We’ve had an opportunity to celebrate the great treasure of the Good News of the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday. But I’d like to celebrate something practical and personal within Southern Baptist Life, and that is the unanimous calling of Jeff Iorg to be our President and CEO of the Executive Committee.
Now, I’ve known him for about 26 years, and I recognize him as a leader. He’s known for his faithfulness and his fruitfulness. But I’d like to speculate with you what I believe he’ll be able to do in terms of helping us at Southern Baptist.
First, I think he will promote clarity. Clarity’s important as we look at our mission because oftentimes, we can experience what the military calls mission creep. You drift away in the fog of war. So in the fog of culture, we can lose sight of our mission. He’ll bring a clarity to that. It will help us immensely.
I believe also, he’ll promote stability within the work of the Executive Committee itself, and therefore impact the whole of the Southern Baptist Convention. Stability is vitally important. There have been difficult days, we know, with the Executive Committee in recent years, but better days are coming.
Yes, he’ll provide clarity, he’ll promote stability, but he’ll also personify unity in Southern Baptist life. He’s a unifier for excellence, and I think you’re going to come to know that and see that, because right now, now more than ever, we need unity, not uniformity. We’ll never have that, but unity in our ranks. It’s a biblical phrase often overused for such a time as this. I know it’s often used, but it’s more applicable now in Southern Baptist life than a long time. God bless you, Jeff, and thank you Alabama Baptists.
