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Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church Woodstock, has been announced as a candidate for president of the Southern Baptist Convention. His autobiographical, life-changing story is explained in the book, “From the Poolroom to the Pulpit.”

Hunt has been pastor of FBC Woodstock since December 1986. During his pastorate the church has experienced phenomenal growth numerically, physically, and spiritually. With a total membership of more than 12,000, the church hosts an average of 6,000 worshippers for Sunday morning services.

The Christian Index interviewed Hunt and heard him speak passionately about his vision for ministry and for the Southern Baptist Convention.

 

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The Index: Brother Johnny, some are wondering why you chose to allow your name to be placed in nomination for president this year. What was the motivation for your decision?

Hunt: First of all, I have no personal motivation in this matter. I want above all things to walk in humility. Those who know me well know this; others may think differently.

I have allowed my name to be placed in nomination simply out of my desire to be obedient to what God would have me to do. Every two years, for the last 10 or 12 years, I have been approached by many to do this. I can assure you that I faithfully prayed and sought the Lord’s will, but could never on those occasions get peace that God was ready for me to take on this responsibility.

This year, as in the past, several key leaders and friends of mine kindly pled with me to again consider being nominated. I am sure your readers understand any genuine leader among Southern Baptists would view the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention as only a task to which God does the calling. Likewise, the one elected to the presidency has the awesome responsibility of serving over forty thousand churches, all of our great agencies and boards, and most importantly the millions of people who call themselves Southern Baptists.

With that said, I am absolutely confident God would have me to be nominated to serve His people in this capacity and I want to be obedient to His call. Through much prayer, along with counsel from very wise friends, God has confirmed this in my heart and the heart of my wife. I am at least to submit to the nomination process and to lead passionately if chosen as president.

I am a Southern Baptist pastor who loves our convention, its leaders, and its people. We are the largest evangelical denomination in the world. The work God has accomplished through our churches and their people has been the envy of other denominations. Some would say we are declining, and if one looks at the data they may agree. In 1985 there were 45,000 messengers showing up for the convention and 36 percent of them were under 40 years of age. In 2005 these numbers had dropped to 10,000 messengers with only 16 percent being under 40. Thom Rainer’s analysis of churches says 9 out of 10 are declining. I have never been a part of anything on a death march, and I am willing, with every fiber of my being, to lead the charge for God’s great work in our denomination.

God has given me a passion and a connection with the next generation on college campuses, the seminary campus, and in mentoring many in the ministry. We must capture their interest and commitment. I hear people referring to the next generation as a problem. They are not the problem; they are the future of this convention.

 

The Index: When the pastors of the largest churches in our convention had their annual meeting in April I thought they would propose a candidate for president as they have in the past. I called several pastors who attended that meeting and asked if a potential candidate was discussed at that meeting and was told, “No one at that meeting seemed to care.” Does that group seem to have a growing indifference toward the convention?

Hunt: The men who come to these annual meetings are pastors and are wonderful men of God. They are called to service, first to our Lord and second to their people. They care passionately about matters in our convention, but these “mega” church meetings do not have “picking the candidates” for the office of the presidency as an agenda item.

These annual meetings are designed to help all of us as we talk about things we have in common and how we can better lead our people. We are blessed and privileged at the meetings to have leaders from the IMB, NAMB, and other agencies share with us, all with an objective to help us cooperate and partner in the work these organizations are doing.

You can be assured these pastors have much to do everyday and every one of them is 24/7 in service and commitment to their people. I think the issue with “caring” is off track a bit. The issue in my mind is that we have not given opportunity and challenged our great leaders to be more involved.

When the announcement was made that I would agree to have my name placed in nomination, I started getting calls from these men. All have been gracious, and have said “your willingness to be nominated has instilled hope in me … I will be breathing down your neck and following your leadership.”

One of my passions is to challenge leaders with God-given abilities and experience to get in the fight for the souls of men and women. We, as Southern Baptists, must keep this as the major task. I personally will lead in challenging these great pastors to be involved and to make personal as well as church commitments to Baptist causes here and around the world. I am going to challenge these men to lead the way in getting their churches to give so we can jump-start the Cooperative Program, in challenging their people to evangelism and missions, and in helping me challenge our young leaders to see, with God’s grace, that our future can be the best we have seen in this great work.

 

The Index: Although your church has been among the leading churches in our state in Cooperative Program giving, some have been critical that First Baptist Woodstock has not given a greater percentage of its budget to CP. Is that a legitimate criticism?

Hunt: First of all, I believe if I were elected, the Cooperative Program receipts would increase, but the CP would not be my message. I would lead the Convention back to sharing the vision of Southern Baptists reaching the nations. The CP, with all due respect, has in some circles become the vision. What we seem to be doing now is placing our focus on the Cooperative Program; if we allow that to be our vision, we are probably going to see the CP decline. Southern Baptists understand the Great Commission. If that is our vision, the CP will increase, both through the challenge the vision gives to hearts as well as the fact that more disciples bring more givers to support CP.

