realized they were able to express their opinions, be honest and receive answers to their questions.

Page, 57, most recently served as vice president of evangelization for the North American Mission Board, was pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., for nine years, and SBC president from 2006-08.

The pastorate gave him experience with “a complicated church filled with multiple subgroups of agendas much like the Southern Baptist Convention.” Having seen God bring about a transformation in a local church context, Page said in his new role of working with EC members, “I would work hard to bring about unity within that body.”

Having only been in the North American Mission Board role since October 2009, Page told Baptist Press he is puzzled somewhat by God moving him so quickly to the Executive Committee, but he identified three possible reasons for the short tenure.

“Number one, I think God gave me that time to see the inside of a denomination better than I would have as a pastor,” Page said. “I think he let me go to NAMB to let me see some of the inside, which I like some of it, some of it I don’t as I’ve looked on the inside of the denomination.

“Secondly, I think being a part of the GCR at the same time helped me provide a perspective to say NAMB has a unique missiological need, and I think that was an encouragement to some on the committee to see that NAMB does have a place separately than IMB,” Page said.

“Third, I would have to say the biggest reason I think God brought me to NAMB was to help legitimize and motivate and encourage people in the GPS strategy,” Page said, referring to the God’s Plan for Sharing national evangelistic initiative he advanced while president of the SBC.

Evangelism will be encouraged as Southern Baptists unite around the common cause of reaching the world for the Lord Jesus Christ, he said in addressing his priorities.

“It is my goal that if God were to allow me to serve for 10 to 15 years, that our nation particularly and our world generally would be able to say, ‘You know, Baptists are good people. We may not always agree with them but we’ve changed our mind about who they are'” after having seen them as godly, loving, caring people who help their neighbors instead of judging them by what they are against, he explained.

Page said he hopes to establish a long-term vision for Southern Baptists while working with those elected to the office of SBC president.

“Perhaps the CEO is a little more behind the scenes that the president, and I’ve served in that role so I understand that, but I do believe the president and CEO [of the EC] has a crucial role in establishing a long-term vision and as a leader of the Great Commission Council [he] helps pull together a unified group who can work together to see the Great Commission accomplished.”

Reiterating his desire to unify, Page said, “I want to be someone who comes in, in a collegial atmosphere, not adversarial in the GCC, for example, to pull them together in a common direction. I think Baptists are way past being tired of hearing about fusses and turf wars and those kinds of things,” he added, crediting SBC president Johnny Hunt for trying to “pull us together.”

Asked if he sees the EC president as “first among equals” in setting a vision within that group of SBC entity leaders, Page said, “I think he is the primary coordinator of that group and so he certainly needs to share his vision with those persons. Certainly they don’t work for the CEO. We work together and the CEO is a coordinating leader in that regard.”

Page said: “I hope Southern Baptists can be confident that there will be a strong hand at the helm. I’m not intimidated by strong individuals at the various entities and am anxious to pull them together in a common direction. I also believe all of the entities need to abide by the business and financial plan of the convention and will clearly call that to the attention of entity heads on a regular basis.”

He acknowledged having had “major difficulties” with the progress report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force released Feb. 22, though he ultimately supported the final report. “That doesn’t mean it’s the report I would have written. It doesn’t mean that I come to the table with 100 percent agreement with the final report, but it does mean I felt strong enough that I could agree with the intent.”

“It did not seem to be strong enough in support of the Cooperative Program, that there was too much micromanagement of the North American Mission Board and a free pass given to other entities. I also did have some concerns of taking 1 percent from one of the smallest entities to give to the largest,” he added, referring to the recommendation to increase the International Mission Board’s allocation to 51 percent by reducing the Executive Committee’s allocation.

“I do want more money to go to international missions. I do support the Great Commission Resurgence. I’m extremely excited about the challenges at the end of the final report,” he added. “Anyone on the task force will tell you I was vocal, sometimes too vocal,” Page said.

“You need to be ready to be true to who you are,” he added, answering a question about the experience of serving on an SBC committee or board. “Southern Baptists are tired of what I think are unstatesmanlike activities, always saying what you think your little group wants to hear. Sometimes we’ve just got to be honest with who we are in the Lord,” he said.

Asked what role he would play when the Executive Committee takes up the matter of cutting its budget to accommodate task force recommendations, Page affirmed the trustee process.

