Q&A with Thom Rainer, president-elect of LifeWay Christian Resources

MARIANNA (FBW) – Four days after his unanimous election as the ninth president of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, Thom Rainer gave an hour-long interview to Florida Baptist Witness Executive Editor James A. Smith Sr. Sept. 16 at Blue Springs Baptist Conference Center in Marianna where Rainer was speaking to a Sunday School conference.

Rainer, the founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, is a church growth expert who has published 16 books. “I really see LifeWay as the intersection of everything I was doing,” as a writer, educator, theologian, church consultant, researcher, pastor and businessman, Rainer told the Witness.

Rainer and his wife, Nellie Jo, a breast cancer survivor with an “excellent” prognosis, are the parents of three adult children. He is the former pastor of Azalea Baptist Church in St. Petersburg. “The Panhandle was always my second home” as a youth in Alabama who vacationed regularly in Panama City, he said. “Honestly, there’s not a place in Florida I don’t like. I even like the humidity!”

Rainer will begin duties as president-elect Oct. 17 and will transition to president Feb. 1, 2006, upon James T. Draper’s retirement as president. To learn more about Rainer’s background and election, see the story in the Sept. 22 issue of the Witness. What follows are excerpts of Rainer’s interview with Smith.

FBW: Has the scope and magnitude of taking on such a major responsibility fully set in?

TR: On the one hand, when I think about the revenue side of a $440 million company, when I think about over 2,000 employees and being their president, when I think about the multiple divisions of LifeWay, no, the reality of all that has not fully set in. It’s beginning to. This 100-day overlap with Dr. Draper is really a gift. I’m going to take time to almost put my consulting hat on and go throughout the organization and learn and listen as much as I can. I think at that point, more of the reality will set in.

FBW: How will the transition work?

TR: One of the first things that I will do is that I have every intention of meeting every Nashville and every Lebanon – which is where the warehouse is – employee. My wife and I are going to take between two and three hours of most every day while we’re at LifeWay and just go and meet all these employees. Certainly, we’re not going to remember them all right away, but I want to have the opportunity for them to see me and for me to see them.

Secondly, I’m going to go through fairly deep into every division, talking to people, listening to them, finding out what their dreams, hopes, aspirations are, learning from them about their areas. That’s one thing that I have done as a consultant for denominations and for churches. I’ve done a lot of listening and interviewing and I’m going to apply some of those same approaches so that I can take a crash course in LifeWay 101 for the first 100 days.

FBW: What is the challenge of leading such a large organization?

TR: Challenge number one is learning all that the organization does. I was surprised to hear just the number of products—not counting small resources—that are released from LifeWay each year.

Challenge number two is keeping the organization even more relevant than it has been. There’s this tension that I must ever keep. The first part of the tension is that we cannot compromise who we are. We cannot compromise who we are as Baptists, as evangelicals. I’m not going to compromise what we believe through the 2000 edition of the Baptist Faith and Message. I’m not going to compromise who we are doctrinally. In fact, my strong desire is for us to become more proactive in remembering who we are as Southern Baptists and who we are doctrinally. So there’s that tension alongside the tension of being culturally relevant and being able to impact the churches in a strange day of American Christianity where the majority of the nation is unchurched and probably does not know Christ and 94 percent of churches are declining or growing at a pace that is less than the community in which they are located.

FBW: Sometimes the best-selling products are not always the best products for Christians and churches. Talk about that challenge.

TR: Any Christian resource organization is always going to be faced with that challenge. If we have a product that is doing exceedingly well and yet it may not be best for the ministry, it’s a difficulty to pull back on that when it’s providing financial resources for you. But we have to ever keep it before us that LifeWay is not first a business; it is a ministry. And so when we have to make those choices, as tough as they may be and sometimes they may even be financially not the best choice, we have to make the choice for ministry. I’m not suggesting in the first year or two of my leadership that we will make all the right choices. But I hope, as Dr. Draper did, we will make better and better choices in that direction.

For example, I’m greatly encouraged by the reception of the Holman Christian Standard Bible. On paper, that may not have seemed like the best financial decision – all the expense going for a new translation – and there were some naysayers before it came out. However, it has been widely acclaimed as a great translation by many and now it is in the top-tier of sales. So I really think if we ultimately are true to who we are as a ministry and who we are doctrinally that God will bless us financially. But we just have to be driven by the ministry and not the finances.

FBW: What was the interview process was like?

TR: I have never taken so many exams in such short period of time – management exams, general knowledge exams, finance exams, psychological exams. I submitted myself to a multi-hour interview with a psychologist that was interesting, if not painful. I answered the extensive questionnaire and, of course, went through the interview process itself. I can tell Southern Baptists, regardless of which candidate emerged, this was a very thorough process. Above all, this committee prayed; this committee sought the prayers of others. And they said no matter what all these factors are, we want God’s man. The surrounding factor of all of this was an incredible cover of prayer for this committee. It was exhaustive and it was exhausting to me. However, the interview with the committee was one of the most exciting things that I’ve been a part of.

FBW: At your post-election news conference, you said that you intend to continue the young leaders initiative begun by Dr. Draper, although it may take a different direction. What critique do you have of the young leaders movement within the SBC?

TR: One of the critiques that I would offer is what happened to me experientially. As people have heard about my nomination or even heard about the possibility of my nomination, many young leaders within the SBC have approached me and said: “I am not at the table of that group.” And these are some people that I think should be at the table. Perhaps they didn’t come to this table by choice, because it was open invitation; it wasn’t a limited invitation. But they’re looking for a different forum and a different opportunity to come to this table.

A second critique is this: Yes, we’re a denomination that needs to listen to young leaders, but we also need to listen across the age spectrum. That’s why I’m looking more for an inter-generational initiative that includes young leaders but others are listening and speaking as well.