Frank Page

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For other people named Frank Page, see Frank Page (disambiguation).
President George W. Bush meets with the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention in the Oval Office at the White House. Pictured with the President are Dr. Morris Chapman, left, Dr. Frank Page and his wife Dayle Page.

Frank S. Page was elected president and chief executive officer of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee, effective October 1, 2010.[1] The Executive Committee is the “fiduciary, the fiscal, and the executive entity” of the SBC in all its affairs “not specifically committed to some other board or entity.” [2]

Church Leader

Page was born in Robbins, North Carolina, on August 23, 1952. He was invited to attend Southside Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he professed faith in Jesus Christ at age 9.[3]

A graduate of Ben L. Smith High School in Greensboro, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina, majoring in Psychology. He was ordained at Immanuel Baptist Church in Greensboro in 1974. He received the Master of Divinity degree and earned his Ph.D. in Christian ethics from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas in 1980 at the age of 28. He is the author of several books, has written articles for various publications and was the lead writer for the Advanced Continuing Witness Training material.

Page’s election to his current position followed 34 years of church and denominational service. He served as pastor of Live Oak Baptist Church, Gatesville, Texas (1979-81), LaFayette Baptist Church, Fayetteville, North Carolina (1981-87), Gambrell Street Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas (1987-91), Warren Baptist Church, Augusta, Georgia (1991-2001), and First Baptist Church, Taylors, South Carolina (2001-09). Under his leadership, First Baptist Church of Taylors experienced a period of rapid growth, reaching average worship attendance of over 2,400.

Page and his wife, the former Dayle Gibson, have three daughters, Melissa (d. November 2009), Laura, and Allison.

SBC Executive

Page was President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) from 2006 to 2008 and served as vice president of evangelism for the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 2009-10. He was a member of the SBC’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force in 2009-10 and a director of Baptist Global Response from 2008-2010.

In June 2006 Page was nominated by Florida pastor Forrest Pollock to become Southern Baptist Convention President. Pollack stressed how much Page’s church contributed to the Cooperative Program, which funds SBC projects.[4] After his election, Page said the convention would not change its views on social issues like same-sex marriage or abortion. He said "I do not want anyone to think I am out to undo a conservative movement."[5]

During his two years as president of the SBC, Page was a frequent guest on national and local television networks and programs, including NBC, CBS, CBN, Fox News, and Larry King Live. In 2007, he was named as one of the Fifty Most Influential Christians in America by the Church Report.[6]

In a 2007 interview about the problem of sexual abuse by members of the clergy, Page is quoted as saying;

Please realize that there are groups who claim to be one thing when in reality they are another. It would be great if the many groups who are claiming to be groups of advocacy and encouragement in ministry were that which they claim. Please be aware that there are groups that are nothing more than opportunistic persons who are seeking to raise opportunities for personal gain.[7]

In 2009, he was invited to serve on President Barack Obama’s Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.[8]

When he was selected to serve as president of the Executive Committee in 2010, Page pledged to focus his leadership on appealing to Southern Baptists to exercise “Christlike selflessness,” to help “younger generations . . .see the value of cooperative work,” and to be an encourager. He said, “I encourage Southern Baptists to follow the Bible rather than the way of our culture. We are in the day and time of increasing negativity. In fact, there is a negative spirit in most every area of life and it has often afflicted us in church and denominational work. I encourage people to let the Lord bring about a spirit of kindness, of reconciliation, forgiveness, and unity.”

He added, “I also encourage Southern Baptists to realize that we must not only share Christ but we must live out the commands of Christ, or in other words, we need to treat each other the way Christ commands us to treat one another. I'm asking Southern Baptists — from entity presidents to pastors, missionaries, to people in the pew — to make covenants about how we will relate, how we will agree as well as how we will disagree. I believe that we need to be Jesus people!” [9]

In preparation for his first report as Executive Committee president at the 2011 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, Page asked the executive directors of 42 Baptist state conventions that cooperate with the SBC, the presidents of almost 20 ethnic fellowships that work closely with the SBC; the presidents of each of the eleven SBC ministry entities, the president of the WMU, an auxiliary to the SBC, and the president of the SBC to join him in signing a document called Affirmation of Unity and Cooperation. The document's five core pledges are:

-- "We pledge to maintain a relationship of mutual trust, behaving ourselves trustworthily before one another and trusting one another as brothers and sisters indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. (Ephesians 4:20-32; 2 Peter 1:3-8)

-- "We pledge to attribute the highest motives to those engaged in local church ministries and those engaged in denominational service in any level of Convention life -- motives that originate within hearts truly desiring to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we also serve. (1 Samuel 2:3; Matthew 7:1-5; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5.

