For Immediate Release – February 29, 2024
After much prayer and thought, and at the urging of many, I have decided to allow my name to be submitted in nomination for the president of the Southern Baptist Convention when the Convention meets this June in Indianapolis. I am grateful to my friend, Dr. Danny Forshee, for his desire to make this nomination.
For most of my life, the Southern Baptist Convention has been the arena in which my service to the Savior has been devoted. I have nothing but deep and genuine gratitude for what Southern Baptists have meant to me and how Southern Baptists have invested in my life.
I thrill each year at the reports of our International Mission Board and NAMB at what God is doing in His world. Our six Southern Baptist seminaries are training young men and women to serve the Savior around the world. Faithful pastors in churches of every size are preaching the word. Souls are being saved. Lives are being changed. Ministry is happening.
Nevertheless, a cloud hangs over our beloved Convention. Political rancor is tearing at our cooperation. Trust seems to erode with each headline. Calls for greater financial transparency are met with debate. In recent years, Southern Baptists are known more for litigation than proclamation.
I believe the SBC needs a president who is well-versed in the workings of the Convention but is not overly connected to our current leadership. We need a president who loves and respects our Convention but understands the concerns of a growing number of grassroots Southern Baptists. With a trusted leader and a fresh set of eyes, God may yet prepare the way for something greater in the future than we can at present see. But we must value our integrity above our reputation. When we do that, God will take care of our reputation.
As a candidate for president, my platform is simple:
1) Strengthen our long-term Convention focus on evangelism, missions, and preaching. 2) Support passage of the Mike Law Amendment at the 2024 SBC in Indianapolis.3) Seek to restore an eroding trust among many Southern Baptists.
If elected as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, my pledge is two-fold:
1) Support and encourage all Southern Baptists and all SBC entities and agencies in their ultimate mission of seeking to win the world to Christ as we cooperate to call out the called, pray, and give faithfully to the Cooperative Program.
2) Appoint Southern Baptists to the Committee on Committees who will assure me and 1
all Southern Baptists they will only nominate people in places of service who will pledge to work for truth, trust and transparency within their respective committees, trustee boards, and entities.
I look forward to engaging with my fellow Southern Baptists over the next few months as we head to Indianapolis. Working together, I believe God can continue to use the Southern Baptist Convention to take His gospel to the ends of the earth.
Bio
Dr. David L. Allen is founder of PreachingCoach (preachingcoach.com), a ministry dedicated to equipping pastors and ministry leaders to communicate with clarity, competence, and confidence.
In 2022, Dr. Allen became the Distinguished Professor of Practical Theology and Dean of the Adrian Rogers Center for Biblical Preaching at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tennessee.
He began preaching at age 16 and has taught preaching from the bachelor to the doctoral level since the late 1980s. He earned his MDIV from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas, where he became Dean of the School of Theology in 2004, and the founding Dean of the School of Preaching in 2016. He served as the Distinguished Professor of Preaching, Director of the Center for Expository Preaching, and held the George W. Truett Chair of Pastoral Ministry.
Dr. Allen is also a graduate of The Criswell College, Dallas, Texas, where he taught and held the W.A. Criswell Chair of Preaching from 1998-2004. He earned his PhD in Humanities from the University of Texas at Arlington where he majored in Linguistics.
He has been senior pastor of two SBC churches in Texas from 1982-2004 and served as interim pastor of 13 SBC churches.
Since 1980, Dr. Allen has led or participated in more than 450 preaching workshops, conferences, revivals, and other events in the US and in more than a dozen countries abroad.
Allen is the author of seven books and co-editor of six books, as well as numerous other chapters and articles on preaching, Old Testament, New Testament, and theology.
Dr. Allen is married to Kate Finley, the Director of the Texas Division of Trinity Strategic Wealth, an affiliate of Raymond James, a global financial services firm. He has four children and nine grandchildren.
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