Commentary: Page best choice for president of the SBC – by Don Kirkland

Don Kirkland

Published on May 25, 2006

Dear friends,

Occasionally a Baptist Courier editorial generates a lot of discussion – and sometimes disagreement – among our readers. Such is the case this week. I wrote a “Commentary” (see below, and to be carried in the June 1 printed version of the Courier) that expresses my opinion that Frank Page is the better choice for president of the Southern Baptist Convention – and my reasons for believing that.

Don Kirkland

Whether you agree or disagree with my point of view (and I encourage you to write and let us know how you feel about the issue), I believe now is an opportune moment to remind our readers that the views expressed in opinion pieces published in The Baptist Courier – including those of guest writers as well as the editor – represent the opinions of the writers and not necessarily those of the Courier’s board of trustees or any other South Carolina Baptist organization or institution.

That being said, we want to know what you think about this and other important issues in Baptist life. We encourage you to send us a letter via our website or write to us at: The Baptist Courier, 100 Manly St., Greenville, S.C., 29601.

Regularly, you read my opinions. We want to know yours.

Sincerely,

Don Kirkland, Editor

The June 13-14 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Greensboro is shaping up as one of the most important in years, and may be the most important as far as the future of the Cooperative Program is concerned.

In their consideration of a report by an ad hoc Cooperative Program committee, and in the election of a new president, the messengers will, by their votes, give an indication of their concern over, and their regard for, the Cooperative Program. The CP was established in 1925 as a vast improvement over a “societal” form of ministry support in which each Southern Baptist entity had to solicit its own funds from the churches.

At a CP luncheon in Nashville many years ago, John Sullivan, who now is the executive director for Florida Baptists, said, “The Cooperative Program is not a sacred cow, but it is a sacred how.” The Cooperative Program is viewed by many, especially other religious bodies, as the “genius of Southern Baptists.”

Despite its celebrated past, the Cooperative Program is not as strong as it once was. It has suffered slippage in the percentage of undesignated receipts it receives from the churches. This slackened support has raised concern and even alarm among many of our denominational leaders.

It was that concern and alarm that prompted the naming of the special CP committee, of which our state’s executive director, Carlisle Driggers, is a member. The panel’s work resulted in a report for consideration by messengers at the North Carolina meeting. Among other recommendations, the committee encourages all Southern Baptist churches to give at least 10 percent of undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program. Further, it urges the election of state and national SBC officers whose churches adhere to the 10 percent standard.

Nationally, the average percentage of undesignated money channeled through the Cooperative Program is approximately 6 percent. In South Carolina, it is better at slightly above 8 percent.

A growing number of Southern Baptist leaders are convinced that the election of the next SBC president will be a predictor of either good or bad days ahead for the Cooperative Program.

In methodology, the contrast between the two candidates for president – Ronnie Floyd and Frank Page – is striking. Floyd is pastor of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., which in 2005 gave $32,000, or 0.27 percent of undesignated receipts, through the Cooperative Program. Page is pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, which last year contributed $535,000, or 12.2 percent, of its $4.4 million in undesignated receipts through the CP.

The announcement of Floyd’s candidacy preceded that of Page, whose decision to permit his nomination as SBC president followed much soul searching. “I don’t have a political future,” he told me in a recent interview, “and I don’t want one.”

The Taylors pastor also made it clear from the outset that the main issue in the June 13 election is neither personalities nor theology. Page is theologically conservative and evangelistic to the core. Rather, he insists the election centers around methodology – as he puts it, “how we do missions and how we do convention work.”

What happens in Greensboro will not stay there. The actions of the messengers will send a signal to sister Southern Baptist congregations everywhere. If the report of the CP committee is not accepted by the convention or if its recommendations (and they are only recommendations) are softened, it will likely lead to even more decline in CP contributions. If the report is accepted and messengers elect a president whose church is weak in CP support, the convention will demonstrate a disturbing inconsistency and send out a confusing message to other Southern Baptists.

It will be an encouraging indicator of the future viability of the Cooperative Program and fiscal health of the ministries it supports if messengers in Greensboro embrace the recommendations of the CP committee and elect Frank Page, a pastor whose church demonstrates its depth of commitment to Southern Baptist causes by its solid support of the Cooperative Program.

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Tennessee pastor Jerry Sutton joins SBC presidential race