SBC reelects Barber as president, votes on church ousters

Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in New Orleans reelected Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, as SBC president by a more than two-to-one margin.

Barber, the incumbent president, received 7,531 votes—68.38 percent—compared to 3,458 votes—31.4 percent—for challenger Mike Stone, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, Ga.

The presidential election on Tuesday afternoon at the SBC annual meeting in New Orleans was scheduled before messengers voted whether to affirm an Executive Committee decision to find three churches outside of the bounds of “friendly cooperation” with the SBC.

Barber moderated the discussion regarding whether two churches with female pastors—Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., and Saddleback Church in Southern California—should be considered “not in friendly cooperation” with the convention.

“We want to partner with you,” Linda Popham, pastor of Fern Creek Church, told messengers during the business session.

Rick Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Church, urged messengers to “act like Southern Baptists and agree to disagree” on the single issue of whether a woman can serve in the office of pastor.

In both cases, the Executive Committee called on Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, to speak in support of the decision to exclude the two congregations with women in pastoral roles.

Messengers also heard discussion regarding the decision to deem Freedom Church in Vero Beach, Fla., not to be in “friendly cooperation” with the SBC because the church failed to cooperate to resolve concerns regarding an abuse allegation.

Donald Stewart, a representative from the congregation said the pastor who was the subject of the allegations resigned May 22, and an independent party—the Anglican Church of North America—investigated and resolved the concerns.

An Executive Committee representative noted the church had been disfellowshipped both by its local association and state convention. He also said the congregation failed to respond to the SBC Credentials Committee or the Executive Committee until after the decision to oust the church was reached.

Messengers voted by ballot whether to affirm the Executive Committee’s decision to exclude each of the three congregations. Vote tallies were not available when the Tuesday session ended.

‘Dwell on things worth dwelling on’

Earlier in the day, Barber delivered his presidential sermon based on Philippians 4:8-9, calling on Southern Baptists to “dwell on the right things” and allow God to give them “a distinctively Christian sense of taste.”

“Dwell on things that are worth dwelling on,” he urged. “Christianity changes our view of what is beautiful.”

Barber—a blogger with a wide following on social media—noted the danger in focusing on critical tweets and controversial posts rather than those that are encouraging.

“If you’re not sure about the state of your own heart, let me tell you, Google knows. … The algorithm knows,” he said.

“If your social media feed is a constant barrage of criticism and conspiracy, what social media is giving you is a mirror image of the sense of taste you have cultivated. … Rise up and be better than the world.”

Dwelling on those things that are good does not mean ignoring or covering up problems.

“Cover-ups get us in trouble in the end,” he said. “You don’t have to cover up the ugly things to dwell on the beautiful things.”

God wants to accomplish “something far more fundamentally important than spin control and public relations,” he said.

In a poignant conclusion to his sermon, Barber described how his mother—who died two days earlier—taught him to see the beauty in people.

He recalled a poor family whose car broke down outside of Lake City, Ark. A service station owner—who knew Barber’s parents at church—called Barber’s mother, asking if she could help.

Barber said his mother found the family a place to live and helped them secure food and clothing.

As she developed a relationship with the family and helped them feel at home at church, the mother and children came to faith in Christ. Later, their father also became a Christian.

All of the children matured in their faith, went on to graduate from college and became successful as adults.

“It’s so easy to become callous, but my mom never did,” Barber said. “She learned to see the beauty in people around her. And because of that, she changed people’s lives.”