“I think we need to calm down and realize that those sets of checks and balances help guard us and guide us,” he stated. “The Executive Committee is charged by the Southern Baptist Convention as an ad interim group to look at how best to deal with the spirit of that recommendation, but to implement it in such a way that the cause of God’s kingdom is enhanced and not hurt.”

Asked about statistical evidence pointing to decline in the Southern Baptist Convention, Page said, “If one is looking carefully, you would find our worship attendance has increased the last two years in a row. Membership is important, but it is not as important as the live, warm bodies in the pew.”

Noting the 2.2 percent increase in baptisms, Page said, “With the GPS focus that NAMB has now strongly in place, we’re going to see a significant turnaround in baptisms. Even in an era of increasing anti-denominationalism, major denominations can make a turnaround.”

A native of Robbins, N.C., Page holds a Ph.D. in Christian ethics focusing on moral, social and ethical issues from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, along with a master of divinity degree from Southwestern. He earned a bachelor of science degree with honors from Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina, majoring in psychology with minors in sociology and Greek.

Page is the author of several books, including “Trouble with the Tulip,” a critique of the five points of Calvinism, and commentaries on the biblical books for Jonah and Mark. He also contributed as lead writer for the Advanced Continuing Witness Training material. Page was named to President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships in February 2009.

Georgia pastor elected in runoff for SBC president

ORLANDO, Fla.?Newly elected Southern Baptist Convention President Bryant Wright wants to see Southern Baptists return to their first love, radically reprioritize their lives, funding and ministries to fulfill the Great Commission, and directly participate in overseas mission work.

Speaking to reporters June 15 less than an hour after his election, Wright shared his dream of seeing every Southern Baptist pastor and church take at least one mission trip.


“The pastor needs to experience what it’s like to be out there in another culture sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.”


Wright commended the Georgia congregation he pastors, Johnson Ferry Baptist in Marietta, for having sent over 1,500 people on 70 mission trips to 27 nations last year. “What that does in the life of a church is incredible.”


In the midst of developing partnerships with Southern Baptist missionaries and other kingdom-focused work, Bryant said church leaders began to question why so much of their Cooperative Program contributions remained in the United States. That led to a decision to reduce CP giving in order to designate more to the International Mission Board.


“We realized it does cause the church to appear not to be as supportive of the main approach to missions in the Cooperative Program, and yet, at the same time, we continue to give very heavily to the Cooperative Program,” Bryant said, noting that Johnson Ferry Baptist contributed the second highest amount in the Georgia Baptist Convention last year.


“We would very much prefer that all those funds go straight through CP, but there needs to be a radical reprioritization of that money,” he said.


State conventions are the place where change must occur, Wright stated, adding that generally he believes allocations at the national level are healthy.


Asked about a column he wrote urging state conventions to retain only 25-30 percent of undesignated CP gifts from churches, Wright responded: “I’d love to see states move in that direction, knowing it will be a long, long process.” Even a goal of splitting receipts 50/50 between state and SBC causes would allow funding for many more missionaries, he explained.


Wright said state convention leaders “can be the real heroes in carrying out the Great Commission” since they control budgets and decide how much goes out of state for distribution to SBC causes. If more CP dollars were sent to the international mission field, Wright said Southern Baptists would see an increased passion for CP giving, especially among younger pastors, the group from whom he has received the greatest support for his stand.


He commended “the radical commitment of the Millennials and Generation X,” with seminary students expressing a desire to go to “the toughest areas to take the gospel.”


Asked to reflect on the passage of recommendations of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, Wright said, “We have been a people that have been united on missions and evangelism and reaching our world with the good news of Jesus Christ and yet we are not moving ahead in that area as we have done a lot of our years.”


He praised SBC President Johnny Hunt’s courage in raising the issue and messengers for engaging in a healthy discussion.


“The task force leadership has led the convention in taking a very courageous step, but it is really just a beginning. If we’re going to be radically serious about reaching this world for Christ, we as individuals and we as churches are going to have to really be prayerfully committed to fulfilling what God has called us to do with the Great Commission.”


In America, local church members need to repent of materialism, hedonism and other idols that distract them from their first love and inhibit their love of lost people, Wright added.


“The beginning point for all of us is to renew our hearts. Jesus Christ could not be clearer, as politically incorrect as it is in our contemporary culture, that he is the only way to God.”


Asked where he stood in his convictions regarding Calvinism, Wright described himself as “a follower of Jesus Christ that believes the Bible.” He added, “I really don’t believe that human beings are ever going to completely reconcile the sovereignty of God and the free will of man.

