Yes, I am one of those Southern Baptists that “was a Southern Baptist nine months before I was born.” I have been a part of this great denomination most of all of my life and am proud of the heritage of my background. I was in Royal Ambassadors and Sunday School. I taught Sunday Schools, RA’s, Discipleship Training (evening Sunday School), Vacation Bible School, was the janitor and trustee. I had just graduated high school, 1979, when the conservative-liberal battle came to blow and remember vividly how it was preached from the pulpit and the division the battle caused. A few years later 1983, I was licensed and ordained at that same church I grew up in and loved, Unity Baptist Church in Knoxville, TN.

It was and never has been my intent to get involved into the politics of our convention. I just want to serve and not be bothered by the wranglings of the Executive Committee, President, trustees of this board and that board. As I have pastored over the past sixteen years and watched the ebb and flow of our denomination all of my life, I truly believe that the SBC is at a reformation crossroads. What in the past was once thought of by our senior leadership as a raucous band of deviants (Young Leaders), are now becoming a strong force in this denomination and it is about time.

In the past, if you were a young leader in our denomination and wanted to make an impact in the denominational ranks, you had to preach a certain way, dress a certain way, believe a certain way and even walk a certain way. That distanced many of our young leadership at the time and some of them left the denomination. Others, like myself stuck it out because we believe in the missions and evangelism efforts of our denomination, hoping and praying for a day like today.

Our Young Leaders are being recognized and hopefully will be appointed to positions within our denomination by the new President, Frank Page. It is imperative that men like Ed Stetzer, Wade Burleson and others be appointed to take the denomination into the future. I am forty four, soon to be forty five (in October) and I am ready for this change. I remember when as a new pastor at the age of twenty nine, seemingly being shunned at associational meetings, state meetings, and when around upity ups of of our denomination. Thank God, that is not the case today. Young guys like Nelson Searcy, Brad Graves, and Ed Stetzer have a platform on which to champion the cause. Go guys!

It is a new day in our denomination. I am excited about the missional blueprint that is being laid by Ed and others. It is not just about doing missions (giving, going on a trip, doing a mission study), but it is about living a missional life in our schools, neighborhoods, jobs, recreation, and our homes. I am ignited about the missional life and living it out in my life and ministry.