-- "We pledge to affirm the value of cooperative ministry as the most effective and efficient means of reaching a lost world with the message of the Gospel. (Psalm 68:11; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; Acts 9:31; 1 Corinthians 16:1-23)

-- "We pledge to embrace our brothers and sisters of every ethnicity, race, and language as equal partners in our collective ministries to engage all people groups with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 16:25-27; Revelation 7:9)

-- "We pledge to continue to honor and affirm proportional giving through the Cooperative Program as the most effective means of mobilizing our churches and extending our outreach as Southern Baptists, enabling us to work together to evangelize the lost people of our world locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8, 20:20-21; Romans 10:14-172 Corinthians 8:1-13; 9:1-15)"[10]

Bibliography

  • Frank S. Page (1989). Advanced Level CWT [Continuing Witness Training] Manual. Home Mission Board. 
  • Frank S. Page (1994). Biblical Portraits of Witnessing-Giving Living. Sunday School Board. 
  • Frank S. Page (1995). Jonah, The New American Commentary, Volume 19b. Broadman and Holman. 
  • Frank S. Page (1995). Commentary on Mark, Bible Book Series Companion Commentary. Sunday School Board. 
  • Frank S. Page (2000, 2006). Trouble with the tulip: a closer examination of the five points of Calvinism. Riverstone Group Publishing. ISBN 0-9706117-0-6. 
  • Frank S. Page, with John Perry (2008). The Incredible Shrinking Church. B&H Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8054-4661-3. 
  • Frank S. Page (2008). The Nehemiah Factor: 16 Characteristics of a Missional Leader. New Hope Publishers. ISBN 1-59669-223-5. 
  • Frank S. Page (2013). Melissa: A Father's Lessons from a Daughter's Suicide. B&H Bookss. ISBN 1433679108. 

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Setting the Course for a New Day: An Interview with Frank Page President and Chief Executive Officer of the SBC Executive Committee". SBC LIFE. October 2010. Retrieved 2011-07-13. 
  2. ↑ "SBC Bylaws". Bylaw 18. Retrieved 2011-07-13. 
  3. ↑ Erin Roach (September 22, 2010). "Frank Page loved church, knew calling from early age". Baptist Press. Retrieved 2011-07-13. 
  4. ↑ Forrest Pollock (June 5, 2006). ""Why I will nominate Dr. Frank S. Page for Southern Baptist Convention president"". Baptist Courier. Retrieved 2010-08-31. 
  5. ↑ John DeSantis (June 14, 2006). "Unexpected Victory for New Baptist Leader". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-08-31. 
  6. ↑ Cory Miller (January 12, 2007). "The Websites of the 50 Most Influential Christians in America". Retrieved 2011-07-13. 
  7. ↑ Bob Allen (April 20, 2007). "SBC President Labels Sexual Abuse Critics 'Opportunists'". Ethics Daily. Retrieved 2010-10-29. 
  8. ↑ Dan Gilgoff (September 11, 2009). "Q&A With Frank Page, the Obama Faith Council's Most Conservative Member". US News and World Report. Retrieved 2011-07-13. 
  9. ↑ "Setting the Course for a New Day: An Interview with Frank Page President and Chief Executive Officer of the SBC Executive Committee". SBC LIFE. October 2010. Retrieved 2011-07-13. 
  10. ↑ Mark Kelly (June 14, 2011). "Unity, cooperation pledge tops EC agenda". Baptist Press. Retrieved 2011-07-13. 
Authority control
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