Wright Elected President Of SBC—Other Matters
July 2010
—More than 1,500 people accepted Christ during the pre-convention Crossover evangelism emphasis, which had 1,900-plus volunteers.
—International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin delivered his final report to messengers, applauding Southern Baptists for giving nearly $149 million to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering but saying it still was not enough to send all the Southern Baptists waiting for missionary appointment. “What will we sacrifice?” he asked. “What will we be willing to change in order for the missionaries that God is calling from our churches to go and touch the lost nations and peoples who are dying without Christ? I pray that that question will be implanted in our minds and stir our conscience with conviction.”
—Richard Harris, interim president of the North American Mission Board, told messengers that three out of every four people in North America have no personal relationship with Christ. Yet Harris recounted several reasons for optimism, including a church in Painter, Ala., that saw its Easter attendance double by using the God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS) evangelism strategy. Harris also said that 85,000 Haitians have accepted Christ since the earthquake. “I have never been more excited than this day to move forward to penetrate lostness in North America, and the North American Mission Board is going to help you do it,” he said.
—Executive Committee President Morris H. Chapman delivered his final report to messengers. “As you may know, I do differ with the last five recommendations that shall be recommended by the Great Commission Task Force,” Chapman said minutes prior to debate on the report. “My heart is heavy because these recommendations do not challenge us spiritually and shall never bring us to our knees, much less take us to the ends of the earth. We can accomplish all of these recommendations without the power of God and the moving of God’s Holy Spirit.” A resurgence, Chapman said, “must be ignited by the Holy Spirit of God and stoked by faithful people in the pulpits and pews of this land.”
—Messengers elected Tennessee evangelist Ron Herrod as first vice president and Eric Moffett, pastor of First Baptist Church in Sparkman, Ark., as second vice president. Earlier in the convention Moffett’s church received the Executive Committee’s M.E. Dodd Award for its commitment to the Cooperative Program. Over the past 30 years the 100-member church has given an average of 32 percent to CP. By acclamation, messengers elected John Yeats, director of communications for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, as SBC recording secretary, and Jim Wells, director of missions for the Tri-County Baptist Association in Nixa, Mo., as registration secretary. Messengers also elected David Platt, pastor of the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala., to preach the convention sermon at the 2011 annual meeting in Phoenix.
—The SBC Pastors’ Conference spotlighted adoption and used the surplus from the conference offerings to fund a series of $2,000 scholarships for adopting couples. (Information is available at SBCAdoption.com). “Adoption is not God’s Plan B ever. Adoption is always God’s Plan A, if that’s what He’s called the family to,” Cissy McNickle said during a short video that told her family’s adoption story. She and her husband, Buff, received the first scholarship.
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