Building Bridges

Last night I enjoyed lively dinner table conversation with Dr. Frank Page, the current president of the Southern Baptist Convention. In his unpaid role as SBC President, Dr. Page travels the country 4 to 6 days a week to visit with groups of Christians like me and encourage us to keep cooperating in worldwide gospel ministry. Amazingly, he has only missed 2 Sundays at Taylors First Baptist Church, the church outside of Greenville, SC where Dr. Page has served as Senior Pastor for 20+ years. Dr. Page had never been to Colorado before yesterday. It was fun to watch the look on his face as he gazed at the mountain peaks above the hotel in Breckenridge where our group was meeting.

Dr. Page and I are very different. We look different. We talk different. We do ministry differently. Our ministry contexts are radically different. Dr. Page is getting audiences with all the current presidential candidates and he is using the opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people like Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He is also being hounded every week by all the Republican and Democratic political campaigns to give their candidate an endorsement. (He refuses to do so. Let's continue to pray for him.) My scope of influence is radically smaller. But we both share a love for Jesus and His Churches and for lost people around the world. I'm grateful to God for allowing me and my church to be a part of something so much bigger than ourselves - His kingdom work through the SBC (and other ministry/missions organizations).

The group of younger, emerging SBC leaders meeting this week talked a lot about our role in shaping the future of the SBC through our cooperation in ministry and missions. We prayed a lot too. I'm still praying that God will unite more of his people in a common commitment to biblical theology and worldwide cooperative missions through the SBC.

A number of Christians today wonder about the future of institutions like the Southern Baptist Convention. What direction is it headed? Where is the SBC on the theological map? As a generation of traditional baby-boomer Southern Baptists dies, what will the SBC look like in 10 years?

I'm not sure anyone knows the answers to these questions. But I like the direction described in this booklet written by Timothy George and David Dockery. Please read it and tell me what you think by posting a comment.

PS: I also got two runs in yesterday at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.