Sorry guys. The title is an inside joke to the Voices team. We laugh at the frequency at which people use these two phrases when nominating people for positions in the SBC. I don’t drink, but if I were hardcore Reformed enough to imbibe, this would make a great drinking game at the SBC (smile folks, I’m joking!).
I am not at the SBC, and to be honest, I haven’t paid attention to what is happening until this afternoon, when I tuned in while the elections were taking place (strange format, not sure what I think about that!). Then, there was a report from the EC and Dr. Iorg’s presentation. I listened to that. To be honest, when I’m in attendance, the EC president’s report often finds me in the display area gathering pens and candy, and t-shirts if they have any big enough for me. I listened to Dr. Iorg’s report, and I came to a conclusion.
He is the man we need at the EC right now.
The EC has been a dysfunctional organization for several years. I won’t recount their failings, but in my humble but correct opinion, many of the problems we are facing right now in the SBC can be laid at the feet of mismanagement by EC leadership, both the elected trustees and the previous staff.
There was a decade or so where I was pretty heavily involved in SBC affairs and had personal dealings with many of the movers and shakers of the SBC. During this time, I came to a definite opinion about the kind of leader we need for our entities in the future. When SBC Voices was a lot more active, we advocated hard to get the convention entities to consider hiring minority candidates for their open entity head positions. It almost happened a couple of times, but with the current direction, that has become less likely. What I have noticed is something simpler, though.
- I apologize in advance if this offends, but I found some of our leaders (many?) who carried a regal bearing, surrounded by an entourage, giving off a certain aura. When we got elected to run the Pastor’s Conference for 2017, there were SBC elites and power brokers who acted as if we’d done something underhanded. We took something that belonged to them. I saw this regal, entitled, lordly behavior among too many of the leaders of our convention.
- There is a new kind of leader that has been a breath of fresh air in our entities and state conventions. Let’s call it the “Jamie Dew” model. If you sat down next to Jamie and didn’t know who he was, you’d think he was a normal guy. You wouldn’t realize he was a world-class scholar and a fantastic seminary president who is turning around a school that was headed for extinction when he was elected to its helm. He doesn’t have an aura. He’s talented, competent, godly, and inspiring, but he does it all without any of the “peacock” behavior.
I’ve only met Dr. Jeff Iorg a few times. He’s certainly more likely to wear a tie and coat than Jamie Dew is, but my limited experience puts him in the second category. I don’t agree with everything he does, and I likely won’t as time goes forward. That’s not the point. I liked the way he laid out his position in his presentation today and argued for it. There was no showmanship, no bravado. I got a sense that he was real, transparent, and direct. There’s an integrity about him. He is not the charismatic speaker or slick salesman that some who have held that office before him have been – I thank God for that. I got the sense that an honest man of God was telling me what he really thought.
I also appreciated the fact that he was not glossing over the real issues that face us or trying to put lipstick on any pigs. He talked about sexual abuse. Frankly, that’s an issue where he and I probably don’t see eye to eye, but I believe he sincerely wants to do the best he can with the hand he has been given. I’m more of an idealist, but perhaps in his position, he has to be more realistic. In this climate, there are people who see dealing righteously with abuse as liberalism or compromise, so he can only go so far. He addressed the lawsuits in a direct way. People have complained about spending money defending those lawsuits. Granted, no one wants to spend money on lawyers, but sin has consequences. We should not have ignored abuse, and then we would not have to deal with lawyers!
Whether you agree with his views or not, and I had my disagreements, Dr Iorg seems to be a man of integrity, godliness, a man who is addressing problems, a man who is more concerned with advancing our mission than building his platform. He does not seem to be driven by ego (thank the Lord) but by a passion for God’s kingdom.
I wish I was there with all of you, but I believe the EC is in good hands and perhaps our dysfunctional administrative entity will see better days under his leadership.
