By Message staff
ANAHEIM, Calif. (LBM) – Following the announcements that incumbent Ed Litton, pastor, Redemption Church, Saraland, Alabama, will not run for a second term and that his presumptive replacement, Willy Rice, pastor of Calvary Church, Clearwater, Florida, had withdrawn his name for consideration, three individuals have declared their candidacy for president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Litton has been plagued by revelations of extensive sermon plagiarism, and Rice came under fire for ordaining a deacon who as a teacher had sexual relationships with a high school girl.
CANDIDATES
As a basis for assessing the data provided for each candidate’s home congregation, the following averages (based on worship attendance for a per-capita comparison) are provided for the SBC:
— attendance to baptisms, 23:1 ratio (how many people in the pew it took to win a soul to Christ)
— portion of congregation baptized that year, 4.3 percent
— per-capita giving through the Cooperative Program, $53.30
Tom Ascol is pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida and president of the Founders Ministries, a network of Calvinist Southern Baptists.
His bio on founders. org states he earned a bachelor’s from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, and a master’s and doctorate from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Baptist Press reported “Ascol’s lone service role in the SBC on the national level was in 2012-13 when he was a member of a Calvinism Advisory Committee.”
A five-year digest of information from the Annual Church Profile database shows his congregation did not report baptisms or total undesignated receipts for 2017-2021. Average worship attendance was 215 (including “0” reported for 2020), and the congregation forwarded an average of $23,304 through the Cooperative Program to support Southern Baptists’ cooperative missions and ministries.
For 2021, the congregation cannot be compared to the averages for SBC churches regarding baptisms, or percent of undesignated receipts forwarded through the Cooperative Program to support cooperative missions and ministries. Per-capita CP giving was $109.50.
Bart Barber is pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas.
His bio on fbcfarmersville.com states he earned a bachelor’s from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and a master’s and doctorate from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Baptist Press reported Barber was appointed by Litton to serve as chairman of the 2022 SBC Committee on Resolutions, having been appointed a member of the 2021 committee by former SBC President J.D. Greear (pastor, The Summit, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina). Previously, Barber served as SBC first vice president (2013-2014), a trustee over the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas (2009- 2019) and a member of the SBC Committee on Committees (2008).
A five-year digest of information from the Annual Church Profile database shows his congregation reported an average of 13 baptisms per year, 2017-2021, and averaged annual undesignated receipts of $914,677. Average worship attendance was 344, and the congregation forwarded an average of $97,406 through the Cooperative Program for Southern Baptists’ cooperative missions and ministries (10.65 percent of undesignated receipts for the period).
For 2021, the congregation reported 14 baptisms and average worship attendance of 320, for a ratio of 23:1, equal to the average evangelistic effectiveness for the SBC. The congregation witnessed 4.4 percent of the average worship attendance baptized, slightly higher (0.1 percent) than the SBC average. Per-capita CP giving was $438.16.
Robin Hadaway is a retired missionary with the SBC International Mission Board, having served 18 years in the foreign mission field as a church planter (North Africa, Tanzania) and later as a regional leader supervising 350 missionaries (Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay). He has served as senior professor of missions with Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary since 2003, now teaching online and in-person doctoral seminars since moving to Southern California last year.
His bio on mbts.edu states he earned a bachelor’s from Memphis State University, Memphis, Tennessee, a master’s from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth Texas, and doctorates from Gateway Seminary, Ontario, California, and the University of South Africa, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa.
Baptist News Global reported that in 2012, Hadaway “was tapped to serve eight months as interim president at Midwestern. His other administrative roles there included interim CFO and administrative vice president for institutional initiatives, and dean of students.”
He is a member of New Song Community Church in Oceanside, California. A five-year digest of information from the Annual Church Profile database shows his congregation reported an average of 37 baptisms per year, 2017-2021, and averaged annual undesignated receipts of $1,582,689. Average worship attendance was 721, and the congregation forwarded an average of $15,759 through the Cooperative Program for Southern Baptists’ cooperative missions and ministries (1.0 percent of undesignated receipts for the period).
For 2021, the congregation reported 26 baptisms and average worship attendance of 749, for a ratio of 29:1, meaning the congregation was less evangelistically effective than the SBC average. The congregation witnessed 3.5 percent of the average worship attendance baptized, almost one percentage point lower than the SBC average. Per-capita CP giving was $22.36.
Messengers to the 2022 Southern Baptist Convention will meet in Anaheim, Calif., June 1.
