SBC President Candidates: Questions 1-4

Editor's note: This is one part of three articles with Q&A's posed by Baptist Press to all six candidates for president of the Southern Baptist Convention. The other parts of the Q&A and associated articles can be viewed via the Related Coverage links.

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Related Coverage SBC president hopefuls from South to West complete Q&A SBC President Candidates: Question 5-8 SBC President Candidates: Question 9

1) What has God done in your life and ministry to prepare you to be president of the Southern Baptist Convention?

WAGNER: First, it should be said that I have been serving in the SBC for over 50 years. In the beginning, I was the New Mexico State Baptist Student Union president and a summer staffer at Ridgecrest. After that, I was both a pastor and a church planter, followed by 31 years on the mission field with my area of responsibility being Eastern and Western Europe, as well as the Middle East and North Africa. From 1995 to 2005, I was the professor of evangelism and missions at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. At the present time, I am the president of Olivet University International in San Francisco and the pastor of two small churches in California. This means that I have been prepared for the office by serving the SBC as student leader, church planter, pastor, foreign missionary, consultant for evangelism and church growth, seminary professor, university president and second vice president of the SBC.

COX: First and foremost, God, in His grace, allowed me to be birthed into a Southern Baptist pastor's home. I am a third-generation Southern Baptist preacher. It was there I learned about the grace of God and salvation offered me through Jesus Christ. He saved me at 8 years of age, called me to preach at the age of 17, and I was educated by Southern Baptists for effective ministry in a Southern Baptist church. Second, I have been allowed to be a pastor of a small, medium and large church—all in the same congregation. I came to my present church in 1980 right out of seminary. It was a small, rural church running just over 100 in Sunday school at the time. Over the past 28 years, we have led the church through a mindset change from being a declining church to an evangelistic, growing church. In 1995, we relocated the church from a six-acre tract to a 55-acre tract. It was at this time that our church changed its name from Pleasant Hill to North Metro. Throughout the growth and relocation, along with a multi-million-dollar relocation project, we continued to keep our mission giving at 13 percent of our undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program. Throughout this process, we have stayed consistent in leading the lost to Christ and today we average between 1,500 and 1,600 in Sunday school.Throughout the years I've been able to serve our Georgia Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist Convention in various ways. In Georgia I have served two terms as president of the Georgia Baptist Convention, as well as on the Executive Committee, and chairman of the Administration Committee.In Southern Baptist life, I have served as first vice president of the convention and on the Executive Committee for nine years, where I gained a great deal of insight on how our convention operates. It was on the Executive Committee that I served as chairman of the Cooperative Program subcommittee for three years. I've also served as chairman of various other committees through the Executive Committee structure. I have served on the SBC Funding Study Committee and the ad hoc committee to revitalize the Cooperative Program. The last time we were in Indianapolis, I served on the Resolutions Committee. I believe in the nine years I gained experience and understanding as to the work of Southern Baptists and our structure. I believe it was through these experiences that God has prepared me to be considered for president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

HUNT: For the last four or five terms, I have had different men to ask me for the privilege to place my name in nomination. After praying through it, I never felt led. Oftentimes, it has been said that I had placed my name in nomination and removed it. That is not a true statement. My name has never been placed in nomination. With that being said, this year I was asked to pray fervently to see if the Lord would direct me in such a way. I have sensed that God has given me perfect peace, as well as leadership, to allow my name to be nominated. Let me be quick to say that there is no promise that I would win. I feel that the act of obedience in my life is simply to obey the Lord, follow His leading, and allow my name to be nominated; beyond that, it lies in the hands of His sovereign will.

WILLIS: He has saved me, called me to preach and be a missionary and used me by the power of His Spirit as a Southern Baptist in a variety of settings. Since you ask, I'll list them, but all the credit goes to God for whatever He has accomplished through me.

—Ten years' experience pastoring three Southern Baptist churches in the U.S., one of which I started and all of which saw growth in numbers, maturity and missions.

