In an article published in the Oct. 19 edition of The Baptist Courier, Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and host pastor for the annual South Carolina Baptist Convention meeting at First Baptist Church in Taylors Nov. 14-15, called upon our convention to “be diligent in seeking leaders who exemplify a Christlike, servant spirit.”
Don KirklandAn important responsibility and privilege for messengers attending the 186th annual meeting of the state Baptist convention will be to elect a slate of officers, as well as to give approval to persons nominated for boards of trustees for the seven institutions and members of standing committees of the convention.
It should be evident to every person chosen for the various positions that South Carolina Baptists are not cloaking them in a mantle of power, but are endowing them with a towel of service. Whatever honor there is in the positions held – whether it is as president of the convention, or as a trustee of a Baptist university, or as a member of an influential committee – it should not cloud the vision of officeholders to the point that they lose sight of why they have been elected.
The Great Commission ministries of the South Carolina Baptist Convention are greatly impacted by the attitude of all who carry them out, whether in conference rooms where plans are mapped out by denominational leaders, or in local congregations where mission projects are embraced by church members, or on the front lines where the work of Christ is performed by bands of volunteers who willingly involve themselves in the “nitty-gritty” of life for the sake of Christ and for the benefit of those eager to receive both the Good News and the good deeds.
It is never enough to attempt the work of Christ without the spirit of Christ. Every effort on the part of believers to build the kingdom of God on earth must mirror the mindset of Jesus, who before he was “lifted up” to draw people to him, knelt down to wash the feet of his disciples as an example of how they, and we, should treat each other and the spirit in which the kingdom work of believers is to be accomplished.
The reason for the existence of the Christian church is affirmed in the simple, yet adequate, confession which believers have lived by and died for since the resurrection of Christ: “Jesus is Lord.” If the church affirms the reason for its existence in that confession, it attests to its integrity by the degree of its faithfulness to service through the commitment of believers to acts of servanthood as disciples of Christ.
Servanthood is always in season, and it must forever have a place of priority in the lives of believers who take seriously what Jesus did as well as what he said.
The challenge issued by Page – and I want to repeat it – to “be diligent in seeking leaders who exemplify a Christlike, servant spirit” is a matter of top priority, not only for messengers choosing denominational leaders, but also for those in local congregations who have the responsibility of selecting leaders for their churches.
What can we ask of those who are in positions of leadership in the South Carolina Baptist Convention? What can we ask of those who are recognized as the leaders in the churches that comprise our state Baptist convention? In neither case can we require that leaders be successful in every Christian endeavor or that they are free from the flaws that are common to all of us. We can, however, and we should set servanthood as the standard for all who would lead us as a denomination and in our congregations.