Please share briefly about your faith journey.
I was raised up spiritually at Warren Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga., a church begun by my great-grandfather in 1896. I joined the church and was baptized at a young age, only later to be truly born again and baptized again in obedience to Scripture. I felt God’s call to preach at an early age, which I later discovered was an answer to my grandmother’s prayers. I attended college where I was very active in the Baptist Student Union and also served as its president. Through BSU I was first introduced to missions, when in 1980 I served as a student summer missionary through the Georgia Baptist Convention. The next year I served as a summer missionary through NAMB and have been involved in missions ever since. I graduated from Southeastern and, to keep a commitment to the Lord I had made as a summer missionary during college, I opened myself up to serve as a bivocational pastor. Since then, I have grown in my experiences with churches and on the mission fields in Brazil, Honduras, Rwanda and many places in the U.S. Through pastorates, directing associations, missions, or whatever the Lord has led me do, I have come to realize two things: One, I am a sinner saved by grace, nothing more, nothing less; and two, if God can use me, then he can use anybody.
Why are you open to being nominated for SCBC president?
I am open because I was asked to consider being nominated by both the ministers’ conference of Lakelands Association and by the messengers of my association during its annual meeting. I took these requests seriously and decided, after much prayer, to be agreeable for the moderator of our association to nominate me. However, I realize the great responsibility involved and the time commitment, as well as the opportunity the nomination allows for my being simply open to God’s will. If the messengers feel that someone else is the one who needs to lead the convention, I will rejoice with him and pray for him as we work together in our separate roles for Kingdom purposes greater than any one individual.
What is your vision for our state convention? How can the president help effect change?
I think the greatest challenge facing our convention is a spirit of divisiveness that permeates both the national and state conventions. In the words of Dr. Frank Page, “We live in a day and time of unbridled individualism where everyone wants to do work, ministry and missions in his own way” (SBCLife, Oct./Nov. 2011). He goes on to say that there are “streams of influence – which sometimes seem to be pulling us into an ocean of anarchy.” If these statements are true, it speaks to the desperate times we face. I believe we are at a point of no return, meaning the next few years will ultimately determine the future of our denomination, whether it will be hijacked by a few or led to return to “the rock from whence we were hewn” by the masses in the pews of faithful churches all across our land.
Let’s face it, the president’s role can be merely perfunctory in scope, but it can also be a point of influence, depending on the respect given to the position by those who entrust him with the opportunity to lead. And the one thing missing in our convention these days is leadership. I hear that from people all across our state. We seem to be in a state of limbo. While the world around us is moving on, we seem to be stuck in a holding pattern. This is not good. The real influence in the state convention lies with the Executive Board and the executive director, who have been charged with leading our convention. They, as well as whomever the president will be, need to make sure, under the Lord’s leadership, that everything done under our watch leads to a spirit of unity. Otherwise, the only winner is Satan. A denomination divided is a denomination weakened; just look at other denominations to see the insanity of disunity – doctrinally as well as methodologically.
What are your thoughts on the report of the SCBC’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force?
In the words of a great theologian/preacher from the past in reference to salvation, “A faith that falters had a flaw from the first.” I think the task force did the best they could with what they had to work with, and I applaud them for it. However, I also believe the Bible indicates that in all walks of life, the foundation is the key to anything having lasting value. Unfortunately, the original foundation of the GCR is not rooted in our state, but in the SBC’s national task force report, and it is there that it was “flawed from the first.”
What was the one element of the national GCR task force report that brought so much dissension and confusion at the national convention in Orlando? It wasn’t a struggle over whether anybody had a problem funneling more dollars to missions – of course Southern Baptists are in favor of expanding missions. The problem was rooted in the Great Commission Giving plan, which fundamentally usurped the Cooperative Program as the only recognized giving plan in the convention, breaking with a long-standing, God-inspired funding stream for missions through our SBC churches. Through interesting parliamentary procedure in Orlando, the only overwhelming thing about the adoption of the original GCR task force report was the “overwhelmingly” confusing way in which it was adopted. A small group of high-profile and, therefore, easily electable leaders, got their way, and there is now division within the ranks that is not even being addressed. It could ultimately spell the doom of our unified, cooperative spirit that has been the strength of Southern Baptists. That same group of high-profile leaders now wants all of our already faithful small, medium and large SBC churches to give more to support the Cooperative Program, while many of their churches only give a pittance to the CP.
What we are seeing now is a push-back in this strategy. Why do they not talk about the Great Commission Giving plan any more, even though it was a vital part of their passing the national GCR report? I believe their silence on the matter should tell all of us that they understand that the GCR Great Commission Giving plan is fundamentally flawed and offensive to most faithful Southern Baptists who still believe in the inspirational soundness of the Cooperative Program as the only viable funding stream for missions among Baptists.
Our own state GCR task force is doing the best it can to build something of value on a crumpling foundation that is not of their own doing. I would love to see our state convention take a stand on the real cause of the divisiveness – GCR Great Commission Giving – and send a message across the land that the Cooperative Program is alive and well in South Carolina. Then, with that example of real leadership, I believe our convention would be more willing to support the Cooperative Program again and send more dollars to missions without it being such a divisive thing.
What is your favorite passage of Scripture and why?
Genesis 27:3: “Go now, get thy weapons, thy bow and thy quiver, and go out into the open country and hunt some wild game for me.” That is my life verse – each fall, I repeat it often to my wife. My second favorite is far more difficult to determine, because it is like eating barbecue – my favorite barbecue is whatever barbecue is on the plate at that moment. As such, my favorite passage is whatever I am meditating on at that moment God is using to teach me, convict me or move me beyond my standard modus-operandi of complacency and hard-headedness.
Other than the Bible, what is your favorite book?
I guess I would have to say it is a little known book entitled, “Head of the Holler.” This book was given to me in college by the director of missions of Augusta Baptist Association, and it chronicles a country pastor’s journey in 1940s-1950s Appalachia as he is committed to taking the gospel to the hardest-to-reach place in the mountains. That book inspired me to do likewise. This past summer, after nearly 35 years of contemplating the meaning of that book, I had the opportunity to fulfill its message in Kentucky, when, with my association, we provided a home for a lady and her two mentally handicapped daughters – literally at the head of the holler. It was a challenge beyond description and a joy I will never forget.
What book have you read most recently?
“Totally Secure,” by Don Wilton, of which I bought two copies – one for myself (and found it an interesting read), the other for a lady in another denomination who was struggling with this issue.
What are your hobbies?
I enjoy the outdoors, whether it is hunting, camping, etc., and I am a bit of a modern-day homesteader, raising my family’s vegetables, chicken and eggs, and butchering our own beef, pork and venison.
What do you do to get away for rest and renewal?
With my family at the age and stage where everybody is busy doing something different all the time, my favorite thing to do to recharge is simply spend time with family, either while camping, sitting by the fireside together, or whatever else provides the down-time we need to be together as a family. My spiritual act of renewal comes in practicing the ancient art of scribing – copying the Bible word for word, from cover to cover, and I have been doing so for years.