A Predestined Presidency?

Dr. Rick Patrick, Pastor
FBC Sylacauga, Alabama
Exec. Director, Connect 316

I don’t really understand how things like this happen, but on Thursday, February 15, 2018, less than 72 hours after David Platt announced he would be resigning as the President of the International Mission Board, I received notices from no fewer than three independent sources, on the same day, telling me that a certain candidate had already been chosen as the next President of the International Mission Board.

Some of the sources even shared additional details. The announcement would be made public prior to the SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas. The individual selected as the next IMB President would leave a vacancy in their current position. Even the selection of their own replacement was already described as a done deal. 

Of course, none of this made any sense to me at all. Monday’s press release had stated: “A presidential search committee will be comprised of IMB trustees selected by trustee chairman Dr. Rick Dunbar, a member of First Baptist Church, Madison, Mississippi.” 

Southern Baptists have not even been informed of the names of the trustees on this Search Team. The Search Team has not yet begun their work. They have not yet collected resumes. They have not yet conducted interviews. They have not yet received references. They have not yet had the time to pray over the matter.

And yet, it would seem that somehow everybody already knew what the result was going to be. Before the Search Team had even started its work, I was being told that the result was already a foregone conclusion. 

Can anyone explain this to me? Because the only explanation that makes a lick of sense gives me the heebie-geebies. Think about it. If we already know the result of a committee’s work before the committee even meets, then it must be true that somebody, somewhere, is in a back room, pulling the strings and calling the shots, determining the outcome of meetings that have not even been held yet, and setting in motion the steps that will eventually lead to the outward display of their private decrees.

I have long suspected that certain Southern Baptists might be quietly working behind the scenes to accomplish a hidden agenda within our denomination. But I never expected to find the smoking gun, the incontrovertible proof that real decisions are not being made by the groups elected by Southern Baptists to make them, but by shadow coalitions functioning as puppet masters before our public leadership teams have even been selected.

What other explanation can there be? Could it be that the Southern Baptist Convention functions like the game show Jeopardy by first revealing the answers and only later asking the questions?

Theoretically, how could all of this be accomplished? One would have to influence the selection of the committee members in a very specific way. As a condition of being placed on the committee, they would have to promise in advance to vote for the candidate one desired. If they made no such promise, they would not be selected for the committee.

The reason this is so profoundly disturbing is that it flies in the face of our congregational polity, for if this is truly going on, we are no longer making decisions through democratic processes. If a secret group can control the selection of the Southern Baptist executive managing our largest budget and supervising the greatest number of Southern Baptist employees, then they can do anything they want.

No, I am not going to mention the name identified by all three independent sources as the next IMB President. Neither will I mention the individual we somehow already know will take this person’s place at their current post. Why not? Frankly, it’s not my place to announce such news. Besides, the committee may choose to resist such a secret mandate and move in an entirely different direction. I am holding out hope that they will do so.

Honestly, I don’t want to believe that any of this might be true. Words cannot describe the sense of corruption and betrayal I would feel if the candidates going through the IMB Presidential search process are denied a fair opportunity to earn the job because the decision has already been made and even announced through the Baptist grapevine.

Frankly, I have come to terms with the existence of a rumor mill in Southern Baptist life. I could live with the answer being leaked AFTER the Search Team had completed their process and come to a decision. However, this is something very different. It is a predetermined result—a predestined Presidency. For some reason, I have a strong visceral reaction to such prejudicial decisions, viewing them as both clandestine and unjust.

Despite today’s strong evidence to the contrary, I am still hoping and praying that the process of selecting the next IMB President is one that is truly fair, open, honest, and transparent, rather than one secretly fixed in advance. 

Southern Baptists deserve nothing less.