Baptists to choose leader today; 3 seeking organization’s presidency have ties to Arkansas

Willie McLaurin, interim president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, speaks during the Southern Baptist Convention in Anaheim, Calif., on Monday, June 13, 2022. (John McCoy/The Tennessean via AP)
Willie McLaurin, interim president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, speaks during the Southern Baptist Convention in Anaheim, Calif., on Monday, June 13, 2022. (John McCoy/The Tennessean via AP)

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Forty-seven years after professing his faith in Jesus Christ at a tiny Craighead County church, 52-year-old Bart Barber is one of the top candidates to serve as president of the nation's largest Protestant denomination -- the Southern Baptist Convention.

More than 6,000 delegates -- known as "messengers" -- have traveled to Anaheim for the convention's annual meeting.

The Natural State's contingent numbers more than 200. Many of them, including Barber's sister, Traci Smith of Jonesboro, will be backing Barber when the votes are cast today.

Barber is one of three announced candidates in the race. The others, Pastor Tom Ascol of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Fla., and former foreign missionary Robin Hadaway of Oceanside, Calif., also have Arkansas connections.

The winner will replace Ed Litton, an Alabama pastor who opted not to seek reelection after serving a one-year term.

"We've got three great candidates that would serve Southern Baptists well. ... They're all three godly men," said Arkansas State Baptist Convention President Larry White.

But Barber is "a candidate that will appeal to a greater number of people," White added.

Archie Mason, pastor of Central Baptist Church in Jonesboro and a member of the denomination's executive committee, also supports Barber.

"He's very conservative; he's very level-headed. I just believe he's the right guy at this time to lead us," Mason added.

Rather than attempting to steer Baptists to the left or the right, Barber says the focus should be on continuing to move forward.

He has adopted a hashtag, #armyofpeacemakers, as an unofficial campaign slogan of sorts.

"I would say that Southern Baptists are in a healthy place," he said in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

There's no need for another "Battle for the Bible," like the one waged between Southern Baptist conservatives and moderates throughout much of the 1980s.

"We're conservative. We're already committed to the truth of the Bible, and we're committed to the sufficiency of the Scriptures and the things that it teaches," Barber said. "I just want us to be faithful to the position that we've staked out."

Barber was 5 years old when he responded to the altar call at Bethabara Baptist Church, 4 miles north of Lake Village. He was 11 when he first felt the call to ministry, a call that was confirmed while attending summer church camp three years later.

While still in high school, he was "licensed to preach the Gospel" by First Baptist Church in Lake Village, according to an account at the time in the church bulletin.

"We are saying we recognize God has called you and we are behind you with our prayers and encouragement," it said.

Barber preached his first sermon while in high school and soon was asked to serve as interim pastor at New Hope Baptist Church near Black Oak, according to Smith, his sister.

Barber went to Texas to attend Baylor University, preaching at a small country church on the weekends.

Three decades later, he's still preaching.

"This is all that we've known him to be," Smith said.

Barber's current congregation, First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas, is in a city of 3,612 roughly 45 miles northeast of downtown Dallas. He has attracted a broader audience by posting on Twitter.

Barber agreed to enter the race in April after Willy Rice, pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Fla., dropped out.

With the convention examining its past handling of sex abuse allegations, Rice drew criticism for previously ordaining a deacon with a history of sexual misconduct. The deacon, a former high school teacher, had acknowledged having sex, years ago, with an 18-year-old student.

While Barber portrays the convention as mission-focused and doctrinally sound, another candidate has raised concerns that the denomination is straying from its historic course.

Ascol's campaign theme is "change the direction."

While "no self-respecting Southern Baptist would deny" the inerrancy of Scripture, some Baptists seem to doubt the "sufficiency" of its teachings, Ascol said in an interview.

"A lot of the ideologies of the world, philosophies of the world, [have] become kind of common for us and we've accepted them. It's the air we breathe in our culture today. And I think sadly, it's kind of infiltrated churches as well," he said.

Since peaking at 16.3 million in 2006, membership in the Southern Baptist Convention has been in a slow, steady decline, falling to about 13.7 million in 2021.

Part of the drop is due to demographic shifts and part may be because of efforts to purge the rolls of inactive members, Ascol said.

But there are also spiritual factors at play, he said

"The biggest problem is we're not doing a very good job making disciples," he said. "I think we've become kind of complacent about the gospel. I think we've lost the fear of God."

Ascol grew up Beaumont, Texas, becoming a Christian when he was 8 or 9 years old. But his parents are from Arkansas and he had an aunt who lived in Arkadelphia.

"When I was a kid, I'd go there and stay a week or two with them every summer and watch the DeGray Dam get built. It's a fond memory for me," he said.

The Florida preacher has the backing of Tom Hatley, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Rogers and other Arkansas members of the Conservative Baptist Network, an organization that is "committed to the sufficiency of Scripture for all facets of life and application."

Ascol will let "the Bible be his guide in both his ministry as well as his approach to the convention," Hatley said.

"I think he would rather please the Lord by obeying the Bible than to be a candidate, like some of the ones we've had recently, that seem to be more in tune with the woke crowd and trying to please godless society. You can't reach the world if you're like the world," he said.

While Ascol speaks about changing direction and Barber emphasizes the importance of "peacemakers," Hadaway has a succinct slogan of his own.

"I want people to remember the mission," he said.

Hadaway pastored in the southwestern United States before becoming a foreign missionary, later serving as a senior professor of missions at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.

Evangelism remains his priority, he emphasized.

"You have over a billion ... Hindus in the world, Buddhist nations in southeast Asia. I worked among Muslims in North Africa, and the world needs to hear the Gospel, I'd say especially these other religions."

Hadaway has worked around the world, but his family has roots in Arkansas.

His paternal grandmother and great-grandmother were from Arkansas, and two of his three children studied at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, he said.

"My kids loved it there," he added.

A previous version of this story misidentified the Arkansas city where Barber’s early roles in the church took place.

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