—Fourteen years as a missionary in Indonesia, six years as a field evangelist/church planter and eight teaching in the Indonesian Baptist Theological seminary, six of which I was president. I led in an innovative theological education process that increased the enrollment over five times to meet the need for pastors growing out of 2 million people coming to Christ in five years in Indonesia, the largest Muslim population in the world.

—Fifteen years as the director of adult discipleship and family ministry [at what was then known as the Sunday School Board] that included launching MasterLife (which has been translated into more than 50 languages) and the LIFE (Lay Institute for Equipping) courses, including Experiencing God, PrayerLife, The Mind of Christ, Fresh Encounter and the LIFE Support Series. I have preached in most of the state conventions and/or evangelism conferences. I led the Bold Mission Prayer Thrust team that called for solemn assemblies for revival and helped lead them with the SBC Executive Committee, 18 state conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention in 1991) I spoke at all the seminaries as a member of the SBC president's Call to the Cross team that called for prayer and revival.

—Ten years as senior vice president of overseas operations for the International Mission Board, overseeing the work of over 5,000 missionaries plus 25,000 to 30,000 short-term mission volunteers each year. As a member of the three-man Senior Executive Team, I led in the strategic New Directions overseas that saw baptisms rise from 251,000 a year in 1993 to 609,000 baptisms last year and from 2,000 new churches started per year to over 25,000 per year for the last several years.

I am currently executive director of the International Orality Network and have been involved in mission movements such as Bold Mission Thrust and AD 2000 and Beyond, and currently strategically involved in Finishing the Task and Call2All all over the world.

—During the process, I have written 20 practical books with the aim of helping God's people be a people after God's own heart who make disciples of all nations.

PURYEAR: I have pastored for 11 years and worked in the business world for 25 years. I believe I have a unique combination of a solid theological foundation with a practical business approach to getting things done. Also, God has given me a passion for encouraging leaders of small churches. Since small churches comprise the overwhelming majority of our convention, I think it's time that more small church leaders were involved in convention leadership on a national level.

DRAKE: Forty-two years pastor of SBC churches in California, Texas, New Jersey, Arkansas. Seeing God save 300-plus each year for the past 10 years and allowing us to disciple them.

God has allowed me to serve as moderator of our association twice and as second vice president of our SBC.

He has allowed me to serve as a founder and ambassador for the Presidential Prayer Team and vice President of the Congressional Prayer Conference in Washington, D.C.

God has also allowed me to serve as chaplain to the USS Kitty Hawk, CVA-63 Veterans Association and the Minuteman Project.

He has allowed me to minister to millions of radio congregants five hours a week for the past six years.

He called me to serve for the past five years as facilitator for a nationwide "Telephonic Prayer Meeting," not only with Southern Baptist but other evangelical prayer warriors.

God has worked out that I am well known in the media, especially in regard to soul winning (church of 100 winning over 300 to Jesus each year), salt and light and fighting the big guys. This presence in secular, as well as Christian media, will help the world find Jesus and help people better understand who Southern Baptists really are. They will know that all that we do is to lift up Jesus, and remember He said if He is lifted up, He will draw all men unto himself.

God has worked it out for me to network with U.S. government officials, as well as two ambassadors from Israel, and this will help me bring Southern Baptist soul winning to a wide audience in America and the world.

2) If you are elected what would be your priority message for Southern Baptists?

WAGNER: We are all aware that for the first time in 150 years, we have declined in membership. There are three main reasons for this. They are: (1) a lack of spiritual fervor, (2) many leaving because they are dissatisfied with the SBC (more leaving out the back door), (3) a lack of new and creative methods of evangelism in the USA (fewer coming in the front door).

If elected, I would hold a solemn assembly in the fall and ask all Southern Baptists to come to their churches and pray, confess their sins and fast. This would be voluntary. There would be no conferences, no programs, no special speakers, no big budgets, but just our people coming together to seek God.

Second, I would reach out to those on the fringe of Southern Baptist life and encourage them to stay and work with us. This would include those in our minority churches as well as those in the mission areas in the USA.

Third, I would promote a new program where we would use university and college-age students to do two years of missionary service both in the USA and in foreign countries. Their only task would be evangelism and discipleship. This would be paid for by the student's families, friends and churches.

