Last week I went to the IMB’s International Learning Center to meet with other seminary missions professors and IMB staff members. We do this every year during the spring semester. Of course, the main topic of conversation was the search for a new president for the IMB. The chairman of the IMB trustees has selected 15 trustees to serve on the search committee, and the committee has begun its work. I realize that 15 seems like a large search committee, but the trustees’ by-laws specify that number. The staff informed the professors that the committee would contact us to ask for our opinions and recommendations. Also, the search committee will solicit recommendations from all Southern Baptists at some time in the future. At this point in the process they are in “listening” mode. Contrary to what you may have heard no one has been contacted about accepting this position.
When I learned that the search committee would invite me to make suggestions, that made me think about what I would write. I’ve decided to ask our dear readers to help me? What characteristics and qualities and abilities would you like to see in the new IMB president? Perhaps we, the erudite devotees of Voices, can work together to develop a profile that will WOW the search committee.Here are my preliminary thoughts:
- First, I want the new president to have experience as a foreign missionary. To understand missionaries, you need to have struggled to learn the local language, experienced culture shock, suffered with missionary disease (amoebic dysentery) and learned to function in a foreign environment.
- Second, I want the person to be an able communicator and preacher.
- Third, I want the person to be free to travel widely around the SBC and the world. This would preclude a candidate with young children.
- Fourth, I want the candidate to have experience as a field leader. The candidate should have experience in administering the work of a group of missionaries.
- Fifth, the candidate should be a person with a compelling vision for the IMB’s future.
- And, sixth, the candidate should agree with my approach to missions strategy. Such agreement is a sign of sound judgment and wise discernment.
What do you think? What would you like for me to tell the search committee?
I think and ideal IMB President would be a Man of God who has faithfully served on the field but has also served in the US as a pastor in a local body. He needs to be able to understand both the International Missionary as well as the person sittting in the pew all across the United States who has never left the country.
He must be willing to dedicate full-time to this position as well. This is definitely not a job for younger person with young children. IMB President demands a lot of travelling time.
But ultimately he should be one that also fits biblical qualification of a pastor/elder in the local church. I understand that the committe probably takes this into consideration but it is easy to overlook these qualifications in order to find what the world would define as the ideal leader.
I have robbed from Bart Barber’s excellent February 10 post on this same subject, but have added a few of my own entries and edited some of his to “make them my own”.
I would hope that the IMB search committee would attempt to find someone who:
• is a man of prayer and a soulwinner
• is humble
• understands the life and work of a career missionary
• would be willing to view his assignment as one which requires less innovation than persistence and constancy
• is a life-long Southern Baptist, and proud of its name (though not the regional implications of the name), its overall aims, and its work.
• is firmly committed to Southern Baptist Convention accountability
• is firmly committed to The Baptist Faith & Message
• is firmly committed to Southern Baptist polity
• will champion, and lead all missionaries to champion, The Cooperative Program
• will surround himself with senior staff members who are gifted in their fields of expertise (financially, strategically, theologically, managerially, relationally, etc.)
• can preach
• understands Southern Baptist church life
I’ll throw J.D. Greer out there once again. I’m not trying to say he shouldn’t be SBC President, but he’d serve us better at IMB.
I think Greear is a great guy who loves the Lord and teaches the Bible faithfully. He showed tremendous character during the last SBC election. Even so –
Please, no, not another non-missionary pastor of a megachurch who loves missions but has always served as a pastor.
Platt did what needed to be done, and I respect him more than coffee, but there seems to have been an informational and experiential gap he struggled to overcome. Again – I think the world of the man, and I’m a fan of his ability to do what the organization needed, come hell or high water. Just…no.
Not Greear.
P.S. My computer keeps autocorrecting “Greear” to “Great.”
But he worked for IMB before being a mega pastor. Often overlooked!
Is there an official “job description” for the position that has been written down? I realize CEO type positions are essentially “whatever it takes to ensure the organization is running well,” but if there has been an itemized expectation already written down, it might help keep the list of expectations within reason – as it may help keep my wish list within reason.
