One of the most impressive things we were able to witness at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention this year came in the way of the presidential election. Each year the SBC elects a president, but the expectation is that the person who is elected will serve two terms. Ronnie Floyd was completing his second term this year, so this year’s meeting would see an open election for the presidency. The first man nominated for the position was J. D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Greear was a foreign missionary in a Muslim nation, where he was a wanted man (by authorities) for preaching the Gospel. The second man nominated was Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellvue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee. This church has a long history of solid pastors, including R. G. Lee and Adrian Rogers. Gaines has faithfully served in ministry for almost 36 years at churches in Tennessee, Texas, and Alabama. Finally, the third man nominated was David Crosby, pastor of First Baptist Church in New Orleans, Louisiana. Crosby has led First Baptist through several difficult trials, including multimillion dollar damages to the church because of Hurricane Katrina, yet their commitment to missions giving has never wavered. Though there were differences between these three candidates (age, perspectives on soteriology, demographics of their congregations, and so forth), all three were solid choices and all three would lead the denomination well.
With three candidates, it was expected that no one would receive the necessary majority vote on the first ballot, and such was the case. The election went to a second ballot, but in an unexpected twist no one received a majority vote on that ballot either, despite there only being two choices (this was due to several ineligible votes being cast, which had to be counted in the total number of votes but could not be attributed to either candidate). In an unprecedented situation, we as messengers were going to be facing a third ballot on Wednesday morning, the last day of the Convention. Before those votes could be cast, however, Greear (who had led on the first ballot but was behind on the second) announced to the Convention that he was withdrawing from the race, effectively allowing Gaines to be elected by acclimation.
In that moment we witnessed a selfless act on the part of Greear that demonstrated Philippians 2:3-4 so well. Recognizing the need for unity within the SBC (something Greear noted would not be probable were we to close the meeting with a 51%-49% vote), Greear set aside his desire and self-interests in being elected president. This attitude was not only present in Greear, however; Gaines had also made the decision to withdraw the previous night after the results of the second ballot were announced, for the same reasons as Greear. There was no bitterness on the part of either man, only a desire to see the name of Jesus Christ proclaimed and God glorified in and through the SBC. If you’ve paid any attention at all to other denominations and the battles that are raging within them, you’ll understand how thankful we can be to our Lord that the biggest debate in the SBC right now seems to be just how sovereign God is. We remain a convention of churches committed to the inerrancy of Scripture, the deity of Christ, the Trinitarian nature of God, and the exclusivity of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Not all of our brothers and sisters can say the same thing. Just something to think about…
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