“To have a neat theological system is great for human beings, but it sure makes for a small God. We can have a greater awe about the majesty and wonder of God when we believe in both.”

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GCR report overwhelmingly passes after lengthy debate

ORLANDO, Fla.?After nearly a year of formulation and discussion among Southern Baptists and the pleas of proponents to “penetrate lostness,” messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 15 adopted, after lengthy discussion, a list of strategic and organizational recommendations aimed at fueling a resurgence of global gospel advancement.


The seven recommendations offered by the 22-member Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, appointed in June 2009 by SBC President Johnny Hunt at the direction of last year’s messengers, included a 30-word convention vision statement, a list of core values, and five “requests” referred to the SBC Executive Committee and other specified entities that might affect changes in the convention missions enterprise.


Prior to the floor debate, GCR Task Force chairman Ronnie Floyd of Arkansas referenced the words of 19th-century abolitionist William Wilberforce in urging messengers to action.


“There are literally billions of people in the world today who are enslaved in their sin and who will perish without the savior named Jesus Christ ? but after today you can’t say that you did not know,” Floyd said.


Floyd closed his part of the task force report by pointing to previous watershed convention meetings in 1925, the year the Cooperative Program was adopted, and 1979, the year the conservative theological resurgence began.


“And today in 2010, what are we going to do? This is our moment. This is our time. The future is now,” Floyd said.


The raised-ballot vote was called at the podium following more than 90 minutes of debate. Floyd told reporters at a press conference after the vote that parliamentarians estimated the report was carried by 75-80 percent of voting messengers. Messenger registration at the Orange County Convention Center at the time of the vote was announced at 10,994.


The debate was at times spirited, but polite. Objections to adopting the recommendations ranged from a desire for another year of study to concern that language recognizing non-CP missions giving would hurt missionaries on the field, while supporters spoke of a dual need for “structural reform and spiritual renewal” as well as the urgency of the gospel.


David Tolliver, Missouri Baptist Convention’s executive director, and a messenger from Concord Baptist Church in Jefferson City, Mo., made a motion asking the task force to refer the entire report to the SBC Executive Committee for “study and evaluation.”


“I never want to be an obstructionist. I never want to vote, ‘No,'” Tolliver said in explaining his motion. “We haven’t counted the cost. Let’s take a year and then let us vote on the work with full knowledge,” he said, citing Luke 14:28 where the Scripture talks about counting the cost before undertaking a task.


Tolliver’s motion was defeated after task force member R. Albert Mohler Jr. defended the report as worded, noting that it was drafted carefully?with advice from the SBC’s legal counsel?as a list of requests giving “due deference” to the respective trustee boards in keeping with SBC polity.


Former SBC president and Atlanta-area pastor James Merritt pleaded with messengers to adopt the report.


“This task force is not coming to you to ask you to shift the chairs on the Titanic,” Merritt said. “In fact, we [the SBC] haven’t even been doing that.”


Mike Smith, a North American Mission Board church planter in Washington state, spoke in favor of adopting the task force report as it was worded, arguing that the recommendations would lead to NAMB having “ownership of its employees” and allow it to “continue to fund what works and stop funding what doesn’t work.”


Several motions to amend the recommendations were offered and defeated, leading to a brokered amendment between John Waters, a messenger from First Baptist Church in Statesboro, Ga., and the task force. It was adopted after concern by Jan Bryant, a messenger from Morrow Baptist Church in Morrow, Ohio, that messengers were “being bullied” during the debate.


After Bryant’s comment, dialogue halted briefly as Hunt, the SBC president and presiding chair of the business sessions, conferred with parliamentarian Barry McCarty.


McCarty, noting that a substitute amendment agreeable to both Waters and the task force was coming, told messengers: “Please be patient with one another and patient with the committee. Everyone is trying to ascertain what’s best here, listening to the messengers, listening to the committee, listening to God and each heart. So, thank you so much for your patience. We’ll always try as hard as we can to try to ascertain what it is that you’re trying to do.”


What resulted was an amendment that altered recommendation number three’s language lauding “Great Commission Giving” to “enhance and celebrate” the 85-year-old Cooperative Program missions funding plan and the “generous

Great Commission Resurgence Task Force Report

Ronnie Floyd: Thank you Dr. Hunt. I would like to ask all the messengers if you would, stand to your feet, to get a copy of the Word of God and look with me at the 28th chapter of the gospel of Matthew. Jesus talked to us in a very special way leaving us his last will and testament, the one thing he really wanted us to be committed to. We find this recorded in Matt. 28:19-20: “Go, therefore, and make disciplesofall nations,baptizingthem in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember,I am with you always,to the end of the age.” May God let that word soak in our hearts today more than ever before in our lives.

