Bart Barber is running for reelection as president of the SBC on Tuesday, and it is my hope that you will vote for him. I believe it is in the best interests of the SBC that you do so, and that we give him one more year. He’s done a great job this year and will serve us well if we give him another year. Here are my brief thoughts on why I think you should.
1. Baptist polity, history, and tradition demand a vote for Bart.
It has been our tradition to allow a president a second term unless there was some serious breach of integrity during the president’s first term. Sometimes, an outlier candidate, one who nominated himself, a candidate who drained two or three hundred votes from the candidate would be nominated, but to seek to unseat a candidate running for a second term is a breach of Baptist protocol. Even during the intense days of the Conservative Resurgence, candidates generally ran unopposed for their second term. Bart Barber has been a good president and has done nothing to embarrass the office. He should be allowed a second term.
2. Bart Barber loves Southern Baptists.
If you follow Bart on social media, one of the things you realize is that he genuinely loves this convention. His church gives generously to missions through the Cooperative Program, through Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong offerings, and they are deeply involved in missions partnerships in various countries and regions of North America. FBC Farmersville is not a megachurch, but it is a model of the kind of church we need more of in this convention. He raises cattle and calls them names like Lottie Mooon. This man is SBC to the core.
3. Bart Barber is a missionary.
I got to know Bart through blogging, but we became friends when I went with him to Senegal and joined with him in partnership missions in the Casamance. I have watched him walk from village to village, house to house, and tell Africa men and women biblical stories. He genuinely loves the Bayotte people. His ministry there is genuine, it’s real.
4. Bart Barber is genuine conservative.
Can I be frank? Anyone who calls Bart liberal, woke, or anything like that needs to stay close to a body of water because his pants are likely to burst into flame! Bart dresses conservative, his beliefs are conservative, his politics are conservative. He ascribes to the Baptist Faith & Message 100%. In our early days of blogging, most of our disagreements came over how conservative/fundamental I thought he was! The idea that anyone would call him liberal or woke boggles my mind.
5. Bart Barber values integrity.
Bart is a man of unquestioned integrity, honesty, morality, and decency. We have seen public examples of this at the convention level but I have seen examples of this at the personal level. When you spend weeks with a person in Africa in conditions such as we have experienced, you get to know the real man. I can say without equivocation that I have never seen anything but the highest integrity, the strongest morality, the greatest decency from this man. We can overlook his tastes in sports, his hatred of coffee, his poor choices in hats (the one he wears in Africa – my goodness, folks), but Bart Barber is the kind of man we want in the SBC presidency.
6. Bart Barber knows what the presidency is all about.
On our first trip to Africa together, in 2015, we had a long talk about the SBC presidency, and Bart said some things that struck me. He said that our presidents were too focused on platforms and making a name. The SBC presidency is about helping the messengers have THEIR voices heard.
Last year, we witnessed this with the Resolutions Committee, how Bart worked to allow everyone to have their say, even people offering resolutions I know he disagreed with! You will see, this year, that Bart will help people have their say. At some point, debate has to be cut off – 10,000 messengers cannot all speak – but Bart is going to be all about US.
He is not about trying to leave a legacy or accomplishing some kind of grand plan. He just wants to serve us! He is doing what we talked about in Africa in January of 2015.
7. Bart Barber is an encourager.
The SBC is being torn apart by division and we need someone who loves us and will encourage us. We need someone in the presidency who will lead us to be better. Bart is one of the smartest men I know – he is no fool. He knows we have problems, and he is willing to face them head on. We have seen him take hard stands and face problems. He does the right thing.
Still, in this day and in this hour, the SBC needs someone who will build us up and not tear us down, who will bring us together, not divide us, who will show us how we can come together to be better. Bart is that man.
I have been saying for many years that the SBC needs another Adrian Rogers. Bart doesn’t look like Adrian. For sure, he doesn’t speak like Adrian – no one has that voice! I do believe that Bart is the man God has given us for this moment and I hope and pray the SBC will give him another year.
I hope you will vote for Bart for president. We need him.
Also, notice the nice lime green in the tie!