Frank Page to lead SBC Executive Committee

ORLANDO, Fla. – Former Georgia pastor and longtime Southern Baptist statesman Frank Page was elected president of the SBC Executive Committee on July 14 on the eve of the annual convention meeting. Page, a longtime supporter of the Cooperative Program and proponent for strong evangelistic outreach, will assume the post in July.

Page conceived the idea of a national evangelism plan SBC in 2006, early in his first term as SBC president. That idea eventually morphed into the North American Mission Board’s 10-year evangelistic emphasis titled God’s Plan for Sharing.

In October 2009 Page stepped down from his nearly nine-year pastorate of First Baptist Church of Taylors, S.C., to accept the vice president, evangelization, post at NAMB. In that self-described “surreal” turn of events he was able to help shape and fine-tune the plan before its rollout earlier this year.

Page has long been an outspoken supporter of the Cooperative Program. His surprise election as SBC president four years ago was largely attributed to his belief that churches can do more for missions and evangelism by pooling their resources than through designated giving or a societal missions approach.

In an interview with The Index two summers ago as he was leaving his post as SBC president, Page noted that his church, which was the highest CP giver in South Carolina for 20 years, also had one of the largest missions programs in the denomination. He maintained that a church doesn’t have to choose between one or the other.

“The Cooperative Program is more relevant than ever as our number of missionaries and the cost of putting them on the field increases,” he told The Index. “The same is true for our educational ventures through our seminaries and our church planting and evangelism efforts through NAMB. The need to support the CP has not slackened but increased as the challenges have increased.”

Page shares his view of the future of the denomination in this exclusive Index interview.

 

➤ What is the role of the Executive Committee and how often does it meet? How many members does it have?

Page: Under normal circumstances the EC meets three times a year. It takes care of the business of the Convention between annual sessions, because the Convention exists legally and officially only two days a year – when those annual meetings are held.

The EC acts as a coordinating body dealing with all entities and agencies. It has 82 members and has legal and public relations responsibilities as well as the responsibility of providing our churches with a news service. Currently, the Executive also has the responsibility of stewardship education and Cooperative Program promotion.

 

➤ What is the role of the president of the Executive Committee?

Page: The president is to act as the CEO over all those responsibilities and help set the vision and tone for the entire SBC through the Executive Committee. It is a vision-casting role; and the president should be a promoter of unity.

 

➤ The SBC Constitution states that all entities and agencies must abide by the Convention’s Business and Financial Plan. That plan prohibits any agency receiving CP funds from directly soliciting churches for financial support. This has been a growing problem among some of our agencies for several years, especially the International Mission Board. Do you see this as being a problem that undermines the credibility of the Cooperative Program, and if so, would you work to enforce the financial plan to prevent direct or even indirect solicitation of churches?

Page: Yes! I will work to see that such activity stops. It must stop. The beautiful thing about the Cooperative Program is that the widow’s mite is honored and important and when there is a direct solicitation from those who have the most it creates a caste system. It’s a problem.

 

➤ Your education, years of pastoral experience, SBC presidency, and role as vice president of evangelization at the North American Mission Board and member of the GCR Task Force has obviously given you a wealth of knowledge about our Convention. What do you believe to be the strengths of our denomination?

Page: Our Convention is comprised of a massive number of truly precious men and women who really want to see the Great Commission fulfilled. We have a method of ministry and missions’ support, which though weakened, battered, and bruised provides a platform so that churches can do more together than they can do apart or separately.

 

➤ What do you believe to be our weaknesses as a Convention?

Page: We are more fragmented than ever before with multiple divisions and subgroups – some based on theology, others based on methodology or style. There is a great fracturing that has occurred among those who succeeded in the Conservative Resurgence, which at one time provided a focus for our Convention.

Unfortunately, that focus is not longer evident. There is no cohesive focus, but I think our president, Johnny Hunt, has tried to recapture that focus.

 

➤ What is your vision for the Southern Baptist Convention? Or what can you do to help us focus on our strengths and what can you do to help us overcome our weaknesses?

Page: I would like to promote a Jesus-giving movement that will unite Southern Baptists by a belief that we need to share Jesus with every man, woman, boy, and girl on this continent by 2020. I would also like to see us engage every people group in the world by 2020.