Maybe it is just a matter of semantics. We are using the CP as the vehicle to get us down the road when it is not. The proclamation of the gospel, the fulfilling of the Great Commission, is the vehicle. The CP is the fuel that gets the vehicle wherever it needs to go. I believe the CP challenge is offending young people, the young men who do not have 35 years of experience.

We at First Baptist Woodstock have embraced and support the Cooperative Program. We believe in what we are doing, but the CP is not our fundamental message. Our denomination is saying we want a higher percentage of the offering of the local church, and the reason for this is because the number of disciples is declining. If we put the focus on the gospel, on evangelism, church planting, and reaching the nations and get out the story of what God is doing, Cooperative Program receipts will increase.

 

The Index: You have indicated that your church gives much more to missions than is reported in the Annual Church Profile – and that your giving is in the midst of paying off a major building indebtedness. How is your missions money appropriated?

Hunt: We would never promote buildings over the Great Commission, but as God has blessed us with growth, we have grown in real estate as well as buildings to accommodate the people as well as minister. With this in mind, as God blesses, we are doing it in the context of paying off a $64 million building program. All of this is being done without a major capital fund raising campaign. We are predominantly a blue-collar church, yet have wonderful people who give so compassionately to Kingdom work.

We have one of the largest ministries to the poor of churches in the Atlanta area. That kind of ministry takes space as well as dollars to manage, where no family asking for food goes away empty handed. This is a mission in that every person is an opportunity for us to serve as well as someone with whom we can share our faith.

Our missions dollars last year totaled almost $3 million. We partner with over 150 missionaries and church planters around the world but most of our missionary dollars go to Baptist causes, including our gifts to the Cooperative Program and special missions offerings for the IMB, NAMB, and our local association. We try to respond to ongoing needs as well as those that are presented to us throughout the budget year. During my first year as pastor at Woodstock we gave $30,000 to the Cooperative Program. In 2007 we gave $460,000 to the Cooperative Program, a 25% increase over the previous year. Our Lottie Moon offering was $175,000.

Our mission efforts seek strong involvement in building relationships with the field partners. One of the greatest examples I have seen is our participation in an alliance of churches that is geared to reach a people group of 40 million people. Last year alone we contributed $75,000 to this unique effort where churches and field partners are working hand in hand to get the mission accomplished.

Our primary partner in this effort is the IMB and over twenty field units are supported with resources through this effort. We do support other wonderful Great Commission organizations, but often find this complementary to our SBC field partners in most cases.

A current program to fund near culture missionaries to come alongside our IMB partners is now underway to not only support the IMB but to do a better job culturally.

We never forget the call on our people to go. In the last two years we have sent out many missionary families and single folks to the field under the IMB; we believe it is the greatest mission organization in the world. There is no way to measure the effectiveness of this and we are grateful for our leaders in Richmond to whom we entrust these precious families. In my time as pastor at Woodstock, we have sent 120 families to the field as missionaries.

We also have invested and partnered financially to cooperate with NAMB and other organizations in planting churches in the United States. Our contributions to a church plant in Las Vegas amounted to nearly one half million dollars. We have since been financially helping to start four other churches there and the first church is averaging 1,800 in attendance. In my tenure here we have started 78 churches in the United States.

In addition to these things, the people of Woodstock have sought to do some things that few are doing. We will spend over a million dollars this year on our City of Refuge families – that is displaced ministers. The purpose of this program is to provide a time of restoration for pastors who have fallen or have for other reasons had to step aside in ministry. We provide assistance to families such as housing, providing short-term living expenses, and do everything possible to restore them.

We also have homes for addicts. We call this ministry Hope Quest. We average about 15 men in this program at any given time and believe it is significant that the first three girls that came into the program are Southern Baptist convention pastors’ daughters. Some of those who come through our Hope Quest Ministry will end up back in a Southern Baptist church as healthy and productive members for the kingdom of God. Only the Lord can keep score of what we are doing.

If the focus of all this was giving to the cooperative Program, our people would be less involved and without the vision of missions, limited in their giving. As president of the convention, I believe my love for the work and purposeful emphasis on the Great Commission will result in more Cooperative Program giving than ever before.

I am sometimes accused of being the biggest beggar in town; my first target would be the wonderful pastors of the mega churches. I believe they are ready to give more; they, like me, want to see the vision of the work – not a financial quota that has no challenge to the heart. I personally believe the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention want to give more.

 

The Index: How do we inspire the younger generation to embrace the Cooperative Program? Where is the disconnection if our young people do not understand the work of our denomination and are unwilling to contribute to our great missionary enterprise?

