Executive Committee members, Southern Baptist Convention entity heads and other guests gathered in Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 21 to inaugurate Frank Page as the SBC Executive Committee’s sixth president.
Members of the Executive Committee gathered to pray for Frank and Dayle Page during his inauguration as president of the Executive Committee Feb. 21 in Nashville, Tenn.Page, former pastor of Taylors First Baptist Church, officially assumed the position Oct. 1 after serving 30 years as a pastor and in various denominational roles, including SBC president.
The inaugural ceremonies began with a musical prelude provided by Kevin Batson, minister of music and worship at Taylors First Baptist Church. Greenville businessman and SBC Executive Committee member Jack Shaw, also a member of the Taylors congregation, offered the opening prayer. Batson later gave a welcome and introductions along with the presentation of Page’s family.
Guests were led in worship in the Van Ness Auditorium at LifeWay Christian Resources by Travis Cottrell, and several of Page’s colleagues spoke and prayed for him.
Roger Spradlin, chairman of the Executive Committee, presented Page and his wife Dayle with a certificate of inauguration, listing his many accomplishments within the Southern Baptist Convention through the years.
“Frank has a pastor’s heart,” Spradlin said. “He served as a pastor for many, many years. He loves pastors. He understands pastors. He has a deep commitment to help pastors in their tasks in the local church.”
Page also has the heart of an evangelist, said Spradlin, pastor of Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield, Calif.
Page delivered a statement of his vision for the office, saying he wants to have priorities that would please the Lord.
“I really will be quite happy when tonight is over because I’m not real comfortable with this kind of attention, to be quite honest with you,” Page said. “I would be quite happy if you would forget me and remember our Lord.
“But God has called me to this position, and I am honored to be a part of this. So I speak to you tonight about a simple, biblical vision that I think the Lord brought to my heart,” Page said, pointing to Genesis 12, the passage where God promises to make Abraham into a great nation and bless him so that he can be a blessing to others.
“I think that God’s call upon Abraham’s life is precious, but is it not true of all of us, that God called us to be saved and God called us to serve him in some capacity, shape, form or fashion?” Page said.
Page added he believes God is calling Southern Baptists to be a blessing to the nations: “I believe God’s call for Southern Baptists is that we would never rest until every man, woman, boy and girl on this continent hears the good news of Jesus, so that they can say, ‘That person was a blessing to me.’
“I don’t believe God is going to be happy until every man, woman, boy and girl on the face of this earth hears the good news of Jesus Christ,” Page said. “… I want us to be able to say as Southern Baptists, ‘We were a blessing.’?”
In addition to blessing Abraham, God made demands of him, Page noted.
Frank Page, with his wife Dayle, daughters Laura Brammer and Allison Scott and son-in-law Jon Scott, were honored with a reception following his inauguration as president of the Executive Committee Feb. 21 in Nashville, Tenn.“I believe God demands a commitment from us. We are to serve him with passion,” Page said. “We are to give him first-rate loyalty for a first-rate cause. I believe God’s calling for Southern Baptists is to be closer than we’ve ever been before, to be purer than we’ve ever been before, to be more passionate than we ever have been before about sharing the good news with a lost and dying world.”
Just as God’s demands upon Abraham’s life were lifelong, Page believes God is not finished with Southern Baptists.
“I know these men who are getting ready to speak are going to say some profound things to us, things we need to hear. But I just want you to remember God’s vision for us is that he will bless us, but he wants us to be a blessing as well,” Page said.
Others who spoke during the inauguration ceremony included Thomas Hammond, personal evangelism team leader for the North American Mission Board; Morris H. Chapman, president emeritus of the Executive Committee; Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions; Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; and Ed Stetzer, vice president of research and ministry development for LifeWay Christian Resources. – BP