NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention gathered Feb. 21 to witness a new chapter in denominational life with the inauguration of Frank Page as president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee.
Page, a former pastor and SBC president, is one of a trio of key leaders taking reins in a pivotal time for the nation's second-largest faith group behind Roman Catholics. Kevin Ezell, 48, recently took over and downsized the convention's North American Mission Board, while the International Mission Board is poised to consider 66-year-old former pastor and missionary Tom Elliff as successor to former President Jerry Rankin, who retired last July after 17 years.
Southern Baptist Convention leaders surround Frank Page with prayer at his inauguration as president of the SBC Executive Committee.
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Page was elected in June, at age 57, and began work Oct. 1 leading the standing committee that functions on behalf of the 16 million member religious organization that technically exists only when convention messengers meet in annual session for two days each June.
Long after the battle over biblical inerrancy that divided Southern Baptists between conservative and anti-fundamentalist factions in the 1980s, Page, who won the SBC presidency as a dark-horse candidate in 2006 and received a traditional second term in 2007, assumes leadership in a denomination doctrinally united but fragmented by factors including mission strategy, ethnicity, generation and waning support for denominations in general.
"I believe God's calling upon Southern Baptists is to be closer than we ever were before, to be purer than we've ever been before, to be more passionate than we ever have been before about sharing the Good News with a lost and dying world," Page said.
"I will tell you, 'Yes, I believe the inerrant word of God,'" Page said. "And I believe the Bible tells us the truth about what heaven is like and what hell is like, and we ought to do everything we can to reach this world for Christ."
Morris Chapman, who retired as Executive Committee president at the end of September, challenged his successor to "lead Southern Baptists from a position that is like none other in the convention."
"Southern Baptists are among God's finest in all the earth, and they will follow you as you follow Him," Chapman said.
The inauguration service at Van Ness Auditorium at LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tenn., included charges by representatives of various state and national entities that cooperate under the Southern Baptist franchise.
"We appreciate you taking CEO and changing it from chief executive officer to chief encouraging officer, because I think that is a role greatly needed in Southern Baptist life at this juncture," Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Convention, said on behalf of autonomous Baptist state conventions that collect donations from churches and channel them to various local and national causes.
"We want you to know we are going to be your friends as state executive directors, not your foes," Lance said. "We are going to be your colleagues and collaborators, not your competition. We're going to be your allies, not your adversaries.
"Be our encourager," urged Richard Land, president of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. "You are the person who really … is at the apex of Southern Baptist life in terms of what people see. If there are controversial and difficult things to be done, let us do them. You be the encourager. You encourage Southern Baptists. You remind Southern Baptists of who we are."
"Right now we are in a time where there are some challenges in the convention," observed Ed Stetzer, vice president of research and ministry development at LifeWay Christian Resources. "Some are concerned about its future, and some are uncertain about what the future holds."
"I have said on many occasions … that the battle for the Bible in our national denomination is over and won, but some people have gone on to bomb the rubble," Stetzer said.
"Denominations have fallen on hard times, and … right now some perceive the SBC is in crisis," Stetzer said. "Maybe it is, but I've heard the same thing in just about every denomination I speak to. They all think they're in crisis."
"I'm a believer in denominations and denominationalism, and I believe you will help lead us through those challenges, Stetzer continued. "We need denominations, because God actually directs churches to do things that they are unable to do. God gives to the church the Great Commission, to take the gospel to all nations. My church cannot take the gospel to all nations alone. And thus by the command of Jesus we end up partnering together with other churches to do so, but it's a tool, not a goal. The goal is evangelization of the world."
A native of North Carolina, Page is a graduate of Gardner-Webb University with master’s and doctor’s degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Most recently he was vice president for evangelization at the North American Mission Board, a job he took after serving 30 years as a pastor in Southern Baptist churches in North Carolina, Texas, Georgia and South Carolina. During his nine years at First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., he served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2006 until 2008.
He was a member of the Great Commission Task Force that last year recommended a reprioritizing of convention programs that includes reducing significantly the Executive Committee budget and transferring those funds to international missions.
In 2009 he served on President Obama’s Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
He and his wife, Dayle, are parents to two grown daughters. Their third and oldest daughter died in November 2009.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.