It’s Wednesday morning and so far all has been well. I have been able to touch base with a number of old friends and was pleased that the Convention has for the most part been uneventful.
Johnny Hunt, I believe, will make a good President. His election on the first ballot among six candidates is remarkable (for the record, I voted for Avery Willis). I believe Hunt will bring two things to the Convention that we need at this time.
First, as Southern Baptists, myself included, have come to the realization that we need a Great Commission resurgence, Johnny Hunt can effectively lead in that resurgence. Hunt is respected across the spectrum of Baptists as a man passionate about evangelism and missions and his passion is contagious. To the extent an SBC president can promote, model, and spur on Baptists to Great Commission work, I believe Johnny will do so.
Second, I believe Johnny Hunt can lead us in the direction of unity around the gospel. No factions on either side of current debates can claim victory because of their endorsement of one of the other fine candidates. Hunt will be in a better position to bring together the various groups around the cause of the gospel. (I also sincerely hope Hunt will inform himself about the “narrowing of doctrinal parameters” issue and will appoint men and women who will not further that narrowing.) He has done so in the past. I trust his presidency will continue that trend.
That’s all for now. More Convention analysis after I get home.
Blessings,
Todd
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Johnny Hunt, I also believe, will make a solid president. I believe he is the status quo, so to speak. Not that the status quo is bad in this case by any means. ;)
I voted for Les Puryear because I had the chance to meet him at the Founder's breakfast and liked what he had to say. I really liked his heart for seeing small churches more involved in the Convention. But with that said, Hunt is one of the most passionate people about evangelism and as you well said, it is contagious!
I don't think we'll see major changes out of his presidency, but I might be surprised. I think it is really hard for ANY SBC president to light a fire in all of the churches for a Great Commission Resurgence. But to the extent that anyone can do it, I think Johnny will do fine. His church is a leader is winning the lost and on being missional in nature.
My only wish out of all of this is that small churches would be represented more in the leadership. But it will only happen when more small churches are interested in being in leadership! I'll be curious to see what impact Les Puryear's Impact 2008 Small Church Conference will have on the coming year and how small churches participate. Time will tell.
Michael
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