Being a trained missionary strategist, I would use my abilities to find new and better ways to bring people to Christ. I would not just say we should be more active in doing what we are already doing, but I will be proactive in seeing that we find better methods.

COX: I believe we need a fresh touch from God on our convention. I will call our convention to spiritual awakening and revival. We need to seek God with all our hearts. I believe the next generation really desires to be kingdom people on mission for God. It would be my desire to see a glorious revival to fall from heaven on our lives.Second, from our brokenness before God, we must return to a passion for evangelism and missions as our next priority. Last year, 23 percent of our Southern Baptist congregations baptized no one. I believe evangelism and missions must always be birthed out of a fresh awakening and a seeking of God in personal revival. Third, I would champion the Cooperative Program. While president of the Georgia Baptist Convention, we held the first Cooperative Program Summit in the Southern Baptist Convention. I would love to work with our state conventions to celebrate our working together through CP to accomplish the Great Commission. Also I believe we need to build bridges for young leaders to participate in the work of the Southern Baptist Convention. I will do my best to get young men and women involved in the life of our denomination. We need seasoned leadership, but at the same time we need to include these rising young leaders in the work of our convention. Our future depends upon it.

HUNT: I believe that Southern Baptists need to turn the tide in the area of cooperation as it pertains to coming together with a central, positive "love loud" message of sharing the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, which is the only hope of those outside of His saving grace. We need to get back to being the people of the Book as it pertains to church planting, global missions, sharing the Gospel with our neighbors and with the nations and learning to cooperate around the central vision of the Great Commission. I feel that the message of the Cooperative Program has spoken louder than the message of the Gospel. I believe that when we are faithful to the Gospel there will be faithful people supporting the Cooperative Program. Having said that, I believe with all of my heart that when our major focus becomes the message of Jesus, the Cooperative Program will increase in exponential proportion, and that is my hope and prayer.

WILLIS: Southern Baptists need a spiritual resurgence to become a people after God's own heart who return to Him in repentance, follow Jesus in discipleship and bring the Bible to life through authentic lifestyles and actions, resulting in our telling God's story to people everywhere and making disciples of all nations.

PURYEAR: My priority message for Southern Baptists is that we need to get out of our church buildings and get into our communities and beyond, to engage the lost with the good news of Jesus Christ.

DRAKE: If Southern Baptists ask me to lead, I will lead us to follow Article XV to oppose "racism and every form of greed, selfishness, and vice, sexual immorality, including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless and the sick. In order to promote these ends, Christians should be ready to work with all men of good will in any good cause, always being careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His truth." If elected, Articles XIV and XV will be my marching orders.

3) What do you believe is needed to see churches more effectively bringing people to Christ and making disciples?

WAGNER: I think that Avery Willis is right on target in emphasizing the need to make disciples. I have been close to both Avery Willis and Billie Hanks in making disciples. While a missionary in my area overseas, I led over 25,000 persons to take the MasterLife course. I have the names of that many people that were trained. Others have also followed later, so this number is far larger. I have also helped Billie Hanks in getting Europeans to use his course. We as Southern Baptists are great in the creation of new programs but are poor in the development of delivery systems. I would go back to some of the basic courses that we have and help people to become disciples. If we do this, the evangelism part will take care of itself. We already have all the materials necessary to do the job, we just need leadership to help us get the job done. I might add that we have the officer corps in place (missionaries, DOMs, etc.) but we need the foot soldiers.

COX: I really believe we need a spiritual revival in the lives of pastors, staff, and leaders in our Southern Baptist congregations. I firmly believe everything flows from leadership. I believe our churches must make a strong commitment back to evangelism and then making disciples. We have a responsibility from Scripture to connect people to a personal relationship with God through the atoning work of Jesus Christ. That must be our priority. We must train and equip our people to grow in that new relationship with Christ. What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ? What does it mean to walk with Jesus? As they progress in their faith, we must equip them to serve through their giftedness in the church, as well as to serve in their community, workplace and neighborhoods with the desire to bring people to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

HUNT: I believe that we are in dire need of a touch from heaven. Our denomination needs to admit that we have moved away from the priority of Jesus Christ and His mission to the church and for the world. We need to recommit ourselves to Jesus and embrace His Gospel and take it seriously in being intentionally evangelistic.

