BOLIVAR — On Feb. 21, Southwest Baptist University (SBU) President C. Pat Taylor announced at a Board of Trustees meeting that someone was missing because he was preparing to meet with Pope Benedict XVI.
It didn’t take long for the room to figure it out. The culprit was Cary Summers.
“We are going to meet with him,” said Summers on May 2, explaining more about what he told Taylor concerning his papal encounter. “We have an audience being arranged now. I told him it was between him and the pope, and the pope won.”
As president and CEO of the Springfield-based Nehemiah Group, Summers is like a chief diplomat, ambassador, and envoy in the kingdom of God. The former CEO of Branson’s Silver Dollar City, he went to the Vatican to help set up the Verbum Domini exhibit, described by Religion News Service as a display of more than 150 rare biblical texts and artifacts. The pope had opened the door to the exhibit by issuing “Verbum Domini,” the “Word of the Lord,” on Sept. 30, 2010.
Summers, who is a member of Second Baptist Church in Springfield, said he was honored to help mark the fullness of church history in St. Peter’s Square. The exhibit, which was derived from the Green Collection owned by Hobby Lobby President Steve Green, ran from Feb. 29 through April 15.
“We were quite amazed.” he said. “We had people from 80 countries that we knew about that came through the exhibit. We had all faiths there. There are around 70 cardinals that live around the Vatican, and we probably had 20 come through. It really opens up your eyes that the world really does want to have a better understanding of God’s Word.”
In his spare time, Summers is consultant to the Ark Encounter. The goal is to build a full-scale, fully detailed replica of Noah’s Ark with an anticipated opening date of 2014 in northern Kentucky with the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum.
“It’s a gigantic project,” he said. “It is not about us. It’s about God opening His doors.”
His pastor, John Marshall, who also serves as president of the Missouri Baptist Convention, is a bit taken aback by all that Summers has done.
“He has one of the most entrepreneurial spirits I’ve ever known,” Marshall said. “When it comes to archaeological matters, he has the bulldog tenacity of a spiritual Indiana Jones.”
Summers said he is honored by those words.
“I certainly get into that world (of archaeology).” he said. “It’s not necessarily the tenacity. It’s the ability to touch things that are 4,000 years old. That’s just a remarkable thing when you have the opportunity to do that.”