We are going to pray and I’m going to ask Dr. Simon Tsoi, Executive Director of the Chinese Baptist Fellowship of the U.S. and Canada to lead us in this prayer.

Simon Tsoi: Father, by your grace we come to your throne with gratitude. We thank you Father for giving Dr. Johnny Hunt the wisdom to appoint a Great Commission Resurgence Task Force that accomplished the awesome assignment by your grace and for your glory. Father we thank you for Dr. Ronnie Floyd, our chairman, and the team. We pray, Father, as now we present the report to your precious people you’ll grant us your wisdom to do your will in your way. We pray, Father, that you’ll grant us your unity and love as we want to glorify you. Father, when you are glorified, we are gratified, and the lost world gladdened. To that end, we pray in the saving name of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.

(Prayer repeated in Mandarin Chinese)

(Video presented which is archived at http://www.pray4gcr.com/reports/downloads/)

Ronnie Floyd: Every time I see that report in that video it just fires me up because in reality that’s exactly what’s happened in every one of our lives on this stage over this past year. One thousand thank you’s for giving us the privilege of doing what we believe God has called us to do. When I got into this, I had no idea that the greatest change would be the change in my own heart. All I can tell you is, if I could simply unpack this for you for one brief moment, the Lord has changed my life and the Lord has changed my perspective on ministry, and I just give God the glory for it.

After our first meeting where diversity showed up for the first time, one of many times all the way through the end process, I left that meeting and I asked the Lord, “Lord, how are we ever going to get together?” My soul! I didn’t know how it was going to be possible. And I determined that the Lord was leading me that we needed to really understand lostness, that if lostness could not bring us together, my soul, we are dead, dead, dead. We brought in Dr. Jerry Rankin in our second meeting to give to us a picture of lostness and on that day, our journey began towards unity. I could talk about that night when we were at the bottom of the crosses there at the church of <st1:PlaceName

GCRTF report overwhelmingly passes after lengthy debate

ORLANDO, Fla.–After nearly a year of formulation and discussion among Southern Baptists and the pleas of proponents to “penetrate lostness,” messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 15 adopted, after lengthy discussion, a list of strategic and organizational recommendations aimed at fueling a resurgence of global gospel advancement.

The seven recommendations offered by the 22-member Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, appointed in June 2009 by SBC President Johnny Hunt at the direction of last year’s messengers, included a 30-word convention vision statement, a list of core values, and five “requests” referred to the SBC Executive Committee and other specified entities that might affect changes in the convention missions enterprise.

Prior to the floor debate, GCR Task Force chairman Ronnie Floyd of Arkansas referenced the words of 19th-century abolitionist William Wilberforce in urging messengers to action.

“There are literally billions of people in the world today who are enslaved in their sin and who will perish without the savior named Jesus Christ ? but after today you can’t say that you did not know,” Floyd said.

Floyd closed his part of the task force report by pointing to previous watershed convention meetings in 1925, the year the Cooperative Program was adopted, and 1979, the year the conservative theological resurgence began.

“And today in 2010, what are we going to do? This is our moment. This is our time. The future is now,” Floyd said.

The raised-ballot vote was called at the podium following more than 90 minutes of debate. Floyd told reporters at a press conference after the vote that parliamentarians estimated the report was carried by 75-80 percent of voting messengers. Messenger registration at the Orange County Convention Center at the time of the vote was announced at 10,994.

The debate was at times spirited, but polite. Objections to adopting the recommendations ranged from a desire for another year of study to concern that language recognizing non-CP missions giving would hurt missionaries on the field, while supporters spoke of a dual need for “structural reform and spiritual renewal” as well as the urgency of the gospel.

David Tolliver, Missouri Baptist Convention’s executive director, and a messenger from Concord Baptist Church in Jefferson City, Mo., made a motion asking the task force to refer the entire report to the SBC Executive Committee for “study and evaluation.”

“I never want to be an obstructionist. I never want to vote, ‘No,’” Tolliver said in explaining his motion. “We haven’t counted the cost. Let’s take a year and then let us vote on the work with full knowledge,” he said, citing Luke 14:28 where the Scripture talks about counting the cost before undertaking a task.

