The team tasked with searching for a new president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee is asking for prayer. The group launched a 21-day prayer initiative last month and created a day-by-day guide to encourage specific prayers for each day.

“As a committee, we felt it was essential to start our process with a season of prayer,” said search team Chairman Adron Robinson. “In John 15:5, Jesus says without Him we can do nothing, so to begin this assignment without seeking God’s direction would be a huge mistake.”

In addition to Robinson, the seven-member search team, appointed by the EC at its Feb. 22 meeting, includes Mollie Duddleston (Springdale, Ark.), Mike Keahbone (Lawton, Okla.), Jeremy Morton (Woodstock, Ga.), Philip Robertson (Pineville, La.) and David Sons (Lexington, S.C.). Current EC Chairman Rolland Slade will serve in an ex officio capacity until June.

“I was looking through the timelines of the previous hiring processes and did not see a specific and strategic plan to call our convention to pray,” Keahbone said. “I brought it up in our first meeting, and the entire team was excited to let prayer be the cornerstone of our search process. God knows the shepherd He is calling to lead us. Prayer tunes our hearts to His.”