Updated Friday, May 16, 2008

SBC presidential field wide open

By Norman Jameson

BR Editor

The announcement May 12 that Les Puryear, pastor of Lewisville Baptist Church, will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) crowds the field but adds a distinctive choice.

Puryear becomes the sixth announced candidate, joining Georgians Frank Cox, pastor of North Metro Baptist Church in Lawrenceville and Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, as well as Bill Wagner a former Southern Baptist missionary and current president of Olivet University International in San Francisco, Avery Willis, a former missionary and retired senior vice president of overseas operations for the International Mission Board and Wiley Drake, a former SBC officer and pastor in Buena Park, Calif.

It is a suddenly crowded field, and welcomed. Maybe it marks the end of the days when the SBC presidency is closely controlled by a small cadre of kingmakers who announce their slate after their January Bible study cruise.

In 2004, again in Indianapolis, North Carolinian Dennis Conner was fed up with what he saw as a "coronation" of SBC presidents, rather than an election, so he nominated Al Jarrell from the floor to oppose Bobby Welch and created the first contested election in a decade.

Conner, then pastor of Cashie Baptist Church in Windsor (now a church planter in Phoenix, Ariz.), didn't expect Jarrell, then pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Merry Hill, (now pastor of Pritchard Road Baptist Church in Windsor) to win, but Jarrell garnered what Conner called a "shocking" 20 percent of the vote.

Frank Page's election in 2006 signaled a crack in that cabal of Cardinals because he was not their man. But what a splendid SBC president he has been. It is not easy moving from handling questions like "How do we find more help in children's church," to "What is the Southern Baptist position on the war in Iraq?"

Page has been theologically sound, politically astute, socially aware, well spoken and certainly well traveled. It seems Page is quoted or pictured in every news release we receive at the Recorder that has any kind of national peg. He has been a strong supporter by word and example of the Cooperative Program and adept on the vast variety of stages where the man in that office is expected to perform.

I especially appreciate him because Taylors Baptist Church where he is pastor has 1,185 subscribers to the Baptist Courier, South Carolina's state Baptist newspaper! That shows he values an informed congregation.

North Carolina Baptists are usually one of the top three contingents at the national SBC meeting, which this year will be June 10-11 in Indianapolis. For the first time since 2004 you have a "favorite son" candidate. Of course in SBC politics people don't represent geographical areas as much as they represent ideals, persuasions or positions.

You would be hard pressed to peg this year's crop of candidates, by any of the standard political parameters of the past three decades.

Puryear represents the small churches which make up the bulk of churches in North Carolina and the Southern Baptist Convention. Fifty-five percent of North Carolina Baptist churches report 100 or fewer in attendance on Sunday mornings. Puryear's reports 195.

Puryear organized a national small church conference in March that attracted pastors from 13 states, and as far away as Oregon. He wrote a book called, The Beauty of the Small Church, and was encouraged to sponsor an annual event.

Page said at the small church conference that he would like to see an SBC president representing small churches and a likely nominee might just be in that room.

In one sense Hunt is a North Carolina favorite son, too. He is a 1979 graduate of Gardner-Webb College (now University) and of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was pastor of Falls Baptist Church in Wake Forest and Longleaf Baptist Church in Wilmington and is married to the former Janet Allen of Wilmington.

He has been a candidate-in-waiting several times but declined ultimately to be nominated, instead nominating others. First Baptist Church Woodstock has grown from 1,027 members to 16,800 during Hunt's 21 years as pastor there. While the church was growing, it also started 78 other churches.

Cooperative Program giving, so pitiful for so long among men elected as SBC president, may be an issue for messengers considering Hunt because First Baptist's percentage of undesignated receipts to CP is just 2.2 percent of a $19 million budget. But its mission giving through church starting and projects outside the church is $3.5 million, or 18 percent.

Bill Wagner, an International Mission Board missionary 31 years, mostly in Europe, and now president of Olivet University International, with campuses in San Francisco, Bangalore, Seoul, Hong Kong and most recently, London, announced his candidacy months ago. He said if Southern Baptists are going to be about missions, as we say we are, then it is time we have as president a man from the mission field.

Wagner has written four books and leads a university with overseas campuses that is training men and women for ministry in five nations.

If mission service is a criterion Avery Willis also is a strong candidate. He was an IMB missionary in Indonesia and retired in 2004 as the man in charge of overseas operations for IMB. Between those stints he led the adult discipleship department at LifeWay for 15 years and is the creator of MasterLife discipleship materials.

Frank Cox has been pastor of North Metro First Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, Ga., for 27 years, leading growth from 700 members to 4,600. He is a former SBC first vice president and was on the SBC Executive Committee nine years. He is a member of the SBC Funding Study Committee and was on the ad hoc Cooperative Program Committee which formed in 2003 and issued its final report in 2006 with recommendations about how to revitalize the SBC's primary missions support channel.

One of the committee findings was that Cooperative Program support was waning because for decades Southern Baptists had elected as their president men who did not demonstrate support for it. His church gives over 13 percent.

If you are attending the SBC this year, you will have a wide variety of choices from which to choose as president. That's a beautiful thing. Who can remember when there were five announced candidates?

What attributes are most important to secure your vote? Recognize that the SBC president is thrust onto a world stage. As the largest protestant denomination-by our own counting anyway-the SBC president fields the calls and invitations asking for representation or opinion. He knows he speaks only for himself, but his statements always carry the weight of his elected office.

Johnny Hunt has the highest profile and greatest name recognition, and the platform of preaching at the pastors' conference. Frank Cox demonstrates the strongest support of the Cooperative Program as a portion of his church's budget. Wagner was a missionary and leads an international university. Willis led an overseas seminary and created discipleship materials used probably by millions and translated into 50 languages. Puryear is a North Carolina favorite son and represents the largest portion of SBC churches.

Whichever of these men messengers choose to represent them for the next year will say a lot about who Southern Baptists are - or who they want to be.