So. Baptist group nominates Voddie Baucham for president of SBC Pastor’s Conference
Voddie Baucham, the dean of theology at African Christian University in Zambia, will be formally nominated as the president of the Southern Baptist Convention Pastor’s Conference at the denomination’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California, in June.
The announcement came in a statement published Tuesday on the website of Founders Ministries endorsed by a prominent group of Southern Baptists who say they are concerned about the “woke” direction of America’s largest Protestant denomination. The group also expressed their intention to nominate Tom Ascol, longtime senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida.
Founders Ministries is a conservative group within the SBC where Baucham serves as a board member. The group's statement is endorsed by 11 high-profile Southern Baptists, including Pastor Mike Stone, a member of the SBC Executive Committee, and the steering committee of the Conservative Baptist Network. Stone lost his bid for the SBC presidency in a runoff with Ed Litton in 2021.
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“We, concerned Southern Baptists of differing geographical, theological and vocational perspectives, in one voice nominate Pastor Tom Ascol for President of the Southern Baptist Convention, and SBC Missionary Voddie Baucham for President of the SBC Pastors’ Conference,” the group began in their statement.
“The Southern Baptist Convention badly needs a change of direction. While baptisms and evangelism continue their freefall, a small group of leaders steers our institutions ever closer to the culture, from radical feminism masked as ‘soft complementarianism’ to the false gospel of Critical Theory and Intersectionality,” they continued.
“In Christ there is no Jew or Greek, there is no slave or free, we are all made one in Him. But this ‘Race Marxism’ divides everyone by their most superficial features, in a never-ending cycle of recrimination and hate. We reject these worldly dogmas. We stand together on the Baptist Faith and Message. We proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture. And we know the vast majority of Southern Baptists do too,” they added.
“At this critical juncture, we need men to serve who can unite our convention around the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe there are no two better men to lead us in this vital task than Tom Ascol and Voddie Baucham.”
Baucham did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Christian Post on Wednesday. However, earlier this month, the renowned Southern Baptist preacher, who denounced critical race theory and the social justice movement in his latest book, Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe, confirmed with CP that he had been asked to “accept a nomination for SBC president” but wasn’t sure he was eligible to accept it.
The 52-year-old leader said Article VIII of SBC’s constitution requires that all officers of the SBC must be “members of Baptist churches cooperating with this Convention."
Due to his work as a missionary, Baucham has been a member of Kabwata Baptist Church in Zambia since 2015. The church is affiliated with Reformed Baptists of Zambia, not the SBC.
“I am a missionary sent by an SBC church, supported by an SBC church, reporting to an SBC church, but am technically not a member of that SBC church because my family and I entrusted our souls to a healthy, indigenous, local Baptist church at the behest of our SBC church," he said. "Hence, it appears my commitment to missions and biblical church membership has rendered me ineligible for any office in the SBC. At least that’s the way I read it.”
Baucham doesn’t appear to face any such issue to become president of the SBC's Pastor’s Conference as the conference has no organizing documents or stated qualifications for its officers.
In a statement on YouTube Tuesday, Ascol said he decided to accept the nomination because he, too, is concerned about the direction of the denomination and that the concerns of Southern Baptists, like himself, were not being treated respectfully and honestly.
“I agreed to be nominated for the presidency because I believe we could do better in this regard,” he said.
“I’ve watched with dismay as faithful pastors and members of regular churches have had their concerns dismissed without any serious consideration," he continued. "One of the most recent and egregious examples of this is the way that the 2021 resolutions committee refused to bring out a resolution on the incompatibility of critical race theory and intersectionality with the Baptist Faith and Message. That resolution has had the signatures of over 1,300 faithful Southern Baptist pastors and church members, yet the resolutions committee would not even allow the convention to consider it for a vote. I believe Southern Baptists can do better.”
The other signers of the statement endorsing Baucham and Ascol include:
Carol Swain, former professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University in Nashville; Lee Brand, SBC first vice president; Tom Buck, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lindale, Texas; Javier Chavez, senior pastor of Amistad Cristiana International and a member of the CBN steering council; former Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran, a member of the CBN steering council; Mark Coppenger, CBN steering council member and former president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Greg Davidson, senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Vacaville, California, and state coordinator of the CBN California chapter; Mark DeVine, associate professor of Beeson Divinity School; Brad Jurkovich, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Bossier City, Louisiana, and a CBN steering committee member; and Ronnie Rogers, senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Norman, Oklahoma.
