Compiled from B&R, BP reports
Southern Baptists show their ballots at a past SBC annual meeting. — File photo by Van Payne
MORRISTOWN — Dean Haun announced May 24 that he will nominate Georgia pastor Mike Stone as president of the Southern Baptist Convention during its annual meeting June 15-16 in Nashville.
Georgia Baptist Convention president and pastor Kevin Williams announced in January that Stone, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, Ga., and immediate past chairman of the SBC Executive Committee, would be nominated, but the announcement did not name a nominator.
Mike Stone
Stone is one of four announced candidates, along with R. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., who will be nominated by H.B. Charles, senior pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla.; Ed Litton, pastor of Redemption Church in Saraland, Ala., which was known as North Mobile Baptist Church until 2014, who will be nominated by former SBC president and New Orleans (La.) pastor Fred Luter; and Randy Adams, executive director/treasurer of the Northwest Baptist Convention. Adams told Baptist Press his nominator would be announced on the day of the election. See https://baptistandreflector.org/sbc-elections-not-lacking-candidates-in-2021/.
Haun, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Morristown, and a former president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, told the Baptist and Reflector that he is honored to nominate Stone.
First, Stone has a proven track record as a leader in all levels of the convention, he said. Haun noted that in addition to the SBC Executive committee, Stone has served as president of the Georgia Baptist Convention and chairman of the GBC’s Executive Committee. He also is a strong supporter of the Cooperative Program. The church gave $226,097 of its $2.1 million (10.4 percent) in undesignated receipts through CP in 2020. Emmanuel is also the top contributor to the local Baptist association where Stone has served in a variety of roles.
Dean Haun
Second, Haun said, Stone has announced a renewed emphasis in three major areas — evangelism across the denomination, the sufficiency and authority of Scripture and the local church as the headquarters of the SBC and not entity leaders or a select group. Stone has called for a comprehensive study of remote participation in the SBC annual meeting as a means to include more Southern Baptists in the making of decisions.
The Morristown pastor also cited Stone’s strong stance against racism of all forms. He noted that Stone wrote the amendment to the SBC constitution excluding membership for any church within the SBC that holds to discrimatory views. “Citing his leadership on ethnic inclusion as a pastor and convention leader, Haun stated, “He will continue to make that a priority within the SBC.”
Haun said he is confident that Stone “will keep the main thing the main thing” if he is elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention. B&R — This article includes reporting by Lonnie Wilkey for the B&R and Baptist Press.
