Frank Page to lead NAMB evangelism

“Surreal.”

That’s the only way Frank Page can describe the chain of events that will take him from the pastorate of a South Carolina church to Southern Baptists’ top evangelism position.

Page was tapped on Oct. 7 as vice president of evangelization for the North American Mission Board. Trustees made the selection during their regularly scheduled board meeting and a commissioning service in Denver, Colo.

In naming the prominent South Carolina pastor to the key leadership position, trustees sent a strong signal that the agency is not in a holding pattern regarding a possible combination of it and the International Mission Board. In fact, before the meeting adjourned they also named a Presidential Search Committee to seek the agency’s third president following the resignation of Geoff Hammond and much of his leadership team on Aug. 11.

The appointment comes against the background of a study by the Great Commission Task Force at next June’s annual SBC meeting that some believe will call for a restructuring of the denomination. Included in that report, which is anticipated to be released in the spring and voted on at the meeting in Orlando, is a possible combining of the two missions agencies.

The future of the denomination’s six seminaries, with their declining enrollments, is also expected to be discussed.

Speaking to the trustees shortly before his election, Page succinctly stated his view of the future of the agency and the need for a strong evangelistic emphasis.

“I believe it is time for NAMB to move forward, to capture the mission for which God has established this body. I believe it is time to say that this continent needs to be reached for Jesus Christ and we are going to do everything we can to do that.

“I believe God has called me to touch the lostness of this continent.”

Standing outside the room shortly after that election, the soft-spoken pastor shared his desire to see North America reached for Christ.

“My calling to NAMB is specifically to see evangelism become the main emphasis once again. For too long the agency has been sidelined by leadership difficulties but trustees have clearly said what they want and our nation needs a strong witness for Christ.”

The surreal element Page is referring to is his election to the evangelism post that includes oversight of the denomination’s God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS) evangelism initiative – an emphasis he first proposed while SBC president three years earlier. Now, as he joins the staff later this month, he is being called on to breathe fresh life into that strategy.

The plan will be launched next spring as the first of a 10-year strategy to bring Christ to the unchurched in the U.S., its territories, and Canada. It recently completed field testing in four states, including Georgia. See related story on page 1.

When asked to describe his career change from pastor to denominational executive, Page didn’t miss a beat in casting his vision for reducing lostness in North America.

“It’s almost a surreal feeling to me because God brought the vision to my heart for a national evangelistic emphasis shortly after my election [as SBC president] in 2006. I didn’t know much of what was going on [at the national level in long term planning] but God just kept impressing on me that we had to get a nationwide emphasis going. So I just kept pushing and pushing for it.

“I knew that our churches were hungry for someone to step forward and say ‘Here’s where we’re headed with a strategy.’ I have spent most of my time in small and medium-size churches and I know that they want leadership, they want someone to say ‘Let’s join together in a concerted effort and win this continent for Christ.’”

While he is a pastor of what has become a large church, Page remains a champion of the smaller churches that compose much of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Page said God has also given him “a deep appreciation for the small church pastors and the small church people who are the bread and butter of who we are. I will forever stand up for them and speak up for them, whether it is the GCR Task Force or wherever.

“Now to be asked to come back and help lead this initiative is such an awesome privilege and I hope that I’m up to the task. I will do everything I can to rally our state and associational partners and our churches together because that’s the key to the success of this.”

A ten-year plan will be unlike any previous evangelistic attempt by the denomination. But Page, who served as pastor of Warren Baptist Church in Augusta before going to First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., says it is not an impossible task.

“I believe it can be done and I truly believe the greatest days for the mission of NAMB are ahead.”

Page has a strong track record in evangelism and leading his church, where he has served since 2001, to be personally and financially involved in missions support. During his tenure the South Carolina congregation has doubled and has started a church a year.

During the last year of his presidency, First Taylors led the state in Cooperative Program, Annie Armstrong, Lottie Moon, and state missions offerings. For the past three years it averaged 143 baptisms annually, placing the congregation in the 95.5% percentile of baptisms reported in the Annual Church Profile.

In his resignation letter to his congregation later that evening, Page shared the struggle he faced in responding to the call from NAMB.

“As you may know, I have been a pastor of local churches for over thirty-three years,” he said in a prepared statement.

“To say ‘yes’ would involve a change unlike any I have ever made. Nonetheless after much prayer, I realize that I must say ‘yes’ to this assignment. This is an opportunity to truly touch the lostness of this continent.

Following his election, trustees name Richard Harris as interim president and then appointed a search committee. Harris has served in leadership roles in evangelism and church planting at NAMB and its former agency, the Home Mission Board. He had been serving as acting interim president since the August realignment that created a leadership void.

Board Chairman Tim Patterson explained why trustees did not appoint a presidential search committee immediately after the August resignations of the former president and much of his management team.

“Some have asked why we didn’t we do this immediately … as some other agencies have done. The reason is because those other agencies have not gone through what we have gone through.

“We needed some time for healing, some time for realigning; we needed some time to take a breath and wait a bit before we did this. God’s timing is God’s timing and we are now ready to announce the Presidential Search Team.”

In appointing the team, Patterson made no question about the agency’s future.

“We will find God’s man and I can promise you that the selection will be made without political influence and direction from the outside. This is the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, not another mission board, not another agency or task force.

“We are going to do what God and Southern Baptists have charged us to do, and we are excited about the future and about what God is doing and going to do through the North American Mission Board.

“Frank Page will be one of the leaders at NAMB who will help propel us into the next two or three decades keeping NAMB at the point in reaching and impacting lostness in North America.”