Tolliver’s motion was defeated after task force member R. Albert Mohler Jr. defended the report as worded, noting that it was drafted carefully—with advice from the SBC’s legal counsel—as a list of requests giving “due deference” to the respective trustee boards in keeping with SBC polity.

Former SBC president and Atlanta-area pastor James Merritt pleaded with messengers to adopt the report.

“This task force is not coming to you to ask you to shift the chairs on the Titanic,” Merritt said. “In fact, we [the SBC] haven’t even been doing that.”

Mike Smith, a North American Mission Board church planter in Washington state, spoke in favor of adopting the task force report as it was worded, arguing that the recommendations would lead to NAMB having “ownership of its employees” and allow it to “continue to fund what works and stop funding what doesn’t work.”

Several motions to amend the recommendations were offered and defeated, leading to a brokered amendment between John Waters, a messenger from First Baptist Church in Statesboro, GA., and the task force. It was adopted after concern by Jan Bryant, a messenger from Morrow Baptist Church in Morrow, Ohio, that messengers were “being bullied” during the debate.

After Bryant’s comment, dialogue halted briefly as Hunt, the SBC president and presiding chair of the business sessions, conferred with parliamentarian Barry McCarty.

McCarty, noting that a substitute amendment agreeable to both Waters and the task force was coming, told messengers: “Please be patient with one another and patient with the committee. Everyone is trying to ascertain what’s best here, listening to the messengers, listening to the committee, listening to God and each heart. So, thank you so much for your patience. We’ll always try as hard as we can to try to ascertain what it is that you’re trying to do.”

What resulted was an amendment that altered recommendation number three’s language lauding “Great Commission Giving” to enhance and celebrate” the 85-year-old Cooperative Program missions funding plan and the “generous support of Southern Baptists channeled through their churches.”

The amendment added the words “and to continue to affirm the Cooperative Program as the most effective means of mobilizing our churches and extending our outreach. We affirm that designated gifts to special causes are to be considered as a supplement and not as a substitute to Cooperative Program giving.”

Bill Sutton, a messenger from First Baptist Church in McAllen, Texas, made a motion to “postpone indefinitely” the vote on the report so that more time could be given for it to be considered. Sutton said his motion stemmed from a concern the report “has been divisive, which I believe does not indicate God’s blessing, and if we are going to reach the nations and pierce the darkness we’ve got to do it together as one.” Sutton’s motion was defeated after Floyd spoke against it on behalf of the task force.

“We are absolutely confident that the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando did not come here to leave and do nothing more than what we’re doing about the Great Commission,” Floyd said.

Florida messenger Darrell Orman, a messenger from First Baptist Church in Stuart and trustee of the SBC Executive Committee, spoke in favor of the first amendment offered by Waters of Georgia that would have eliminated the “Great Commission Giving” language in recommendation three, explaining that his visits with a missionary daughter led him to believe in the crucial nature of the CP.

“We need to be careful with something God has blessed for all these years,” Orman pleaded.

In addition to the convention vision statement to “present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations,” and eight core values of Christ-likeness, truth, unity, relationships, trust, future, local church and kingdom, the recommendations request the SBC’s Executive Committee to:
>consider new language honoring the cooperative Program missions funding plan and that designated giving to SBC causes be esteemed under the title “Great Commission Giving”;
>consider revising NAMB’s ministry assignment in light of the task force’s focus on more effectively reaching unreached peoples and regions in North America;
>in conjunction with the International Mission Board, consider a revised ministry assignment, freeing the IMB to help reach unreached and underserved people groups irrespective of geographic boundaries, including with North America;
>consider working with states in a comprehensive CP promotion and stewardship education plan “in alignment with the report”;
>consider recommending a CP allocation budget shifting 1 percent from its work to the IMB, increasing the mission board’s CP percentage to 51 percent of the SBC budget.

The recommendations correspond with seven components, each outlined in the GCR Task Force’s report, titled “Penetrating the Lostness.”

At one point in the debate, James Goforth Sr., a messenger from Camp Ground Baptist Church in Alto, Texas, prompted a motion to end discussion, pray and vote on the motion at hand, leading Hunt to lead in prayer in the middle of the debate.

Hunt’s prayer noted the divergent views among the messenger body and acknowledged the well-known opposition to the recommendations by retiring EC President Morris Chapman, who spoke passionately against the GCR report earlier in the day, thanking God that he and Chapman were able to speak their convictions freely.

“Lord,” Hunt prayed, “we just ask that your sovereign will be done, not our will, Father, but your will be done.”

