OSAGE BEACH—Frank Page, president and chief executive officer of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), delivered a sermon Nov. 2 at the 177th annual meeting of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) here at Tan-Tar-A on the importance of experiencing a profound call to ministry.
His text was I Samuel 3:1-10, which details the call of the boy named Samuel. Later he read verses 19-21 and taught how God showed up by means of His Word.
“Is your heart open to God’s call?” Page asked the messengers.
Curiously, God showed up in a place that Page called “backwater Shiloh,” which would logically be an unlikely location for God’s presence to be.
“You may think that you’re on the back edge of nowhere,” Page said.
“You may think the greatest days of your ministry are behind you. You may think your church is slipping into the sunset. It just may be that your Shiloh may be the place where God will show up.”
Page served more than 34 years as a Southern Baptist pastor. He was a two-time president of the SBC while serving as pastor of First Baptist Church, Taylors, S.C. Now his unofficial title is “Chief Encouraging Officer” of the SBC.
Internationally he has been blessed to speak gospel truth in Germany, Norway, Mexico, Israel, Ecuador, Australia, Nigeria, Brazil, and Canada.
He told MBC President John Marshall that his biggest prayer request right now is for wisdom.
“I deal with a lot of situations,” Page said. “I need to know when to speak, when not to speak. Pray for traveling mercies. I’m in eight or nine states this week. But pray most of all that I’ll be adequate for the task. This job is way beyond me.”
Marshall then thanked the Lord for Page’s humility, praying that the Lord would work through him as he yields himself totally to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
ALLEN PALMERI/associate editor
apalmeri@mobaptist.org