By Lindsey Carraway
Writing Specialist
CLINTON, Miss. — Familiar faces of the Southern Baptist Convention gathered Sept. 15 for the installation of Evan Lenow as president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. The service took place in the historic Provine Chapel at Mississippi Christian University, Lenow’s alma mater and place of his previous position as chair of the Christian Studies Department.
Friends, coworkers, and mentors gave meaningful instruction for his next assignment, drawing from personal witness to Lenow’s vibrant relationship with the Lord.
Greg Belser, senior pastor of Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton, has been the Lenow family’s pastor for the last decade. His charge represented local Southern Baptist churches.
“We need your public voice,” he directed to Lenow. “We need your policy voice. We need you to speak boldly to power in high places about moral issues and about the religious liberty we all treasure and enjoy. But we need your smaller voice also. The voice that develops resources to train pastors and equip churches to speak to their neighbors, coworkers, school boards and city councils.
“It’s not likely to get you on a Sunday talk show, but it is likely to serve the Kingdom of Christ and the churches who own the agency. I thank God for you. You are a living example of applying the Gospel well in your personal life and in your marriage.”
Speakers addressed the current mountain of ethical complications and moral issues, including the unnavigated territory of artificial intelligence. Each speech was challenging, and each speaker willing to cite the pressure and hardships that will come with the role, acknowledging the support and sacrifice Lenow’s family provides to him in his new position.
Jeff Iorg, president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, counseled, “There are many opinions about what this entity should do, what it is designed to accomplish, how it must do this work, and who this audience should be. These are important questions you must answer and continue to answer with patience, consistency and fortitude over the next two decades.
“Lead the ERLC to equip church leaders to address the social, political, ethical and legal dilemmas which really matter to them,” Iorg urged. “Become the most trusted voice for Southern Baptists on these issues.”
Most of all, speakers recognized the countless prayers following Lenow and the work God has already done to prepare the new president.
Heather Sells, chair of the ERLC board of trustees and member of the presidential search committee, said of Lenow, “Since his official start on June 1, he has hit the ground sprinting. The board has watched with gratitude as he has reached out strategically to leaders across the convention, cultivating relationships, building bridges when needed, and laying out a schedule for the coming year to assure he will connect with the maximum number of state conventions, pastors, entity leaders and national leaders.”
Daniel L. Akin, president emeritus of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, offered a word of encouragement on leading Southern Baptists with humility. Richard D. Land, president emeritus of the ERLC, closed the evening in prayer for the ERLC and its future.
In his address, Lenow expressed his thankfulness to his family and to those whose mentorship has shaped his life thus far. As he leads under this continual accountability, his vision is for the ERLC to be known for “serving the church, standing for truth and shaping the culture.”
“We can only do this,” said Lenow, “with a properly ordered ethic that leads others to worship the only One who deserves all glory and honor, our Father in heaven.”
Lenow pointed to passages of Scripture that guide this mission.
Noting the interaction between Jesus and Simon Peter in Matthew 16:15-18, Lenow stated, “Jesus institutes the Church on the basis of Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ. That is our confession as a convention, as the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and that is why you will see us serving the churches because, on the basis of that confession, Jesus institutes the church and it becomes the mechanism through which God’s intention is to build his Kingdom here on earth until Christ returns.”
In John 18:37-38, “Pilate’s question is our culture’s question: What is truth?” Lenow said. “It is a harder question today than perhaps it was before. … (Truth is) the objective reality of what God has revealed about Himself, about ourselves, and the rest of creation that we primarily find through special revelation.
“Rather than simple questions, at the ERLC, we ask difficult questions, such as, ‘What does it mean to be human?’ Or, ‘What type of people has God created us to be?’ And, ‘What does it mean to live our lives as an act of worship in response to our Creator?’ These are the types of questions we’re asking and the answers to those questions are found by standing for the truth revealed in God’s Word.”
In Matthew 5:13-16, “Jesus commands us to be salt and light. As salt, we function as a preservative against the decay of the culture, and in doing so, we are a shaping force in the culture. Jesus also commands us to be light. As light, we illuminate a dark world.
“We do this not for our own benefit, but in order to point people to the Father. … What we do at the ERLC is not to bring attention to ourselves, it is not to call attention to any one person or any group of people. It is not even to call attention to this convention of churches that we serve that represents millions of Southern Baptists across the country and around the world. But instead, what we do is to point others to the Father.”
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