Mark, Thank you for sharing your list of professional characteristics that you will use to consider candidates for the crucial role of IMB president. These are all indispensable. I’m not sure I would rule out the possibility of young children. Some men manage to have very active ministries and still keep in good touch with their families. However, these men and families are rare enough that such a candidate should only be considered if God intervenes in an undeniable way. I’d like you to also consider temperament as an important characteristic. I know it’s a personal rather than a professional characteristic, and it may already be on your character traits list, but I felt I needed to express my concern for this priority. We need the IMB president to have an obvious love for people, not only the lost, but our own. He must not only love God. He must love us, too. Because we are a task-oriented people, there are a lot of us. We’ve gone out and gotten people. Task oriented people get things done. This is a must, but the IMB president must also have the people skills to help us see ourselves as a people united for the common cause of world missions. He needs to help us understand that no one is too small or insignificant in this endeavor. He needs to be as comfortable and engaging with a church of 30 people as a church of 3,000. This is especially true in SBC life, where most of our churches are small. The IMB president is the single most important human in SBC life when it comes to casting a vision for all of us and uniting us as a people to accomplish one more time great things for God, despite our flaws. Where is the man who will spend himself calling us together for the sake of the lost world? Where is the man who loves Southern Baptists enough to be with us and point the way to fields white unto harvest as he stands in our midst? Am I asking too much? I pray not. Southern Baptists need a renewed vision. It will start when someone will tell us once again that we matter and that we can make a difference together.
Zane Pratt.
John, did you do the “Drinking Honey with Poison” presentation about Christian’s early use of pagan literature ?
Paul, that’s extremely random. But, yes. That must have been 2 or 3 years ago in Chicago. Why do you ask? I’m not in that particular field anymore.
Barrett, I surely agree with your comment. Character and empathy are essential. A number of commenters on this blog have lamented the disinterest SBC leaders “seem” to have for the small churches. So, your comment about that resonates with me. I also agree with Poor Richard who endorsed Bart Barber’s list. I like his list, too, but he did fail to mention “must agree with Mark Terry’s views on strategy.”
I for one agree that an IMB leader should share Mark Terry’s view on strategy.
I agree with everything said. really have nothing to add.
I agree with the requirement of Mark Terry’s view on strategy. The rest are negotiable.
As a pastor in a smaller state convention, (Utah/Idaho), I would be pleased to see that the new IMB President make time for interaction with us on that level through our meetings and/or pastor’s conferences. I know that it can be difficult to prioritize interacting with smaller churches when there is such a demand on your time but interacting with pastors and messengers in smaller state conventions have a helpful trickle-down effect and often provide accessibility to more than just the messengers.
Russ, this is a great idea. Abraham Lincoln said, “God must like common people; he made so many of them.” I believe we could say the same of the Lord. He must love smaller churches; He made so many of them. I am a retired missionary, but during my active years I loved to do furlough speaking in the smaller churches. I spoke at one up near the Red River in northern Texas. They told me I was the first foreign missionary to visit their church. I believe all our missionaries share my feelings. They are glad to come to a smaller church. And! Don’t forget retired missionaries. They are happy to come and tell about missions.
In addition to your list, I would like to see an IMB President who sees Southern Baptists as a partner in kingdom advance with other evangelical believers, mission agencies and groups and communicates that effectively to our constituency. I would like a strategy that factors in the significant impact and potential of mission work from the global south and east and not think that only the West can reach the 10-40 window and the remaining UPGs and UUPGs. I would like to see IMB leaders engaging in MissioNexus and other missions think-tanks to share best practices and ideas with other missions leaders. I would like a more humble approach to world mission beyond the triumphalist language that seems to suggest that the SBC is the only hope for the world.
I vote Zane Pratt or Micah Fries. Both those men embody the qualities I want in an a IMB President. Proven leaders, proven pastors, proven missionaries, and proven catalyst for equipping people for missions and missions giving.
