Few jobs in the Southern Baptist Convention could be considered more demanding than leading the International Mission Board. To say the least, the post has grown somewhat since James Barnett Taylor took the helm in Richmond in 1845. Starting with him, every candidate for the job has been a compromise candidate in one way or another (just like every candidate for the pastorate of my church has been). If we were to wait for the perfect choice, we would never fill the position.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that there’s no value in thinking about that perfect choice. True, I’m not an IMB trustee, but my church is very involved in missions and I’m a Southern Baptist—we’ve all got some skin in this game. There’s no reason why all of us shouldn’t be considering what we want in a leader for the institution that, more than any other, exemplifies the objectives that unite our family of churches.
So, here’s my list:
A candidate firmly committed to the formula that defines the modern Southern Baptist Convention: In Memphis in 1925 the Southern Baptist Convention did two important and interrelated things. We inaugurated the Cooperative Program and adopted The Baptist Faith & Message. Southern Baptist churches give Southern Baptist entities financial security; Southern Baptist institutions give Southern Baptist churches ministries with doctrinal accountability to the churches. That is, in my opinion, an agreement worth keeping and defending.
The promise of doctrinal accountability was in danger forty years ago. When no one thought it was possible, God used some faithful and indefatigable Southern Baptists to rescue it from the brink. The other half of the arrangement—The Cooperative Program—has been in recent danger. A lot of people think it can no longer be rescued. I do not believe them. The Cooperative Program is worth saving, and all it takes for us to save it is for us to decide to do so.
There are three people who are the most important for this endeavor: The President of the IMB, the Executive Director of the SBC, and the Executive Director of your state convention. These three people must lead any effort to reinvigorate the Cooperative Program in order for other CP champions to succeed.
So, the perfect IMB President needs to be someone who is 100% on-board with The Baptist Faith & Message (and only the latest revision of the BF&M is the BF&M). I don’t mean someone who has merely decided that he can live within it; I mean someone who would live within the parameter of The Baptist Faith & Message if there were no such document—if people had a contrariwise worded statement of faith that they tried to impose upon him.
And, the perfect IMB President needs to be someone who is a champion of the Cooperative Program. Sure if people insist upon funding the IMB in other ways and refuse to fund the IMB through the Cooperative Program, he should graciously and gratefully receive that money, but he should prefer that everyone contribute through the Cooperative Program and should constantly encourage people to do so and seek to remove obstacles that get in the way of people’s doing so.
A candidate for whom this is the biggest thing of a lifetime: The slightly weaker candidate for whom this job is a lifetime dream will outperform the slightly stronger candidate who sees this as one opportunity among many. There are a lot of pathways by which a candidate might come to see the helm of the IMB in this way. Maybe he loves missions. Maybe he loves the Southern Baptist Convention. One way or another, the leader we need at the IMB is the leader who could never be tempted by any other opportunity.
A candidate firmly committed to Southern Baptist polity: We govern our entities with boards of trustees. Our entities need leaders who are strong enough to give good leadership but whose theory of leadership contains not the slightest whiff of autocracy. Any candidate who can’t lead the entity or who can’t relate well to a board of trustees is not going to succeed.
A candidate who can preach: I say this not only because he automatically owns a couple of hours each year of the lives of those of us who attend the SBC Annual Meeting (and therefore it’s a good thing for me if he’s a good preacher), but also because more than anyone else he will be the one preaching to call out those called to the task of worldwide missions. He needs to be someone who can preach well in both the smallest and the largest churches of the convention.
A candidate who understands the life and work of a career missionary: Probably one comes to that understanding by having served as a career missionary for at least one term. The President of the IMB affects greatly the lives of the missionaries on the field, and he ought to do so intelligently and deliberately. Missionary work is no longer the lifetime assignment that once it seemed to be. We count in our Southern Baptist ranks a number of people who have experience both as a career missionary and as something else (pastor, professor, denominational employee, etc.). So, this person wouldn’t necessarily have to be someone serving as a career missionary now (although I wouldn’t rule that out), but I think it gives him a leg up if he has served as a career missionary at some time in the past.
A candidate who understands Southern Baptist church life: Probably one comes to that understanding by having served on the staff of a local Southern Baptist church, although very involved adult membership might suffice as well. It is best, I think, if his knowledge of Southern Baptist church life extends to more than one size and type of church.
