WHEREAS, In the ebb and flow of God’s provident dealings with Southern Baptists during the 118 years of their organized efforts in the “eliciting, combining, and directing” of human endeavor to promote the gospel of Jesus Christ as they interpret it, there have occurred epochs of problem and opportunity demanding a particular type and quality of interpretation and leadership, and
WHEREAS, We believe the two-year period culminating in this Convention has been one calling for the wisest, ablest, and most statesmanlike leadership available, and
WHEREAS, Confident that the leadership of the Holy Spirit has been manifest in the prayers we have made in seeking to resolve uncertainties, tensions, and divisions of opinion that have arisen to test our faith and our fellowship, and
WHEREAS, In conformity with our basic beliefs in Baptist principle and polity, and without the slightest assumption of ecclesiastical or administrative authority, we have been blessed for the past two years with a presidential leadership unexcelled by any previous occupant of the office, and
WHEREAS, In such presidential leadership God has provided our Convention fellowship with a man whose Christian faith, ministry, experience, scholarship, fearlessness, wisdom, tact, diplomacy, fairness, and unswerving devotion to the Word of God and the responsibilities of the churches in their trusteeship of the gospel, and
WHEREAS, We recognize the personal self-denial and dedication involved in the more than 200,000 miles traveled, the mission fields visited, the sermons and addresses delivered, the articles written, the conferences held, the committee meetings attended, the correspondence carried on, and the bone-wearying hours of labor expended in multitudinous ways on the part of our president, and
WHEREAS, We feel a particular gratitude for the wisdom, scholarship interpretation, guidance, and direction provided the last two Conventions in the presidential addresses, and
WHEREAS, We recognize the extreme demands our Convention has made on the First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City by taking its pastor away from his pastoral privileges and ministries for nearly three-fourths of the time,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
First, that we express our conviction that God has given Southern Baptists the presidental leadership of these last two years as we “come to the Kingdom for such a time as this” and that we humbly and gratefully thank him for giving us our president, Dr. Herschel Harold Hobbs.