Frank Page elected EC president



ORLANDO, Fla.–Frank Page was elected as the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee June 14 in Orlando, Fla. A former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Page will succeed Morris H. Chapman, who is retiring after 18 years in the position.

Page, 57, most recently served as vice president of evangelization for the North American Mission Board and was pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., for nine years and SBC president from 2006-08.

Executive Committee members deliberated for nearly two hours in a closed session Monday afternoon before announcing a decision to call Page as president, and he accepted the role with “a great sense of destiny and awareness that God has a great future for Southern Baptists.”

Page told the Executive Committee his goal is that the group will be unified in its passion to see the world won to Jesus Christ, and he pledged to love the committee members and to work with all his might.

In comments to Baptist Press after the vote, Page said he is following the call of God and is excited about the future.

“I’m somewhat nervous because the task before me is one that’s bigger than any one person, and I am very cognizant of that. So there’s a level of nervousness, and I’m not a nervous person, but I realize the task ahead is great,” Page said. “There’s great division amongst the brethren and to pull us together is going to be a God-ordained task that I shall deal with as best I can.

“One of my goals is to be a unifier. We’ve got to, based on John 17:21,” he said. “It is imperative for our evangelistic efforts that we be unified, and that is extremely important to me.”

Page, who will work alongside Chapman as president-elect until Oct. 1, hinted at an emphasis he’ll unveil in the fall to support international missions, North American missions, the seminaries and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

“The EC is not a missions-sending agency, but I want to be the greatest supporter our agencies have ever seen,” Page said.

After Page emerged from the closed-door session with the Executive Committee members and while they were praying and taking the vote, he told reporters he answered some members’ questions regarding the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report.

As a member of the task force, Page said he voiced deep concerns about some of the recommendations both to the task force and to the Executive Committee.

“But I do want to join our president in a call for a Great Commission Resurgence,” Page said. “I believe that. I love Dr. [Johnny] Hunt and love his heart and want to see us do more to reach the nations for Christ.

“Everyone knows I’m a strong Cooperative Program supporter. I’ve said many times, not just in there but everywhere, ‘Just look at the record,'” Page told reporters. “While a lot of people talk about the Cooperative Program, I’ve been raising millions through it because I do believe in it. I believe in what it does in the states. I believe in what it does in supporting missions.”

Page said the Cooperative Program plays a unique role that must never be overlooked.

“It alone pulls us together. It alone provides for the work of our state conventions that helps support so many hurting churches. I love that,” he said.

Having only been in the North American Mission Board role since October 2009, Page said he is puzzled somewhat by God moving him so quickly to the Executive Committee.

“I have asked the Lord how it could be because I’ve never been to a short ministry in my whole life,” he said, adding that he has identified three possible reasons for the short tenure at NAMB.

“Number one, I think God gave me that time to see the inside of a denomination better than I would have as a pastor,” Page said. “I think He let me go to NAMB to let me see some of the inside, which I like some of it, some of it I don’t as I’ve looked on the inside of the denomination.

“Secondly, I think being a part of the GCR at the same time helped me provide a perspective to say NAMB has a unique missiological need, and I think that was an encouragement to some on the committee to see that NAMB does have a place separately than IMB,” Page said.

“Third, I would have to say the biggest reason I think God brought me to NAMB was to help legitimize and motivate and encourage people in the GPS strategy,” Page said, referring to the national God’s Plan for Sharing evangelistic initiative.

Page received the idea for GPS when he was president of the convention, and he was part of the official kickoff earlier this year when NAMB helped facilitate more than 15,000 Southern Baptist churches sharing the Gospel with nearly 38 million people by leaving literature on doorknobs of homes.

As Page accepted the Executive Committee’s call Monday afternoon, he expressed gratefulness for his wife Dayle and his daughters Laura and Allison, who were with him in Orlando.

“My family is dear and precious to me — my girls. As many people may know, I lost my oldest daughter just six months ago. It’s a very sensitive thing, but they are very precious to me, and I can always count on their support,” he told BP.

A native of Robbins, N.C., Page holds a Ph.D. in Christian ethics focusing on moral, social and ethical issues from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, along with a master of divinity degree from Southwestern. He earned a bachelor of science degree with honors from Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina, majoring in psychology with minors in sociology and Greek.

Page is the author of several books, including “Trouble with the Tulip,” an examination of the five points of Calvinism, and commentaries on the biblical books of Jonah and Mark. He also contributed as lead writer for the Advanced Continuing Witness Training material. Page was named to President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships in February 2009.

