Steve Gaines was re-elected by acclamation to a second term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention during the June 13–14 annual meeting in Phoenix.
Prior to the election, Gaines — pastor of Memphis-area Bellevue Baptist Church and former Alabama Baptist pastor — shared his president’s address.
“Every person in this room that knows the Lord Jesus Christ is a minister, a servant of the gospel,” he said, preaching from Acts 13:1–12.
“You might not be called to pastor a church but … nevertheless if you’re a Christian, you’re a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The ministry of Jesus Christ “has a fundamental, essential process/pattern,” Gaines noted.
First, Christians are to minister to the Lord. “God wants you and me to minister first to Him.”
Second, the Lord “must minister to us and then anoint us with His Holy Spirit. Then, and only then, do we have the power, do we have the anointing to minister to other people,” Gaines said.
But Christians sometimes get that sequence out of order, he said.
“If we will follow God’s pattern, we can have access to God’s power,” he said.
He encouraged Christians each day to ask God to fill them with His Spirit so they can witness to lost people, pray more effectively and worship the Lord.
Ministry comes full circle when Christians minister to others with the gospel, Gaines said. “I want to encourage you to be a soul winner. Be evangelistic,” he exhorted.
‘People will be saved’
“If we will share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the lost, people will be saved.”
Other officers elected during the annual meeting were:
• First vice president — Walter Strickland, the African-American leader of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Kingdom Diversity Initiative;
• Second vice president — Jose Abella, a bilingual church planter from Miami;
• Recording secretary — John Yeats, executive director of Missouri Baptist Convention;
• Registration secretary — Don Currence of First Baptist Church, Ozark, Missouri.
Jim Wells, of Missouri, had held the office of registration secretary for the past 15 years but chose not to seek re-election because of declining health.
Five people were nominated for registration secretary, resulting in a run-off between Currence and Waylon Owens, a Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professor and administrator, the two top finishers in the first ballot. Currence received 554 votes and Owens received 231 votes.
Messengers also elected Paige Patterson as the 2018 convention preacher, Kie Bowman as the alternate preacher and Mark Blair as the convention music director. (Lonnie Wilkey, Barbara Denman)
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Gaines names task force on evangelism
A new task force to suggest how Southern Baptists might reap a greater harvest through personal evangelism and evangelistic preaching has been appointed.
Messengers authorized the appointment of the task force at Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) President Steve Gaines’ request.
The task force is intended to reverse a decline in evangelism among Southern Baptist churches and is charged with bringing a report and any recommendations to the 2018 SBC meeting in Dallas.
Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, will chair the group of 18 others including Gaines.
Also on the task force are Jeff Iorg, president of Gateway Seminary in Ontario, California, and Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.
The remaining members are pastors and seminary professors. (BP)
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