Sep 1:
...Ezell will have my prayers. He looks like a very solid choice. I will certainly support him.
Sep 8:
Southern Baptists know, NAMB trustees acutely know, that NAMB needs some success. I hope they find it with Ezell. I'm not against him at all.
Sep 13:
I agree with Norman Jameson about Kevin Ezell, NAMB trustees' candidate to lead the agency who says, "I don’t know Ezell, but everyone I know who does know him believes him to be a godly, wise, visionary man, eminently qualified for the NAMB post."
I confess to asking honest, reasonable questions.
I confess that I have phrased some questions in a bit of an edgy way, but the NAMB CEO, whomever it has been or will be, will likely be compensated sufficiently to take an edgy question or two and have an employment contract that insulates him against financial harm.
I think our CEO-to-be has been intemperate in his reaction to the comments concerning his nomination. I know that megapastors brook little or no criticism. Our SBC leaders should have no such expectation.
Perhaps he will adjust his attitude.
Addendum:
Baptist Press has a chart of Ezell's church giving for the past 14 years here. The church is a mission minded church but not partitularly supportive of NAMB. As I have said, perhaps Ezell will explain why and what he plans to do to make NAMB into an agency that a megachurch can support.
6 comments:
I have heard rumors that Baptist Press has called you out on this matter, that the SBC hierarchy is once again upset with the blogging world on Ezell's nomination but I have not seen the smoking gun link as of yet.
I do think ethicsdaily obliquely this morning is asking another question that goes to the heart of Ezell topographically (in the Annie Dillard Sense of an American Childhood, as well as in the sense of Gus Niebuhr's grand ten pages on Louisville, Ky in Beyond Tolernance) this morning with the conflation of the NYC Mosque with the Creation Museum not far from Ezell's HighView Baptist Church in MohlerLand.
I hope that if not in this comment stream you will soon blog on that matter. Would be curious to see your navigation.
Hope things are well and you had a chance to catch the Yankees and Rays game last night.
Gaffney Stomped Union last Friday night and Byrnes comes to town in three days.
Norm: If Ezell is offered the job at NAMB, is Mohler next in line to be President of SBC? Difficult to suggest the giving level of his church is suspect if Ezell is appointed. Goodness, if Jesus were a Southern Baptist pastor, we would have to redact scripture where it states, "follow me." “Go on ahead; I'll catch you later," seems a worthy substitute.
William, for all the talk about moderate leadership not being responsive to people in the pews, you guys are pointing the way marvelously; but at least moderate leaders did not have to justify their giving levels and think up clever giving schemes to hide uncooperative behavior. All you are left with now to justify wholesale marginalization of a group of people is moderate theology ... which given that some are now open to women pastors, such is even suspect as a rallying cry.
In any event, good luck. Perhaps it is now fitting for all the non-mega SBC churches to take up collections, instead, for the mega FBC Jerusalems’ mission endeavors? Surely don’t won’t the independently-oriented mega mission endeavors to fail; where would SBC leadership, then, be found?
Joe Perdue has these concerns in the comment line at ABP, the story from which the fundamentalist David Miller so liberally quotes from in his blog about Ezell at SBC Voices:
A Fox in the Hen House
written by JosephPerdue, September 14, 2010
While his church isn't necessarily doing anything "wrong" by not giving more to the CP, his nomination is ridiculous. If he doesn't think its important enough to fund he won't do a good job as a leader.
With that said there is something more disturbing about his nomination than money. Who in their right mind would want to put a Calvinist in charge of missions? You might as well put a fox in charge of protecting the hen house, or elect an anarchist to Congress. As bad as his presidency will be for the SBC, the real victims of this will be the lost.
It is obvious to anyone who is paying attention that the Calvinists are trying to take over the SBC using the same methods the fundamentalists used during the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC. The arminians in the denomination had better wake up before they find themselves kicked out of just like the moderates were. Before long the SBC will be the RBC-Reformed Baptist Convention.
I'm just reading through this quickly but "foxofbama" should check his facts about Ezell being a Calvinist. I'm fairly certain that Mohler has stated that Ezell is not a Calvinist but he is a member there because he is a great leader. I have no problem with a Calvinist being in charge of missions. William Carey, the father of modern missions was a Calvinist. I think the issue people have with Ezell is how he can lead NAMB when he has given so little to it as a pastor.
Bill Pfister
Taylors, SC
Mister Fister:
I was quoting a Joe Perdue in the commments of the ABP story Dave Miller liberally quotes from in his post at SBC Voices.
You can read all the comments at abpnews.com
I have been having a gracious exchange today with Adrian Rogers son, David, about the work of Richard Land and the ERLC. On my recommendation David is reading James David Hunter's recent book about the role of religion in Society.
I see you live in Taylors. I don't know if you know Frank Page or not, but if you do, please use your influence to get Page to read Andrew Murphy's Prodigal Nation; and join me and David Rogers as we keep an eye on things from Richard Land and Glenn Beck, to Mohler and Ezell and proper channelling of CP dollars.
Dr. Ezell preached at my church a few weeks ago, partly in an attempt to inspire people to become missionaries. All I remember is that he used a lot of stories and such with very little, if any, exposition. It seems that he believes that his stories have as much ability to change hearts as do the scriptures. I was hoping he would exposit the text and let the Holy Spirit do the convicitng, inspiring etc. The sermon was flat; no power though emotionally powerful but I have no time for that kind of nonsense; preach the whole counsel of the Word of God--please!
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