By Tammi Reed Ledbetter, Baptist Press
ORLANDO, Fla. (BP) – Newly elected Southern Baptist Convention President Bryant Wright wants to see Southern Baptists return to their first love, radically reprioritize their lives, funding and ministries to fulfill the Great Commission and directly participate in overseas mission work.
Speaking to reporters less than an hour after his election on the first day of the SBC annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., Wright shared his dream of seeing every Southern Baptist pastor and church take at least one mission trip. “The pastor needs to experience what it’s like to be out there in another culture sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ,” Wright told reporters June 15 at the Orange County Convention Center.
[img_assist|nid=6479|title=Bryant Wright, senior pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga, won the run-off election for SBC president.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=70]Wright commended the Atlanta-area congregation he pastors, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, for having sent more than 1,500 people on 70 mission trips to 27 nations last year. “What that does in the life of a church is incredible,” Wright said.
In the midst of Kingdom-focused work like developing partnerships with Southern Baptist missionaries, Wright said Johnson Ferry’s leaders began to question why so much of their Cooperative Program contributions remained in the United States. That led to a decision to reduce CP giving in order to designate more to the International Mission Board.
“We realized it does cause the church to appear not to be as supportive of the main approach to missions in the Cooperative Program, and yet, at the same time, we continue to give very heavily to the Cooperative Program,” Wright said, noting that Johnson Ferry contributed the second-highest Cooperative Program amount in the Georgia Baptist Convention last year.
“We would very much prefer that all those funds go straight through CP,” Wright said, “but there needs to be a radical reprioritization of that money.”
He said state conventions as the place where change must occur and regards Cooperative Program allocations at the national level as generally healthy.
Asked about a column he wrote urging state conventions to retain only 25 percent to 30 percent of undesignated CP gifts from churches, Wright said, “I’d love to see states move in that direction, knowing it will be a long, long process.” Even a goal of splitting receipts 50/50 between state and SBC causes would allow funding for many more missionaries, he said.
Wright said state convention leaders “can be the real heroes in carrying out the Great Commission” since they control budgets and decide how much goes out of state for distribution to Southern Baptist causes. If more Cooperative Program dollars were sent to the international mission field, Wright said he believes Southern Baptists would see an increased passion for CP giving, especially among younger pastors, the group from whom he has received the greatest support for his stand.
He commended “the radical commitment of the Millenials and Generation X,” with seminary students expressing a desire to go to “the toughest areas to take the Gospel.”
Asked to reflect on the passage of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force recommendations during the annual meeting immediately prior to his election, Wright said: “We have been a people that have been united on missions and evangelism and reaching our world with the Good News of Jesus Christ and yet we are not moving ahead in that area as we have done a lot of our years.” He praised SBC President Johnny Hunt’s courage in raising the issue and to messengers for engaging in a healthy discussion.
“The task force leadership has led the convention in taking a very courageous step, but it is really just a beginning,” Wright said. “If we’re going to be radically serious about reaching this world for Christ, we as individuals and we as churches are going to have to really be prayerfully committed to fulfilling what God has called us to do with the Great Commission.”
In America, local church members need to repent of materialism, hedonism and other idols that distract them from their first love and inhibit their love of lost people, Wright added. “The beginning point for all of us is to renew our hearts. Jesus Christ could not be clearer, as politically incorrect as it is in our contemporary culture, that He is the only way to God,” he said.
Asked where he stood in his convictions regarding Calvinism, Wright described himself as “a follower of Jesus Christ that believes the Bible.” He added: “I really don’t believe that human beings are ever going to completely reconcile the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. To have a neat theological system is great for human beings, but it sure makes for a small God. We can have a greater awe about the majesty and wonder of God when we believe in both.”
By Sara Horn, Baptist Press
[img_assist|nid=6480|title=Frank Page, newly-elected president of the SBC Executive Committee, answers questions at press conference.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=72]ORLANDO, Fla. (BP) – Frank Page cited two goals he is envisioning as president-elect of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee: “that there would be a unity amongst the brethren and sistren such as we’ve never seen before” and that the world “finally realize Baptists are loving, sharing people who will care and who will minister in Jesus’ name.”
In his first news conference after his June 13 election to head the Executive Committee, Page told reporters he is prepared for the challenges he will face, having served as pastor of a church that at one time was “a complicated church filled with multiple subgroups of agendas much like the SBC. It was an old Southern Baptist church that had been declining for years, thus putting us in the same category as 81 to 82 percent of Southern Baptist churches….”
Page described how a God-initiated transformation took place within the Greenville-area First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., as it “began planting churches once a year, became racially diverse, socio-economically diverse and began ministries beyond itself.” It “transformed to a church two and a half times the size it was in 2001. God has given me some experience in that area to help churches….” Page said.
Asked what the role of the president of the Executive Committee should be in setting the vision for the convention and within the Great Commission Council of SBC entity presidents, Page said he believes he plays a crucial role.
“I do believe [this position] must work with the elected president who is often seen as the public face of Baptists…. And as leader of the Great Commission Council, [I’m responsible] for pulling together a unified group who can work together in seeing the Great Commission [advance].
“I want to be a unifier, someone who pulls them together. Baptists are way past tired of hearing about schisms and turf wars,” Page said.
Page spoke of his experience serving a one-year term on a national faith-based council to which he was appointed by President Obama, noting that it was a “frustrating time” but that he felt some successes were achieved despite “serious disagreements” he had with the president.
“I did feel my presence on the council was in some small way helpful…. I am a pro-life person and I wanted to share that pro-life biblical worldview in that particular setting and felt I had some small victories in that regard,” Page said.
After one reporter stated that other religious denominations such as Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Assemblies of God are growing while Southern Baptists have declined in recent years, Page pointed out that Southern Baptists are making some gains.
“If one is looking carefully you would find our worship attendance has increased the last two years in a row,” Page said. “Membership is important but not as important as live warm bodies in the pew. Baptisms went up 2.2 percent — that is not insignificant in a time we’re talking decline. Now with the GPS focus [the SBC-wide God’s Plan for Sharing evangelistic initiative] NAMB has strongly in place, we’re going to see an upturn in baptisms. Even in an era of increasing anti-denominationalism, we’re going to see that major denominations can make a turn-around.”
Page said he hopes to assure Southern Baptists that there is a strong “hand at the helm, a person capable of dealing with strong individuals” who is not easily intimidated and can pull the numerous entities within the SBC together in one common direction. He admitted he comes into this new position with “some trepidation. I do ask for the prayers of God’s people and know I can count upon that.”