SBC presidential candidates discuss reasons they're in the race

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DULUTH, Ga. – One candidate would challenge churches to provide the financial support needed to take the gospel to the nations. Another would try to restore civility within the Southern Baptist Convention. And yet another wants to make SBC entities more responsive to churches.

Those are some of the reasons the three contenders for the SBC presidency gave for being willing to accept nominations for the voluntary position of leadership in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

“The USA contains only 4¼ percent of the world’s popu­la­tion but posses­ses 30 percent of the planet’s wealth,” said Robin Hadaway, a former pastor and International Mission Board missionary to Africa and South America. “I believe God would have Southern Baptists re­mem­ber the mission and their responsibility to reach the world for Christ.”

Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas, said he wants to strengthen ties between the SBC’s more than 47,000 churches.

“We face a number of challenges in that regard, exacerbated by some of our behavior on social media,” Barber said. “The most readily observable ‘drift’ in the Southern Baptist Convention is a drift away from fairness in making accusations and from civility in discussing differences. I would like to lead us to make our fellowship healthier.”

Tom Ascol, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Fla., and president of Founders Ministries, said he wants to lead a renewed commitment to the lordship of Jesus Christ and submission to His word.

“I have been trying to encourage my fellow pastors to work for healthy churches for over three decades and now that need is greater than ever,” Ascol said. “I also believe that what we have witnessed over the last few years demonstrates that we need to change the direction to make our entities more responsive to the churches that own them.”

The Christian Index did an email Q&A with the candidates on a variety of topics for a series of stories being published this week. What follows are the candidates’ unedited response to a question about why they’re running for president.

The Index: Tell us what is happening within the SBC, or not happening, that caused you to be willing to accept a nomination for president at this specific time in history.

Hadaway:  I agreed to have my name placed in nomination for SBC President in order to remind Southern Baptists to “Remember the Mission.” The SBC was founded in 1845 solely for the purpose of funding and sending mission­aries through our two missions entities – the Home Mission Board (now the North American Mission Board) and the Foreign Mission Board (now the International Mission Board). Other important ministries were added later. The USA contains only 4 ¼ per cent of the world’s popu­la­tion but posses­ses 30% of the planet’s wealth. I believe God would have Southern Baptists Re­mem­ber the Mission and their responsibility to reach the world for Christ. I want to see 500 net new churches planted in North America, 2,000 net new churches started overseas, and 1,000 new WMU chapters started to help Southern Baptists to “Remem­ber the Mission.” As President, I would “call out the called.” I would challenge many Southern Baptist pastors and laypersons to drop what they are doing and surrender to a career in home or international missions. Many were like me when I was in seminary. The call to mis­sions was not something I considered, even though I heard many references to missions in my seminary classes. When my wife and I, however, attended Foreign Missions Week at the Baptist camp in Glorieta, New Mexico while I was pastoring my first church, we were called to missions overseas. While serving as an SBC missionary for 18 years, I had the priviledge of supervising Baptist work on both the Nile and the Amazon. I think the conversation in our convention needs to move more in the direction of missions than other matters. In a time of cultural upheaval and uncertain­ty, I would like to point Southern Baptists towards what unites us – “Remember the Mission.”

There are always issues in every era. The year (1812) Adoniram and Sarah Jud­son, America’s first Baptist missionaries, left for Asia, the British burned Washington, D.C. Southern Baptists survived the Civil War, WWI, the Fundamentalist-Modernist Con­troversy of the 1920’s, the Great Depression of the 1930’s, WWII, the Civil unrest of the 1960’s, and the Cold War.


My wife & I were seated in the pews of Bellevue Baptist Church in June of 1979 just after Adrian Rogers was elected SBC President. From the right side of the auditorium, a disturbed person charged the pulpit on live TV. Several choir members subdued the intruder. Unruffled, Pastor Rogers continued preaching. The Conservative Resurgence, as well as the resistance to it began that day. Back then, all of our seminaries had problems with neo-orthodox, moderate, and some liberal professors. Slowly, but surely, what came to be known as the Conservative Resur­gence changed the Convention. Each SBC entity began to choose conservative presidents who would employ conservative staff, missionaries and professors. The process took over 25 years. But the process is continuous. I will continue to make good appointments, so our entities stay in conservative hands. The cultural issues we have today are daunting but at least South­ern Baptists can unite within the parameters of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. I would use my presidency to remind Southern Baptists to “Remember the Mission” as described in Acts 1:6-11. Of course, we need to meet the challenges presented in the recently published Sexual Abuse Task Force and Guideposts Solutions report as we pray for the survivors. We need to do some humble soul-searching of how we arrived at this juncture. If elected, I will implement the recommendations the messengers agree upon in Anaheim. I will also make sure that Southern Baptists “Remember the Mission” that brought us together in the first place and that we continue to focus on sending missionaries, educating pastors and laypersons, and carry out the  benevolent causes and actions that bring out the best in us. 

Barber: The formal structures of cooperation for the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention are strong (associations, conventions, entities, boards, etc.). The long term health of these formal structures of cooperation depend upon the informal structures of cooperation for the churches of the Convention (the degree to which our churches feel a sense of belonging to one another). We face a number of challenges in that regard, exacerbated by some of our behavior on social media. The most readily observable “drift” in the Southern Baptist Convention is a drift away from fairness in making accusations and from civility in discussing differences. I would like to lead us to make our fellowship healthier.

Ascol: The SBC has been blessed by God to engage in many wonderful gospel efforts over our history. The voluntary association of autonomous churches has enabled us to cooperate in doing far more together than any one church could do alone. Yet, the connective tissue of our cooperation is trust. If the churches cannot trust our institutions and entities and those who lead them, then our cooperative efforts will suffer. Trust has been wounded and, in some cases, broken over the last several years. The entities belong to the churches and the trustees are charged with keeping those entities accountable to the churches.

The recent Sex Abuse Task Force (SABTF) report has painfully brought serious problems to light. It is obvious that some of our churches and entities have not dealt with the issue of sex abuse in Christ honoring ways, resulting in tragic consequences for some of the most vulnerable people among us. Had all our churches been practicing the biblical and Baptist principles of regenerate church membership and corrective church discipline (Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5) most of the problems brought to light in that report would have been avoided.

I agreed to let my name be put into nomination because I care about the SBC and want to see us unite in a renewed commitment to the lordship of Jesus Christ and full submission to His written Word. I have been trying to encourage my fellow pastors to work for healthy churches for over three decades and now that need is greater than ever. I also believe that what we have witnessed over the last few years demonstrates that we need to change the direction to make our entities more responsive to the churches that own them.

SBC. Robin Hadaway, Tom Ascol, Bart Barber