Immigration ‘Kingdom issue,’ Land says


ORLANDO, Fla.–Immigration is “an important issue that has reached a critical phase,” Richard Land told members of the National Hispanic Fellowship of Southern Baptist Churches June 13.

Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, addressed the small gathering of Hispanic Southern Baptists at First Baptist Church in Kissimmee, Fla., before the opening of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

“I’m not telling you anything you don’t know when I tell you this issue is rending the social fabric of the country,” said Land, who had visited with President Barack Obama’s advisers at the White House on the subject during the previous week.

The current situation is due to “the failure of the government to fulfill its role for 24 years, under both Democratic and Republican administrations,” Land told the group. “In fact, in reality our country has sent a mixed message. Too often at the border we’ve had two signs. One says ‘No trespassing’ and the other one says ‘Help wanted.'”

Calling for the nation and federal government to bear collective responsibility for the current situation, Land said, “We have to find a way to a just and compassionate immigration policy that will begin to mend the social fabric, rather than continue to rend it.”

The controversial Arizona law that requires police to check with the federal government on a person’s status if, during a stop, detention or arrest, they suspect that the person might be in the country illegally is a “symptom” and a “cry for help,” Land said.

“As a symptom, it needs to be addressed with a federal immigration policy that works,” Land said.

Border security is the first step the federal government must take in addressing the immigration crisis, Land said. Securing the border, however, does not mean closing the border but controlling it, he added.

“Securing the border isn’t beyond American competence,” Land said. “It’s a question of will and a question of commitment and resources.”

Land went on to outline what he considers a moral and just response to the immigration crisis: Illegals who wish to remain in this country legally must “undergo a criminal background check, pay a fine, agree to pay back taxes, learn to speak, write and read English and get in line behind those who are legally migrating into this country….”

Immigrants also should be given tamper-proof social security cards to begin a pathway to legal status, whether as a migrant worker or citizen, Land said.

Land also encouraged Christians to help people in need, whether they are in the United States legally or illegally. Christians are not required to check a person’s legal status in order to minister in Jesus’ name, he said.

In the end, Americans should leave room for those willing to embrace the American dream and the ideals that help define it, Land said. He called immigration a “Kingdom issue” because controversy over the issue inhibits efforts to reach the country’s growing Hispanic population with the Gospel.

From conversation to prayer, Crossover reaches out to Orlando


ORLANDO, Fla.–A friendly conversation, a story, a realization and a prayer: that’s the gist of what happens when one person shares and another accepts the simple Gospel of Jesus Christ. And while the methods and venues may have varied, the scene played out more than 1,400 times June 7-12 as Southern Baptists expressed their core message of hope through Crossover Orlando.

The effort, held just prior to the Southern Baptist Convention’s June 15-16 annual meeting at the Orange County Convention Center, involved more than 70 local churches and 1,200 outside volunteers. Venues included weeklong Hispanic Crossover and Intentional Community Evangelism (ICE) efforts, as well as a one-day blitz June 12 that included 15 neighborhood block parties, visits to homes, food distribution at five churches, free water bottles for tourists on International Drive and a huge family festival for the Hispanic community at the Central Florida Fairgrounds.

“The best thing summing up the week for me was for people to see Southern Baptists at their best — cooperating with one another at association, state and national levels,” said Mike Armstrong, executive pastor of First Baptist Church of Winter Park and coordinator of Crossover Orlando. “They saw the best of what Southern Baptists truly are, and that is a cooperative people.”

Crossover is coordinated nationally through the North American Mission Board.

Bill Faulkner, director of missions for the 168 churches in the Greater Orlando Baptist Association, said he believes the benefits will extend far beyond the spiritual decisions that were made.

“Encouraging churches in an event like this will help them see that they can do this all the time,” Faulkner said. “It doesn’t have to be a special event. It doesn’t have to be necessarily with volunteers from outside. They see it and they say, ‘Wow, we can do this.'”

Additionally, decisions recorded throughout Crossover are distributed to local churches for immediate follow-up with individuals.

HISPANIC CROSSOVER

The Hispanic Crossover initiative involved about 18 churches during the week before the convention in street evangelism, home visits, evangelistic services, a Vacation Bible School and an effort to have families invite individuals to their homes to share Christ. A total of 270 professions of faith were reported.