A candidate who, in addition to practicing cross-cultural missions, has thought long and deeply about cross-cultural missions: I’ve had very little missionary experience. Our church has taken the gospel to one Unengaged Unreached People Group. Hear my testimony: That task has tested every last particle of knowledge that I gained in a BA, an MDiv, and a PhD from Southern Baptist institutions of higher learning. There are SO MANY WAYS that missionary work can birth heresy or lesser disfunction, and it is imperative that our chief missionary have great theological depth.
A candidate who can run the IMB on a sound financial basis: And if you’ve been paying attention at all, this one is self-explanatory. David Platt has helped the IMB so much in this regard.
A candidate who is content to let the spotlight fall on others: Our missions effort has been strongest when missionaries on the field have been the heroes of the effort. Lottie Moon is beloved, while most Southern Baptists could not name a single one of the IMB Presidents under whom she served. A new age of security concerns has made it more difficult to let career missionaries be the faces of the IMB, but to the degree that we can do so, we make the IMB stronger and more enduring.
A candidate who can pull the vision of American Christians out of America and into the world: The “wall” we ought to be debating is the spiritual one on our border that obscures our churches’ view of a lost world. A good IMB President makes us all think about places we have never seen.
A candidate who will deliberately make peace in the Southern Baptist Convention among people who affirm The Baptist Faith & Message and who share our vision of cooperative missions. I want an IMB President who, beyond strengthening the IMB, is the kind of influence who makes stronger every element of our family of churches by bringing us together. Give me that, and I’m prepared not to care at all how many “points” he affirms.
A candidate who is a man of prayer and a soulwinner: The presidential emphases of Ronnie Floyd and Steve Gaines have been well aimed. These characteristics would serve us well in an IMB President. Let him be someone whose “prayerwalking” gives way at the slightest opportunity to “sharewalking.”
Really, these simple things are all that I want in an IMB President. That’s a piece of cake, board of trustees. Go get that for us, will you?
A lot of wisdom here offered by Bart Barber. I don’t envy those who have this responsibility. A lot of time and energy will be spent in service of finding solid, long-term leadership and I pray God will bless that effort.
I think the unfortunate reality of David’s tenure is that he will be remembered as the leader who said he was “all in” last September 2017, decided he is now “all out” in February 2018, after he lead a lot of missionaries to the parking lot. I grieve for those missionaries who are now looking at this and saying, “Why did I leave?” I’ve not met one missionary who took the VRI who has told me that they had finished the task. This is so discouraging, from a field perspective. I think that the next leader to leave will be… Read more »
These characteristics sound a lot like a guy I know named Bart Barber.
As someone who has walked the villages of the Casamance with him I can say I think Bart could do this.
I have forgiven him for attempting to sell me to the rebel faction on my first trip over there. He did not get his price.
I leave on Friday for my 6th trip.
Having discussed this the good Dr. Barber, I think I can safely say that seeking a nomination to such a position is not something he has considered in the least.
I’ll consider it for him, then.
I would warn you that there’s a church in Texas that wouldn’t take kindly to the idea…and you know how Texans don’t like to be messed with!
Lottie is the key driver for the IMB budget. It provides about 60% of their budget. I want a pastor who gets that fact and leads his church to give mightily to that offering. If a pastor lumps LMCO into a general mission fund and does not explain it or prioritze it in his local church then he should not get near the IMB as a trustee or President. The most important person in leading the way in Cooperative Program giving is also the local pastor. He must understand what it makes possible and teach his church why they give.… Read more »
Very good list Bart. I agree with all of them. You have put some thought into this. I would like to comment on a few that I especially think are important. “A candidate firmly committed to the formula that defines the modern Southern Baptist Convention:” Well said! It is interesting how the importance of the cooperative program changes depending on who is in power. In the early years when I served with the FMB, we were told to ask people to give to the Lottie Moon offering but not let it hurt their CP giving. That message has changed at… Read more »
Well thought out and well said Bart.
I’d observe that ” the formula that defines the modern Southern Baptist Convention” is still the formula but has been reconfigured a bit. The BFM has been tweaked a couple of times. What constitutes our cooperative support, which never has been divorced from societal giving, has undergone a long, slow reformulation. State conventions still consume the most dollars, show declining results, and get the least love. There’s a reason that many of the top next-gen SBC leaders look at the “formula” differently. If we do get back to a 1970s era CP person, it doesn’t change the reality on the… Read more »
I agree with William here, we need someone with overseas experience. Our last choice did not have overseas experience. A two week mission trip/vacation is not overseas experience. Where is Gordon Fort when we need him?
I agree that the president of the IMB should have missionary experience, and I am confident that almost all the active and retired missionaries would say the same. It is hard to understand the mindset of missionaries unless you have struggled with culture shock, language learning, and amoebic dysentery as they have.
