SBC elects Floyd, prays for revival and restoration

Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Baltimore elected Arkansas pastor Ronnie Floyd as president and heard repeated calls for prayer and revival. Messengers also gave the first of two required approvals to an amendment of the SBC constitution, requested information about a Muslim student who was admitted to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and heard Executive Committee president Frank S. Page call for a “Great Commission Advance” in SBC missions.

The June 10-11 convention’s 5,294 messengers marked an increase from 5,103 in Houston last year.

Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, was elected on the first ballot with 51.62 percent of the vote. Maryland pastor Dennis Manpoong Kim received 40.70 percent of the vote, while Kentucky pastor Jared Moore received 5.91 percent.

The proposed amendment to Article III of the SBC constitution would grant two messengers to the annual meeting for each cooperating church that contributed to convention causes during the preceding fiscal year. A church would qualify for additional messengers through one of two avenues:

— A church would receive one additional messenger for each full percent of its undesignated receipts given through the Cooperative Program, as a designated gift through the Executive Committee for convention causes or to any SBC entity.

— A church would receive one additional messenger for each $6,000 given during the preceding fiscal year through CP, as a designated gift to the EC for convention causes or to any SBC entity.

Page told messengers about a strategy for world evangelism and discipleship called Great Commission Advance. A key component of the strategy is the Cooperative Program, Page said. “I’ll drop the Cooperative Program if you can show me something else that long-term is effective and engages every church concurrently and consistently in an Acts 1:8 strategy,” he said.

The convention adopted nine resolutions on topics ranging from transgender identity to payday lending, church revitalization, global hunger relief, the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and casinos and lotteries.

The resolution on transgender identity affirmed “God’s good design that gender identity is determined by biological sex and not by one’s self-perception.”

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission presented awards to the Green family, who owns Hobby Lobby, and Saeed Abedini, an American pastor who is imprisoned in Iran for his Christian faith.

The Greens were recognized for their refusal to abide by the federal government’s abortion/contraception mandate, which requires employers to provide abortion-causing drugs to their workers. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on the Greens’ case soon.

Abedini was recognized for “faithfully serving the Lord Jesus Christ … despite the risk involved.” Abedini converted to Christianity from Islam and led house churches in his native Iran before moving to the U.S. in 2005. During a trip to Iran in 2012, he was arrested and sent to prison, subject to beatings and solitary confinement. Abedini’s wife, Naghmeh, accepted the award on her husband’s behalf.

On two occasions, messengers addressed the recent decision of Southwestern Seminary president Paige Patterson to admit a Muslim student, contrary to the seminary’s admission policy of admitting only Christians. During Patterson’s report to the convention, a messenger requested a “straightforward explanation” of the decision.

In response, Patterson apologized to the convention, saying, “I made an exception to a rule that I assumed, probably wrongly, the president has a right to make.” The student is not funded by CP money and is “very open to the gospel,” Patterson said.

The decision to violate admission policy was motivated in part by a desire to win the student to Jesus, Patterson said. He said he will tell God on judgment day: “I violated a policy, but I didn’t want to stand before You with blood on my hands.”

Steve James, chairman of Southwestern’s board of trustees, told messengers that trustees will discuss concerns about the Muslim student’s admission at meetings in September and October.

In other matters:

— The Crossover evangelistic push in Baltimore preceding the annual meeting yielded 214 salvation decisions.

— International Mission Board president Tom Elliff reported that more than 6,000 churches were planted overseas last year in conjunction with national partners. Last year the average IMB missionary helped lead 49 people to faith in Christ.

— The North American Mission board presentation highlighted a Baltimore church revitalization effort and a church plant in Montreal that grew to 700 worshipers in its first year.

— David Roach is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.