This week both the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary announced their perspective nominees for new leaders.
The ERLC is bringing forth Evan Lenow, currently serving at Mississippi College with recent connections as a faculty member at Southwestern Seminary. Southeastern Seminary is seeking to promote Scott Pace, who currently serves as a vice president at the school.
Derek Crawford
It is interesting to see the trends of leadership within any organization. Lenow and Pace both have doctorates from Southeastern Seminary. However, it was not long ago that many SBC entities were led by men with direct connections to Al Mohler and Southern Seminary.
Consider some of the former and current leaders across the SBC:
- In 2005, Thom Rainer became CEO of Lifeway, a role he held 14 years. Rainer went to Nashville from his post at Southern Seminary, where he was the Dean of the Billy Graham School of Evangelism.
- Jason Allen leads Midwestern Seminary, directing the school to unprecedented growth since 2012. Allen was mentored by Mohler while serving as assistant to the president, then later taking on the role of vice president of institutional relations at Southern.
- Danny Akin was with Mohler during a time of immense growth at Southern from 1996 to 2004 serving as dean of the School of Theology and later transitioning to become senior vice president for academic administration. In 2004, Akin began his tenure at Southeastern and has had a successful run with significant institutional growth along the way.
- Russell Moore, notorious to many Southern Baptists these days, was heralded as a stellar pick to lead the ERLC. He went to that post from Southern Seminary, where he served as Mohler’s provost.
- Kevin Ezell is in his 16th year leading the North American Mission Board. Ezell was not on staff at Southern, but he was Mohler’s pastor at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.
- Paul Chitwood also had a strong connection with Mohler during his time as executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention prior to his appointment as leader of the IMB.
- Adam Greenway was the Dean of the Billy Graham School in Louisville, leading the school through both change and growth. He was later hired as president at Southwestern Seminary but had a short and tumultuous tenure.
- David Dockery was on staff at Southern Seminary 33 years ago when Mohler was hired as president. Dockery was the chief academic officer during Mohler’s early years but later left to take the president’s job at Union University in Jackson, Tenn.
Even if you have strong differences with Mohler, you cannot deny the emphasis on leadership development in Louisville has been effective. So many of his associates have gone on to produce results in their respective roles in denominational leadership. Akin and Allen are the most obvious examples.
According to Southeastern’s press team, “Last academic year, Southeastern had 2,263 students, half of them full-time equivalents, according to data from the Association of Theological Schools. That’s a 40% increase over 2004, the year Akin started when Southeastern had 1,619 students, an impressive number at a time when many seminaries are facing declining enrollment.” Additionally, more than 700 students are pursuing the master of divinity degree at Southeastern.
“The latest slate of SBC leaders do not have any direct link to Mohler.”
Allen has superseded Akin’s results at Midwestern in Kansas City. Within seven years, the numbers are impressive.
The school’s website boasts: “Midwestern’s vision is known to all who know the institution. We are for the church. God has nearly quadrupled our enrollment, with our 2018-19 headcount hitting 4,000 students. And on the financial front, we’ve gone from annual revenues approximating $8 million to north of $25 million, all the while more than doubling the seminary’s assets, growing them by nearly $40 million.”
However, with the recent additions to SBC entity leadership, there is an apparent change in Mohler’s influence. Lenow and Pace have little observable connection to Mohler. But consider some of the other recent appointments across the SBC: Jamie Dew at New Orleans Seminary is from the Southeastern family. Adam Groza of Gateway Seminary, Hance Dilbeck at Guidestone and Jeff Iorg of the Executive Committee are all products of Southwestern Seminary.
The latest slate of SBC leaders do not have any direct link to Mohler.
With the continued growth of special interest groups such as the Founders, 9Marks, the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, and so on, it is interesting to see two more leaders not chosen from Louisville of other Reformed groups. It will be interesting to see how these gentlemen lead their respected institutions in the coming years and the effect they will have on Southern Baptist life.
Pace seems to have an easier road ahead than Lenow. Southeastern is a healthy seminary with strong connections to local churches and continued strong enrollment.
Lenow faces a challenging road as he seeks to rebuild trust between the ERLC and churches across the convention.
But both men share this in common: They begin with ties from other places than the SBC’s flagship seminary in Kentucky.
Derek Crawford is a former director of missions and pastor in Oklahoma who currently serves as an educator in South Carolina.