The Open Door

As I attended the Southern Baptist Executive Committee meeting in Nashville a little over a week ago, I listened as Dr. Morris Chapman, president and CEO of the Executive Committee, read a statement in which he expressed his intent to retire on September 30, 2010. Dr. Chapman recounted his ministry among Southern Baptists including the years he served as a pastor. For seventeen years, Dr. Chapman has been providing leadership in his significant role in our denomination.

I join the many others who express appreciation for Morris and Jodi Chapman, for their devotion to Christ and to Southern Baptists. I wish him the best as he anticipates his move into retirement in one year.

A few days prior to Dr. Chapman’s announcement, Dr. Jerry Rankin, president of the International Mission Board, announced his plans to retire. Jerry and Bobbie have been tireless in their efforts to extend the witness of Southern Baptists across the world. Their background as Southern Baptist missionaries launched them into a remarkable multiplication of their mission ministry as leaders of the IMB.

In my memory, we have never had a president of the International Mission Board with a greater commitment to advance the Gospel into all the world. Jerry has helped Southern Baptists to focus upon the unreached people groups in our world. He reminds us regularly that over one-and-one-half billion in our world have never even heard the name of Jesus.

I am grateful for Dr. Rankin’s unrelenting devotion to his sense of God’s call upon his life that he would make every effort to see that the Gospel is proclaimed among all the nations of the earth until all have had an opportunity to hear and receive the Gospel. No one has ever pursued his goal with greater diligence and energy than Jerry Rankin.

Before these announcements, Dr. Geoff Hammond resigned as president of the North American Mission Board. Geoff and Debbie gave 100 percent of themselves to their calling to this significant position understanding the necessity of reaching North America for Christ. I join the many others who are praying that God will bless Geoff and Debbie in a remarkable way as they move toward the next chapter in their spiritual journey with the Lord.

Now, we find ourselves in a most unusual and very historic moment. As far as I have been able to learn, there has never been a time in Southern Baptist life when all three of these positions were vacant at one time. Whatever else this may say to us, it does indeed declare to us that we are about to experience change.

New leadership undoubtedly brings new vision, new direction, and new challenges. I am living in anticipation of what God may do among us as Southern Baptists. One thing I know for certain is that there has never been a time in my memory when our denomination needed more a concerted prayer commitment.

Let us all join our hearts in praying for the divine leadership of our Heavenly Father. Let us pray that we will be perceptive in understanding God’s will for Southern Baptists and that knowing God’s will, we will be faithful to do God’s will.

I encourage Georgia Baptists, and all Southern Baptists, to be faithful during these days of new beginnings. It is just as important for the denomination as it is for the local church when the leader departs to serve elsewhere that we remain faithful in our giving, praying, and serving. In fact, in so many churches that I have observed, the church actually surges during the interim as the members realizing the need of the hour step up their level of commitment. May it be so with Southern Baptists!

God has given us unprecedented opportunity to touch our nation and world with the Gospel, and it is no time to be in retreat. Let us commit right now to give more, go more, pray more, witness more than ever before.

Let us be united in spirit and devotion to our calling as a people of God. These can be our best days.