Cross elected FBSC president by 12 votes

JOHN CROSS

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LAKELAND (FBW)—John Cross, 45, pastor of South Biscayne Church in North Port, was elected president of the Florida Baptist State Convention by a margin of 12 votes Nov. 11 at its annual meeting in Lakeland.

Promoted as addressing the “elephant in the room” of diminishing involvement by younger pastors, Cross was elected with 357 votes over 345 cast for Richard Powell, senior pastor of McGregor Baptist Church in Fort Myers, who until Nov. 9 was expected to be unopposed. The election marked the first contested election for president in the state convention since 1999.

Cross, pastor of the nearly 3,000-member congregation since 1990, said he had been encouraged by others to run for office for several years.

“There’s a desire to lead our convention like never before to be very intentional about sharing God’s love with our state in very innovative and creative ways, and I think this was on the front burner of a lot of people’s minds,” Cross said in a news conference after the election.

During his convention sermon which followed the announcement of the election results, Powell, who has been at McGregor, a congregation of 7,800, since 1999, admitted, “This is just a little bit awkward.”

Joking about having the “hanging chads recounted,” Powell stopped laughing after making an analogy between Cross’ name and the cross of Christ.

“I don’t want anyone to ever say that Florida Baptists voted 50 percent for the cross,” Powell said. “So I want you to join me as Florida Baptists and join me in getting behind our new Florida president, John Cross. I want us to be 100 percent behind the cross in the days to come.”

Tim Passmore, pastor of Woodland-The Community Church in Bradenton, nominated Cross, citing his “passion for evangelism” and his leadership at South Biscayne, which he said included 4,000 being baptized since Cross began there—including 506 last year.

“It’s really awesome because 70 percent of the people that come into his church come in from conversion and baptism,” Passmore said. “John does whatever it takes to reach the lost. He has that whatever-it-takes attitude. He has that attitude but he refuses to compromise God’s word.”

Passmore called Cross a “kindred spirit” in his views about reaching the younger generation as well and said in talking about why he nominated Cross he wanted to address “the elephant in the room.”

“What we know is that we are losing younger generation leaders in our denomination,” Passmore said. “John doesn’t want to lose them, nor do I. He refuses to disengage himself because we know how we together as a denomination can change the world.”

Tommy Green, pastor of First Baptist Church in Brandon, in nominating Powell, noted Powell is pastor of a church with a “Great Commission heartbeat” which has a “very balanced” approach on evangelism and missions.

Powell has led McGregor to be among the leading churches in baptisms both in the state and in the nation, averaging 250-300 baptisms per year, Green said, and in sharing Christ within its community.

McGregor also is committed to “going and giving,” Green said, with church members participating in 12 mission trips last year on six continents and giving over $800,000 to the Cooperative Program.

Green added that Powell ,49, would be a “tremendous leader” in Florida.

“As a pastor Richard is extremely creative,” Green said. “He is innovative. He is filled with Christ-like knowledge, Christ-like understanding and Christ-like wisdom.”

In the news conference, Cross said currently he has no plan as to how he will lead as convention president, but will seek the “wise counsel and, most of all, prayer with some of the men who are effective in our state in reaching unchurched people.”

Naming Troy Gramling, pastor of Flamingo Road Church in Fort Lauderdale; Brad White, LifePoint Church in Tampa; and David Hughes, Church by the Glades in Coral Springs, Cross said he would seek them out and pray “God will give us a vision to do two things.”

Citing how important it is to “give honor to those whom honor is due,” Cross said first he is indebted to the generation before, and as a third-generation pastor, one thing he will do is to “bless them.”

Second, Cross said, he will “involve some guys who maybe have been disengaged for whatever reason.”

Later in the interview, Cross said a top priority is going to be evangelism.

“Getting the Good News of Christ and the life-changing, transforming power of Christ to as many people as possible in the state of Florida and around the world. That’s it,” Cross said. “We’re gonna try to light the fires under our pastors. As Dr. Hunt said last night, people typically follow the pastor. I love pastors and we are going to do everything we can to minister, serve, love on pastors; but I think that’s one of the big keys … encouraging our pastors. But people, you know, it’s not about a style or a program, it’s about the person of Jesus Christ that’s got to be taken to the nations.”

Theologically, however, Cross said he will not compromise.

“I believe in the inerrancy of the Word of God. It is our authority that actually drives us to do what we do and why we do,” Cross said. “Not tradition, not protocol, not even denominational thoughts, but we really must be tethered to the truth, the Word of God.”

In the recent push to pass Florida’s marriage amendment, Cross said he was involved in his region in rallying local pastors to support it and teach it in his church a message series dealing with political issues including why same-sex marriage is not “God’s best.”

Addressing a movement among younger evangelicals, Cross said the term “emergent” may be too broad to comment on, but admitted “some emergent guys … are kind of tinkering with the truth of God’s Word which is totally not right.

“And on the other hand, you may have some guys who are preaching God’s Word, so that’s my thought,” he said.

With longish, shaggy, highlighted hair, a youthful looking Cross, who is single, said he and others who don similar looks are being “missionaries” where they are in their communities in order to reach the unchurched who also look like them in those communities.

“My desire is to become all things to all men, to see some saved,” Cross said. “My goal is to encourage pastors to think about non-Christians and where they live, and step outside of their church culture into the culture that they live in, which is what Jesus did. He stepped out of heaven and came to earth and engaged the culture.”

In speaking of declining and plateauing churches across the convention and the denomination, Cross said pastors need to be more proactive in reaching out.

“So whatever your culture is, I would just challenge pastors to do that, and not stay inside their church culture because typically, unfortunately the culture of the church is drastically different than the culture that they allege that they’re wanting to reach,” Cross said.

Cross earned the doctor of ministry and master of divinity degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and an undergraduate degree from Mercer University in Macon, Ga.

Cross served two terms on the Florida Baptist State Convention’s State Board of Missions and is currently in his second term as a trustee for The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville. He was also a past president of the Florida Baptist Pastors’ Conference and has served the Southern Baptist Convention on the Committee on Nominations and the Committee on Committees.

With election results so close, Rich Santo, chairman of the Tellers Committee for the Florida Baptist State Convention and administrator at Pensacola’s Hillcrest Baptist Church, said the ballots were counted three times to ensure accuracy. “And it was right on the money all three times,” Santo said.