Frank Page, pastor of Taylors First Baptist Taylors, S.C. is elected as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.  Page replaces outgoing president Bobby Welch of First Baptist Daytona.

Taylors First Baptist allocates over 12 percent of undesignated funds to the Cooperative Program while sustaining a substantial budget for mission work around the world.

In 2005, Taylors led the state in Cooperative Program giving with gifts totaling $535,000.  The church expenditures for missions topped $1 million last year.

The Cooperative Program is the funding source for the Southern Baptists’ state, national and international mission work.

In an interview with the Baptist Courier, Page states that contributions by churches to the Cooperative Program should be “substantial enough to show selflessness.”

Page largely based his candidacy on a “moral obligation to support what we have voted to do” as Southern Baptist.

To Page the election was also about bringing all facets of the denomination together to spark discussion and deliberation.

“The convention is different than it once was. There must be a concerted effort to reach out to a much broader constituency so that the future of our convention will be bright,” Page told the Courier.

And in an effort to encourage discussion, Page is urging leaders to “sit back no more.”  “We’re not here to rearrange deck chairs on a sinking ship,” he continues.

Counting “theological integrity” as utmost importance, Page says there is room for vary viewpoints.

“If another Southern Baptist has a sweet spirit, an evangelistic heart and holds to the integrity of the Bible, then I would say to that person, ‘There is room at the table for you.’”

The election marks the fourth time a pastor from S.C. has served as convention president.  The most recent was W.J. McGlothin who served in 1930-31.  William B. Johnson, who served as the first convention president, also hailed from the state.

Page will continue his pastorate while serving as convention president.

A native of Greensboro, Page has served as pastor in Augusta, Ga, Fort Worth, Texas and Fayetteville, N.C.  He is also the author of “Trouble with the Tulip: A Closer Examination of the Five Points of Calvinism” released in 2000.

Page and his wife Dayle have three grown daughters.