Danny Wood at Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
I’ve already commented on another post, but I’ll repeat it here: I believe experience as a missionary is important for someone who’s going to lead the IMB. I’m not saying this to knock Platt—I just think you have to have lived overseas before you can fully understand the position and the people you would be leading.
… and I’ll repeat my response to you on that other thread here as it’s perhaps more appropriate hear that it was there: I understand your point and don’t inherently disagree – but I’ll remind you that it was “experienced feild missionary” president(s) who may have “understood the mission field” as it were – but as it’s also true that these men led the IMB into an horrible fiscal situation that perhaps impeded the mission more significantly but in, granted, different ways. There’s lots to consider. Feild experience is but one of them. I think I’d be against either setting… Read more »
I’m betting, heavily though metaphorically, that the next guy has IMB overseas experience. I’m not sure a leader with longtime IMB experience would have confronted the appalling financial morass as did the outside-the-culture guy, David Platt. It’s going to be a challenge but not so much a financial challenge because of the steps taken the last three years.
Yeah, good point William.
I understand your point, Dave. But I think there are plenty of guys with missionary experience that would also be fiscally responsible.
Great post. I agree with it all.
I agree too, that overseas experience should be a must.
Sorry though… I am not interested.
I’ve copied this from part of another post and added a bit because this part fits a bit better here. From someone on the field, my recommendation for the president role would be to split it and have a “face of the board” and a “president.” The face could be someone younger (like Platt) who connects with the younger generation. This person could promote giving, going and praying on social media. I agree that getting workers into pulpits/their stories and pictures out helps but honestly with the emphasis on UPGs most of us are in positions where we don’t even… Read more »
First, thanks to everyone who has commented for furthering the discussion. I just finished preaching a funeral. That has drawn my attention away from the thread. Veronica, thank you so much for serving the cause of the gospel among Southern Baptists! Yours is an intriguing suggestion, and although I’d do it a wee bit differently, I think you’ve highlighted an important reality. If we must select compromise candidates, then we need to build conglomerate administrations. The president of the IMB needs to staff to his weaknesses at the highest levels. The only thing that gives me pause about adopting your… Read more »
I notice you conveniently failed to address Jonathan’s suggestion.
I’m only available for the job if they are willing to relocate the headquarters to some part of the country where people have at least a rudimentary understanding of what constitutes BBQ.
Bart, Great list. I would add another point. The next IMB president must be in a different Southern Baptist Church that already supports the Cooperative Program at least 26 Sundays a year. He needs to be in large and small churches. He needs to call out the called and he needs to promote the Cooperative Program. Our smaller churches are what keeps CP going. He needs to be in them constantly and everywhere. This may not be the job for a man with small children, but we should leave that up to God. I’m praying God will give us a… Read more »
Makes sense.
I agree!
I understand the need/benefit for the head of an SBC agency to be out among the churches to give a face to the organization and help with fundraising. However, I wrestle with the fact that to be a good entity leader makes you a bad (in the sense of regular attendance) church member. I am not a pastor, but attend church with an entity leader, and he is not at his church more often than he is in church. Part of me really would like the job description for any SBC position not require them to be unable to be… Read more »
The Apostle Paul went through stretches of his life when he was not the consistently active member of any particular local church. I think that there are (a very few) callings that strengthen the ministries of many churches but that require something of a nomadic life. Including Paul, I think there are some biblical patterns that make room for this.
Brother Scott, I share your concern about this. I’m a state convention executive Director. I do well to make it to my home church once a month. Unfortunately, it’s just part of the job. The churches need that connection to the people they are supporting through their CP giving. They need to know their giving is appreciated and to have a way to ask questions if they want to. This is even more important for the president of the IMB. Our churches give over $250 million to the IMB every year through the Lottie Moon Christmas offering and CP. As… Read more »
Thank you gentleman, and I agree, the head of that entity needs to be out giving a personal touch to the churches and people who support it. I am sure they (and you Brother Duke), miss that regular interaction with your home church. I hope each of you have a personal accountability group to encourage you, pray for you, share in study with you, etc. as I am sure the spiritual strain is tough at times. You, and they are in my prayers.
Thank you, brother Scott, I’m grateful for your prayers. I do miss being at my home church on a regular basis, but I really enjoy worshipping with and opening the word with my brothers and sisters around the state. I do have men I ask to hold me accountable. My wife travels with me regularly and is a great partner in this ministry, too. Your prayers are very appreciated.
William Burton or Dennis WAterman are my choices