Beauty and the Beast – Part Three

This is the third in a four-part series on “Critical Criteria” for selecting the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Part 1. Part 2. Click my picture to visit my blog.

Thirdly, and most importantly, I am interested in his personal testimony on how his love for Jesus and the furtherance of the Gospel is paramount in his life. I would love to hear how Jesus is working in his life right now, this minute. It would move me to raise my ballot to hear him share a detailed account of how God’s sovereign hand is moving in a specific way with him. (Hey, I’m a woman. We like to hear the details.)

I would raise my ballot if he was a man less influenced by influencial people and more influenced by the needs of a lost world. I would love to know how he schedules his time—divies it up, prioritizes it.

I could easily vote for a man devoted to prayer. I want a man whose heart is broken over the divides in our convention and prays more than strategizes for her. Does he pray for the Seminaries, Missionaries, IMB, Seminary Students, Guidestone and SBC churches? I would want a man who seeks God’s face for His wisdom and His intervening power to unify our hearts. It is a concern to me that he care more about what the convention feels–the heartbeat of pastors and members–than how he feels. It is important to me that his foresight come from the insight of the Lord, not the books upon his shelves nor the voices in his ears. How much time does he spend in prayer?

Give me a man who has a pastor’s heart–one who knows the hearts of pastors–their struggles, their needs. I would love to have a president who strongly supports small churches and recognizes their importance to the convention. How has he undergirded other pastors; how can we as a convention undergird pastors of small churches? I’d love to know he would go to the byways of America as well as the highways and air-waves of the world.

I would want a president who wholeheartedly supported missions and missionaries. One who led his church to support missions in giving, prayer and evangelism and outreach ministry. I’d support a man whose church has a record of giving sacrificially in all ways needed to reach a lost world. I would especially be interested in a man given to personal evangelism.

Give me a man who believes the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. A man who is conservative through and through. Yet, a conservative who is tolerant, kind, gentle, loving, steadfast, peaceful, merciful, and filled with joy. Let him also be a man who is bold and wears the mantle of Elijah and has a heart of Joshua’s courage.

Secondary to what Jesus means in his life is what it means to be a Southern Baptist today. However, being a Southern Baptist is important. After all, he is not being nominated to another denomination or convention of churches. What does he think would help us as a convention to stimulate positive conversation about our mission and influence in America and the world? selahV