In fact, we must engage this culture with the life-giving message of Christ. I want to see our seminaries provide a first-class theological education. Beyond all that, I envision us adopting a Jesus movement that teaches us or shows us how to relate to one another as Christ did.

 

➤ What is the most important thing you could do as president of the Executive Committee?

Page: I will attempt to provide a new tone and vision for pulling together to see the Great Commission accomplished.

 

➤ What relationship does the president and CEO of the Executive Committee have with the Great Commission Council? Does he convene their meetings and preside over their meetings? Does he give direction to the GCC?

Page: The president and Chief Operating Officer of the Executive Committee is the coordinator of the Great Commission Council and sets the tone for that Council. Those meetings are generally convened just prior to the Executive Committee meetings.

 

➤ What challenges will you face regarding the implementation of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force recommendations that relate to the Executive Committee?

Page: Those challenges are many and varied. The Executive Committee acts on behalf of the Convention ad interim – or between convention meetings – so it is their responsibility to implement those recommendations. The role of the Executive Committee is to abide by the spirit of the Task Force report in finding ways to get more money to the International Mission Board while wisely guiding the work of the EC itself.

 

➤ Based on your vote to approve the final report of the Task Force, you apparently approve of shifting the promotion of the CP to state conventions. Why is that a good thing? Do you think state conventions will be tempted to craft their promotional materials so as to put their local conventions above the SBC?

Page: The wording is very clear that they will work in conjunction with the SBC to promote the Cooperative Program. It is meant to be a collegial effort with the national convention and state conventions working in concert to accomplish this purpose of CP promotion.

 

➤ Do you basically approve the SBC budget funding formula that has been in place for many years?

Page: I do! The pie must get bigger. The only way to see a significant improvement in our missionary outreach is for the pie to get bigger.

 

➤ Prior to the Conservative Resurgence, Baptist Press was very aggressive in its reporting of denominational news. After the Resurgence BP seems to have been more reluctant to report any negative news about our institutions and agencies. How do you see the role of Baptist Press? Should it be a news agency that holds each agency accountable to the Baptist in the pew or simply as a public relations tool of the Executive Committee?

Page: Baptist Press needs to be a respected national press agency that operates from the highest journalistic standards and provides a fair and balanced reporting of all issues.

 

➤ Birmingham pastor David Platt recently said, “I don’t want to cooperate for survival of the Southern Baptist Convention. I don’t want to cooperate for the sake of the Southern Baptist Convention. I want to cooperate for the sake of the Great Commission. I don’t want to waste my time advancing the Southern Baptist Convention. I want to spend my life accomplishing the Great Commission?” How would you respond to those comments as the head of the EC?

Page: I agree with him that our life vision should be the promotion of the call of God, not the promotion of a denomination. However, let me be very clear. I do not think the two are mutually exclusive. I want to promote a vision – a movement that takes the heart of God to the people of this world. I see the denomination as a tool that helps to promote that vision and not as an end in itself.

 

➤ You have written a very fine book on Calvinism. Some think that there are SBC leaders who want to make our Convention the Reformed Baptist Convention. Is that anything more than a perception? If it is a reality, is there anything you would suggest that can be done to keep that from happening?

Page: My position on Calvinism is somewhat well known. I believe there are persons in the Convention who would like to see us become more Calvinistic, but I think the vast majority of our Convention would like for us to steer a course away from a Calvinistic interpretation of salvation and missiology.

 

➤ The SBC seems to be fractured by doctrinal divisions, generational divisions, methodological divisions, and worship wars among other things. What can be done to get us past our divisions so that we can do the work God has called us to do?

Page: A common vision that transcends all those agenda and subgroups can lead us to a unity that would please God. I believe our unity affects our evangelism. In John 17:21 Jesus prayed, “That they all may be one: as thou Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” This shows that unity affects our evangelism. I think God will hold us responsible for those who go to hell because of our lack of unity.

 

➤ What would you do, if for some strange reason, you are not confirmed by the members of the Executive Committee as the president of the EC?

Page: I would continue with NAMB. I want to touch lostness. If I can do it at the Executive Committee – great! If at NAMB – great!