WILLIS: We must have revival and return to revolutionary first century discipleship. Jesus said, "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good." (Matthew 12:33)

—We need to sow abundantly, because as a people we have sown sparingly we are not reaping abundant fruit.

—We need to sow where Jesus sowed. He said that He came to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor to the poor, the prisoners, the blind and the oppressed. (Luke 4:18-19) Baptists historically have ministered to the outcasts and disadvantaged, but as we have become more affluent we sow more in people like us than unlike us. When we do get the Gospel to the prostitutes, drunkards, the broken hearted, poor and prisoners, they recognize it as really good news. We need to minister more to these people and give a clear verbal witness when we do.

—We need to learn to communicate with the 50 percent of the U.S. population that is functionally illiterate. Churches are missing at least half the population that doesn't feel comfortable in our churches. We need to train our pastors in narrative preaching and storying, as well as expository preaching that uses effective life illustrations. We need to improve our communication styles with post-moderns who grew up watching TV and movies and listening to music and don't want to read, although they can.

PURYEAR: Our churches should strive to be more intentional about being missional to reach the lost for Jesus Christ. The IMB reports over 600,000 baptisms in 2007, while we report less than 400,000 in the USA. Perhaps it's time for our churches to take more of a missionary approach to reaching our communities for Christ.

DRAKE: The local church needs to put Articles XIV and XV in effect to minister to the needs of the community, as well as be salt and light, and then lead them from help to faith in Jesus and disciple them to become a part of this outreach and soul-winning effort. If we meet their non-spiritual needs and then win them to Jesus, they will want to be a part of carrying that same physical/spiritual needs to others.

4) Decline/plateau in membership, baptisms: What do you think the future holds for the SBC?

WAGNER: Missionary strategy is my strong point. I have written four books on this subject, including one that made an extensive study of the rise and decline of the German Baptists. We in the SBC are at the crossroads. We can continue the decline and become like the German Baptists or we can see the present decline as just a little dip. This is why this election is so very important. If we continue in the way we have been going, we will continue the decline. We must be innovative and be ready to make some changes not in theology but in methodology. I am positive that with the right leadership we can make giant moves forward for our Lord as Southern Baptists.

COX: I am very optimistic about the future of Southern Baptists. For the first time in a long time, Southern Baptists are about to be introduced to a ten-year initiative from our North American Mission Board. I believe it has every opportunity to assist Southern Baptists in reaching our nation with the Gospel. Our state conventions, through their evangelism staffs, are buying into this initiative. They will be developing strategies for each of the state conventions. These strategies will flow to our associations and to the local churches with the desire that over the next 10 years, every person in America will have the opportunity to hear the Gospel and respond to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. I believe this is key. I'm excited about this initiative and what it will mean to our convention. We must never forget that the key to winning lost people to Jesus and bringing them into meaningful church membership is always done at the local church setting. I believe we have pastors and leaders who desire to see God do something that is God-sized. The GPS (God's Plan for Sharing) initiative is God-sized. I believe, once in place, once implemented, it will allow Southern Baptists an opportunity to claim the future in growth, evangelism and disciple making.

HUNT: I believe that we are on the verge of revival or ruin. That certainly is not an original statement with me, but we must make our minds up to come together for the common cause of the Great Commission. We must make much of Jesus and His Gospel.

WILLIS: I believe the conditions are ripe for a move of God among us that will make us a people after God's own heart and reverse the trends. I think the future is as bright as the promises of God, if we will believe them and obey Him. If we don't, we will eventually become, as Dr. Jack Grey said, "a bloated carcass alongside the road of history."

PURYEAR: If we, as a convention, repent of our apathy for evangelism and missions, then I believe our future is very bright. It's time for every SBC church to get serious about doing evangelism and missions, not just talk about it.

DRAKE: If our leaders will help us put into practice Articles XIX and XV, we will see many more come to Jesus. Our future is in His hands and I believe if we will do our best, and we have not been doing that, He will do the rest and baptisms will go up.