Hunt: Again, I believe the problem is vision casting and personal challenge. I talk to our pastors and they don’t understand why they should give money to keep a system alive that they don’t understand and that doesn’t embrace them. I tell them that when they give their money to the CP they are taking care of 5,500 missionary families around the world – that more people are coming to Christ in African nations than anywhere else in the world.

God is doing a great work in Central Asia and we are planting churches in the Middle East as never before. I remind them the great portion of their seminary education was paid for by CP money. We need to get that message out.

 

The Index: Do you see a division in our convention over Calvinism? Is that going to be a problem for us in the days ahead?

Hunt: I’m a student of Calvinism. I’ve read mass volumes to be able to address my own congregation and I know where I stand. With that being said, this has been an argument for 400 years. I have already been interviewed and said that there is room for 5 Point Calvinism in our denomination. I am not a Calvinist, and I am not an Arminian – I am a Soteriologist. I believe in salvation.

Al Mohler and Mark Dever are two of my dearest brothers. They are 5 Point Calvinists, but they have the character of Jesus. They are not bitter, mean-spirited, or character assassins, but some are not that way. When you get into destructive means and methods, it is no longer a matter of being a Calvinist or a non-Calvinist, but whether or not we are being like Jesus. We have already proved that we can bring Paige Patterson and Al Mohler together in a decent, congenial debate or dialogue on the subject.

 

The Index: We have had almost 30 years since the Conservative Resurgence was launched in Houston in 1979. What has happened to our convention since then? Has the Resurgence helped us do a better job for the Lord?

Hunt: Here is the concern that I have had about the Conservative Resurgence. Thank God for those who led the way! We made the bold statement that we believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, but do we believe in the revelation of the Bible?

I am speaking of the revelation of Jesus Christ and His mission for the world. There were 45,000 who came to say they endorsed the Bible. Where are the 45,000 today that need to endorse the revelation of the Bible? If we only have 10,000 show up for the convention, there are 35,000 absent – AWOL.

I’d like to see the Southern Baptist Convention become the pep rally for the game – the inspiration, the encouragement that fuels the enthusiasm for what we need to be doing under God. I want to lead the charge. I want to ring the bells. I guess I had become discouraged like everyone else, but I want to help us refocus and set the direction and give the vision.

I want to make sure that the bureaucracy answers to the churches and not vice-versa. For example, if we go to the annual meeting again and in our reporting we make ourselves look good and we’re haughty and proud, someone needs to remind us that God resists the proud. So, we need to call a solemn assembly in the convention and repent for the little we have done. If we will do that, I believe God will revive us again – and lift us out of the dust.

 

The Index: You speak of having a connection with the younger pastors. How have you accomplished that?

Hunt: Most importantly, I go to them and seek their company. Young people, and especially young pastors, excite me. I have been doing the Timothy-Barnabas Conferences for 16 years now. The average conference attendee is in his early 30’s. I raise money and scholarships for a lot of those guys. I also have had the opportunity to speak in our seminaries. That gives me a connection with younger pastors.

 

The Index: You mentioned earlier that First Baptist had started over 70 other churches during the course of your ministry here. Tell us about your heart for planting churches.

Hunt: We have started churches in other states, but we have also started a good number of churches within a 35-mile radius of our church. By the way, their accumulative attendance would be more than ours here at First Baptist.

We have also just restarted Paulding Baptist Church and I’ve had three churches given to Woodstock in the last two years to rebuild the work in these. One church gave me ten acres, two houses, and a beautiful church campus, and I am in the process of restarting it. I am doing what we are calling an “extreme church makeover” and it will open up the first Sunday in August in Smyrna.

The Noonday Association called and they wanted us to help start a German church. They requested $1,000 a month to help get the church started and we started sending the checks, but I always respond that way. My dream in America is cooperating with our seminaries to place church planters in un-evangelized major cities across the United States.

 

The Index: Sometimes I think many people in the world look at Southern Baptists askance. Perhaps that is because we have maintained our commitment to the Word of God in a day when there is a de-emphasis on objective, absolute truth. Is there some way we can improve our image in the world?

Hunt: I want us to “Love Loud!” 1 Corinthians 13 speaks loud on this subject. I would like to see us emphasize that passage again, because without love we are nothing.

We have a ministry to the poor people of Woodstock. We give away 40 boxes of food every week here. Last week we put together 400 bags of groceries. We work with Publix to do this; and we have been doing it for 10 years.

We just recently took up $32,000 – a cash offering to feed the hungry in our community. We call it “Love Loud.” We want to love in such a way that they’ll know us by our love. We want to love so loud that they can’t hear anything else.

That is what I want to do at our convention: I want us to love the world so loudly they won’t see us as fundamentalists, Calvinists or Arminians, contemporary or traditional, but as Christians.