TAYLORS, S.C. (ABP) — Warning “there is a serious disconnect between the leaders of our Southern Baptist Convention and the rank-and-file,” South Carolina pastor Frank Page announced he will be a candidate for SBC president next month.
Page's announcement May 22 guarantees Southern Baptists the first seriously contested election since 1994 — and only the second challenge to come from within the ranks of SBC conservatives themselves.
Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., will face Ronnie Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church of Springdale, Ark. Floyd has the endorsement of the SBC's conservative establishment, which has controlled the denomination since 1979.
Page, 53, was recruited by conservative Southern Baptists dissatisfied with Floyd's weak denominational support and close ties with the SBC establishment, which Page and others say is excluding too many people.
In a news release announcing his candidacy, Page praised Floyd and gave assent to the movement that ousted moderates in the 1980s. He said the differences that prompted his nomination are not about theology or personalities but “methodology — how we do missions and how we do convention work.”
Page described an SBC establishment that has lost touch with those who put it in power.
“There is a serious disconnect between the leaders of our Southern Baptist Convention and the rank-and-file layperson and pastor,” he wrote. “Some perceive that there is a well-oiled machine, filled with power-hungry politicians, running the show, while the vast majority of loyal, supportive people are left without any voice and/or influence. While this observation may or may not be true, there is a serious perception of disconnect and distrust.”
He called for a “truly democratic convention.”
“Let us have two or more conservative, solid candidates run each year,” he wrote, without “calling into question anyone's integrity or veiled threats regarding suicide of political futures.”
“Many of us are tired of seeing the same names on committees year after year,” he continued. “Many of us are losing patience with the perception that a few people control everything in the Southern Baptist Convention.”
In a later interview with Associated Baptist Press, Page said doctrinal conditions for leadership in the SBC should not exceed the “Baptist Faith and Message,” the doctrinal statement adopted in 2000.
He said that agency trustees, like those at the International Mission Board, have a right to set guidelines for whom they employ, but he added: “Doctrinally, we need to stay with the parameters of the 'Baptist Faith and Message.'”
IMB trustees have been criticized for adopting policies for missionary selection that define the proper setting for baptism and that restrict charismatic practices.
Likewise, it is improper to exclude people from denominational participation because their churches don't contribute a certain percentage of receipts to the Cooperative Program, the SBC's central budget that funds state, national and international ministries.
But, he added, it is “absolutely” appropriate to expect elected leaders to support the ministries they govern. “I would be morally irresponsible to call myself Southern Baptist and not support the work that we do,” he told ABP. “We must have leaders that model that kind of cooperation.”
“Is this election going to be one in which a candidate is elected who gives little support to the Cooperative Program and at the same meeting the convention is asked to vote on initiatives which strengthen the Cooperative Program (and expect leaders to model that cooperation)?” he wrote in his news release.
At the June 13-14 SBC meeting, messengers will be asked to approve recommendations designed to increase support for the Cooperative Program and urging the election of officers who belong to churches that give at least 10 percent of their undesignated receipts to the CP.
Floyd, former chairman of the SBC Executive Committee, has been criticized because his church gives 0.27 percent through the Cooperative Program. Page's church contributes 12.1 percent.
“To have a president who gives one quarter of a percent,” while adopting a 10 percent standard, sends a “duplicitous message,” Page told ABP.
Page softened his critique, however, adding in his news release: “We must affirm that all mission work is vital and appropriate. I will never cast aspersions upon any church or pastor who is on mission for God. Whether or not they do it through the Cooperative Program or through our convention or on their own, they have to answer before the Lord as to how they do mission work.”
And he warned that the SBC's “bloated bureaucracy” discourages many people from contributing sacrificially, and simply shouting “Give more, give more!” won't work.
Page, who grew up in Greensboro, N.C., site of the June SBC meeting, has served most of his career in the Southeast. Both factors could help his election chances.
He warned of a “state of turmoil” engulfing several SBC agencies and an “overall malaise” affecting SBC churches.
Turmoil is evident at the North American Mission Board, where the president recently resigned under pressure, he said, and the International Mission Board, where some trustees have targeted the president. And, at the IMB, “missionaries have changed to an entirely different missions methodology over the last several years,” Page said.
“I feel strongly that Southern Baptists need to deal with all of these issues,” he wrote.
If that weren't challenge enough, Southern Baptist churches face “dangerous days,” he said, according to recent statistics that show a pattern of decline in baptisms, Sunday school attendance and other indicators.
“Above all that, there is an overall malaise among many people,” he said. “There are many groups that state that the “threads” by which we are connected are becoming increasingly frayed and tenuous. What will hold us together? … Is there any way for us to do anything other than to rearrange deck chairs on a sinking Titanic?”
In such dangerous times, Page wrote, Southern Baptists need to practice openness, accept their differences, and include more people — rather than exclude people.
“For almost 30 years we have concentrated on doctrinal purity (Praise the Lord!). Let us now add to our passion, revival, soul-winning, and missions!”
Page, who said he attended his first SBC meeting in 1979 when the “conservative resurgence” began, acknowledged “we have certainly not seen great gains” in the denomination since that time. Conservatives at the time claimed liberalism was hurting the SBC's evangelistic fervor.
Page told ABP he was “disappointed” by that lack of progress, but he added, “I'm not sure it's because of the conservative resurgence.”
“It's certianly sad that, after all those years of strong conservative leadership, our evangelism is not any better.”
Solving the SBC's malaise starts with cooperation, he said.
“I am convinced we can do that better together than by pulling apart, as we are prone to do,” he said.
“I'm not running against Ronnie Floyd. I'm sure he's a wonderful person. Thank the Lord for that. I just believe that, as Southern Baptists, we can do a lot better if we pull together.”
“If anything will hold us together it will be a rallying around missions and evangelism … and church transformation,” he said.
With so many congregations in decline, it is important to help churches become revitalized, said Page, who has led two such “turnaround churches.” A revitalized church does not have to choose between being evangelistic or supporting denominational missions, he said. “I believe you can do it all if the church becomes revitalized and transformed.”
Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson, whom many observers thought would be a candidate for president, told ABP he will not be nominated since he and Page are in agreement about the need for openness and inclusiveness in the SBC.
While there might be “a multitude of issues” about which they would disagree, Page said, he and Burlseon are in agreement about the needs of the convention.
While Burleson is a Calvinist, Page wrote a book discounting that doctrinal system. But both men said there is room for the other point of view in the SBC and pledged to honor those differences.
Page said there is a need “to pull together various factions” within the SBC, and he mentioned young pastors, “emergent” pastors, Calvinists, extreme legalists, strong denominationalists, and even the few remaining moderates.
Page acknowledged that, while contemplating his nomination, he had received some of those “veiled threats regarding suicide of political futures.” But he said such warnings about opposing the SBC establishment “didn't concern” him because he had no ambitions about denominational office.
“I have no political future,” he quipped.
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