Mark, on your sixth point, you said:
And, sixth, the candidate should agree with my approach to missions strategy. Such agreement is a sign of sound judgment and wise discernment.
Obviously, agreeing with you is a sign on intelligence and discernment. Is your missions strategy spelled out somewhere in brief? (Or do I have to buy your books?)
Dave, if you and lots of others buy my book on missions strategy, my retirement fund will surely improve. How about I write a post for you about my approach to strategy? Really, you could sum up my approach to strategy in one word–multiplication. The earth’s population grows geometrically: 2-4-8-16-32, etc. However, a lot of our evangelism and church planting strategies result in arithmatic growth–1+1+1+1. So, in missions we need a strategy that produces disciples and churches faster than the population grows. If our strategy does not do that, then the percentage of believers in the population will constantly decline. Of course, the key is to find multiplicative strategies.
Write the article and we will add links to the books.
https://www.amazon.com/John-Mark-Terry/e/B001KHO68O
I own them all (including both editions of Missiology)
This is an excellent list.
I have heard good things about Zane Pratt. I don’t think that Micah Fries, respectfully, fits the bill. Nice guy. Young guys will like him, but we just had that.
I also think that we need to avoid selecting someone from a recognized “camp”, if that can be done. I don’t want a person heavily identified from the “Reformed” camp, the anti-Trump or pro-Trump camp, the immigration camp, the race camp etc.
I want to see a guy who is known for one thing, and has otherwise been able to avoid too much association with these groups. I believe that Frank Page has accomplished that, and I am sure there must be others in the SBC world who can fit that bill.
If a person has had his nose to the grindstone on the issue of missions solely, there’s a good chance he has avoided being too tied up in these other issues.
I want a “Missions” guy.
Period.
1. An ability to connect with, empathize with, encourage, inspire, and communicate values and strategy to the body of missionaries. Though there may be certain exceptions (David Platt was likely one), in general this implies someone with significant career missionary experience.
2. Someone who embodies a passionate love for the Lord, for missionaries, for brothers and sisters in Christ around the world, and for the lost around the world.
3. A good understanding of biblically-based missiology. He should be a student of the Bible and especially of how biblical teaching impacts global missiology. He should also be knowledgeable of the history of missions and key theological and missiological issues affecting missionary strategy today.
—I, for one, would like to see someone who takes a balanced position on the theses of Donald McGavran, David Garrison, and New Directions in general (neither an out-an-out proponent nor a hardline critic). Someone who is not an ideological proponent of the Homogeneous Unit Principle.
—Someone who has a good understanding of and a biblically balanced position on issues of contextualization on the mission field.
—I would like to see a good emphasis on not only reaching the unreached but also the spiritual maturity of national churches and the unity of the Universal Church.
—I would like to see a strong advocacy of the strategic importance of the career IMB missionary and also national/indigenous evangelists/pastors/missionaries for the completion of the task of the Great Commission.
—While I appreciate the importance of short-term missions for engaging and motivating North American churches, I would like to see strategy be more field-driven as over against sending base-driven. In other words, the bottom line should be what makes the most effective contribution to the fulfillment of the Great Commission rather than what excites and motivates the sending churches and makes them feel like they are engaged in hands-on missions.
—Someone who understands and appreciates Baptist ecclesiology but also the importance of cooperating with global interdenominational evangelicalism for the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
—Someone who gives due emphasis to the need to evangelize and plant churches among Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, Sikhs, Shintoists, Jews, secularists, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and nominal Protestant Christians. Not an advocate of Evangelicals and Catholics Together. Someone who has a convictional concern about the dangers of the prosperity gospel but who is not at the same time overly closed-minded with respect to fellowship and cooperation with moderate Charismatics and Pentecostals.
4. An ability to relate well to global and national Baptist partners as well as other GCC leaders. In other words, someone with good cross-cultural sensitivity and communication skills. Once again, this will most likely be someone with significant career missionary experience.