“One of the things that I noticed is the ease with which some people are just opening their doors and accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior,” said Eloy Rodriguez, pastor of Hay Vida En Jesus and one of the coordinators of the outreach. “I guess the times that we’re living in, most of the people that we share with are in need. So they’re very open to the Gospel.”

The effort, which continues this week with additional evangelistic meetings and follow-up, is the largest coordinated outreach ever among Hispanic churches in Orlando, Rodriguez said.

At a two-day soccer clinic at Comunidad Cristiana En Sus Pasos, high school soccer coach Andy Schatz of Marietta, Ga., taught soccer skills with the help of volunteer coaches from the church. The ongoing World Cup competition brought an additional level of interest, as participants were able to watch part of a Mexico vs. South Africa game.

Those attending the clinic also had an opportunity to hear and respond to presentations of the Gospel, and by the end of the second day, 80 had made professions of faith — including 15 parents who participated in a closing ceremony the evening of June 11.

“Getting them interested with soccer gets them connected especially with the leaders,” said Andrew Snow, part of a youth group helping out from New Providence Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga. “So that way, when we have ministry opportunities they’re more likely to listen.”

Marcel Torres, associate pastor of En Sus Pasos, said it was the first time the church had attempted a soccer camp — but maybe not the last

“It’s been amazing,” he said, noting that earlier worries of low advance registration were erased with the 110 kids who participated over the two days.

“I’ve always had a vision of doing like a soccer league out here on Saturdays. This is a great test to see if people are interested. Maybe this is the beginning of something awesome here in the community.”

Hispanic Crossover activities concluded with “Festival Para Toda la Familia” (Festival for the Whole Family) at the Orlando fairgrounds that drew more than 1,200 people. The festival included music, games for kids, food, door prizes and regular presentations of the Gospel every hour and 15 minutes. Counselors were stationed throughout the area ready to share Christ, and ultimately 103 people made professions of faith.

“I think it’s great that at least 15 to 20 churches united to do something of this magnitude,” said Davide Abreu, a young member of Iglesia Bautista El Camino in Orlando. “We’re usually doing only stuff for our own people, but now we’re going out to the world.”

SHARING HOPE ON THE STREETS

This year’s Intentional Community Evangelism (ICE) initiative had teams sharing Christ June 7-12 in parks, on sidewalks and in neighborhoods near 16 area churches. By the end of the week more than 750 professions of faith had been recorded.

With a focus on lower-income and crime-ridden communities, ICE volunteers routinely lead hundreds of individuals to Christ, often several at a time.

Loren Phippen, leader of one of the groups, said a barrier in one home was overcome when he realized that a Haitian man spoke French — a language Phippen had learned while living in France for several years before he became a Christian.

“He went from being a little defensive … to ready to listen,” Phippen said. “He and the four kids prayed with me to receive Christ and he asked me to get a Haitian pastor to come visit him. It was just a great encounter.”

Elsewhere, Daylin Rodriguez, a native of Cuba and currently a student at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, told how she and evangelist Darrell Robinson saw a miraculous intervention of God to break up an impending gang fight.

The pair had led a number of people in the area to Christ and the police had broken up a fight while they were there. Shortly afterward the gangs gathered to fight again, Robinson walked right up to the crowd.

“He said, ‘In the name of the Lord come to Jesus,’ and held up the Bible like this” Rodriguez said of Robinson.

“They started just looking at each other and they got into their cars and they left,” she said, adding that it wasn’t as much that they were intimidated by Robinson but just that the gang members had been thrown into a spirit of confusion.

“We kept sharing the Gospel, and in less than two hours 18 people had accepted Jesus,” Rodriguez said.

On the other side of town, Andrew Pollard, pastor of Tangelo Baptist Church, said the ICE effort had yielded more than 50 decisions in his neighborhood alone.

“A lot of the people in the church itself haven’t really been a part of witnessing, but this brought them into it, and they are so excited,” Pollard said. “I thank God for it.”

FOOD, FUN & SLIME

More than 100 kids — African American, white and Hispanic — showed up at Winwood Park for First Baptist Church of Altamonte Springs’ block party June 12 — one of 15 held throughout the area. Pastor Todd Lamphere, with the deep voice of a DJ and a comedian’s personality, used green slime to garner kids’ attention.

Using the shade of a mossy water oak, Lamphere and his “Slooze” game show — “slooze is the game where slime and ooze collide” — helped lead 29 young souls to Christ. And when it’s 95 degrees, getting sprayed with cold, fake green slime is not as bad as it sounds.

Lamphere said the slime