I remember one of the IMB presidents saying one time, “Where are the pastors at these missions conferences? Because it’s great that laymen are going overseas, but we need people with an M.Div. We need people with theological training to go and to train the nationals. I don’t feel that everyone should or could be a missionary. It’s for those that are called.”
I believe strongly in a missionary call, which I mentioned in my book, “A Survey of World Missions,” what the missionary call actually is. I just want Southern Baptists to focus on missions.
So, I’d like to see 500 new church plants, net new churches, in North America and 2,000 overseas. And I’d like to see a re-emphasis on the Woman’s Missionary Union because they’re the ones that got Southern Baptists through the Great Depression when Southern Baptists had no money. The ladies found ways to support the missionaries. This happened in the late 1800s as well, during those financial downturns.
I just believe that right now most of our churches are not doing missions education for our elementary school, junior high and even high schoolers.
What are some ways that you would try to bring about that change, the church planting and the emphasis on the WMU chapters?
Well, of course, I have confidence in Paul Chitwood and Kevin Ezell. They are leading us well towards church planting in North America and overseas. But I think when the president of the Convention says it, I think it speaks to Southern Baptists. Maybe seminarians, people like me when I was a pastor of a small church that said, “Hey, perhaps since my wife and I are healthy, we have two healthy kids, we’re qualified to go, but we had to see if we should go.” So, to call out the called.
The Southern Baptist Convention president, he has no pay and no power, but he does have some influence during those two years; and I think he can set the tone for the Convention. I think you can see that has been true throughout the last 30 years, what the tone has been with the SBC.
Do you believe the message of presidents of the SBC has drifted off of that emphasis on missions?
No. I know Ed Litton. I knew Ed Litton when he was a 25-year-old pastor in Tucson. We were in the same state, and he and his church came down to Brazil to preach for me. There’s nobody more of a soul-winner than Ed Litton. So I would never say that either he and … JD Greear was a two-plus-two missionary sent out by Keith Eitel, and then Steve Gaines, you go back there. And you can’t count the number of mission trips that Bellevue sends out and has sent out over the last 25, 30 years. So, no, I would not say that. I say what’s happened is that the discussions within the SBC have drifted from our focus. I would not say that the presidents have drifted from the focus.
Would you say the message of the SBC has drifted in more of a political direction over the past few years?
Yes. And I think that’s reluctantly. People don’t really want to do that, but it is just something that happens because of social media. I think there’s the vast majority of pastors and churches and in-the-pew church members, and most in-the-pew church members don’t even know there is a Southern Baptist Convention president.