5. An ability to communicate effectively, in public speaking engagements and in writing, key IMB concerns to Southern Baptists.
6. An ability to relate well with denominational leaders, trustees, and fellow IMB staff.
7. Someone with good administrative skills and a healthy appreciation of sound principles of wise stewardship of financial and other resources.
8. A godly, humble, servant of God. A prayer warrior. A personal evangelist.
Sounds good to me.
Sadly there is no perfect candidate. There are strengths and needs that have been revealed in every President of the IMB we have had in my lifetime….there is no recipe for perfection here….
Call me old fashioned or whatever – but It is my view that no one is either disqualified or qualified simply because he has been a missionary, or a missionary and pastor, or a mega church pastor, or a celebrity, or a small church pastor, or a “new trad”, or a “new cal”, or an “old cal”, or an “old trad”, or based on the color of their skin.
How many of us here have the slightest idea how to search out and hire am IMB president? I venture to say – very few of us….
But, i am confident that the opines are going to continue and that is OK too.
Yeah, the old adage “trust the trustees” is unpopular, but in one sense, we have to. I don’t know who the best candidate is, but I hope and pray that they do, that they carefully and prayerfully examine candidates and come to the right choice.
I refrain from making that selection myself, since I lack the facts.
Just to be clear, I am NOT suggesting she become a co-president. But give her the opportunity to articulate her definition of mission, how she is living it and how she sees herself best serving in the new assignment in Richmond.
I hope the new President of the IMB AND his wife can be all the things you mention. Just to be clear, I am NOT suggesting she become a co-president. But give her the opportunity to articulate her definition of mission, how she is living it and how she sees herself best serving in the new assignment in Richmond. She should be able to relate well to both women and men on and off the field and have opportunities to travel with her husband when feasible.
Visit places where our workers are seeing movements noticing the make-up of those teams. They won’t find all IMB’ers, or even largely IMB personnel on movement teams. They will find local brothers and sisters laboring long and hard alongside, and even leading the way for our personnel. Movement areas will also be sending missionaries to other locations. Discover what is working and why. Use this to build on for future strategy. Visit teams who are struggling to see fruit, too. Listen to them, pray with them.
If the candidates are former or current missionaries, comb their personnel files. Talk to field personnel about the couple’s strategy, their home life, their attitudes, their faith, their ability to create a cohesive, unified team. Can they inspire team in difficult times of transition and ferry them through it?
I hope that the candidates have already begun to think about how to engage the majority world’s Great Commission mission leaders in meaningful ways – to dialogue, to listen, to serve them, to truly see what the rest of the world is already doing in the mission enterprise. And then to prayerfully, purposely and innovatively consider what IMB 2025 should look like. In other words, don’t start with now in mind. Vision.
I hope the new president team can build bridges with our Southern Baptist national conventions and churches where possible – invite them, men and women, married and single to the table for a global dialogue. Pray and dream together. Leave Western hegemony behind and humbly listen to them. A bigger global force of IMB’ers is not necessarily the answer. A bigger global conversation is.
The IMB is already behind the curve of global mission in some ways, so building a vision for tomorrow’s agency and tomorrow’s task will require a person of missiological insight, generous amounts of courage; and respect for the work that is already going among Baptists and other Great Commission workers in the majority world. Among them are more women than men. This is important to grasp.
He should build a team of innovators and those who are historically familiar with the IMB’s past, with mission history past and present, current trends and projections for the future. They should look back only as it prepares them to look forward. I pray the President and his new team will be forward thinking, strategy savvy, culturally astute, servant hearted, Great Commission passionate and inspire confidence and hope in staff, SB’s, field personnel as well as global churches.
Dear Dr. Terry. I’m very sorry for the multiple posts of the same comment. Internet is horrible here at present and I can’t always tell what sends and what does not. Please feel free to delete all but one post. Thanks and apologies
Suzanne, one of the admins has to approve your first comment. After that you are free to comment at will.
It looks like you tried your comment a couple of times.i just went thru and approved them without looking. Careless on my part.