Stepping Forward or Backward?

By David Flick
 

David "Dave" Clippard, an associate executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, was recently chosen to become the executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC).  Kenny Qualls, search committee chairman, MBC second vice president, and pastor of Spring Hill Church in Springfield, MO said of Clippard, "...David will take Missouri in a conservative, pro-Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) direction.  He stands on the inerrant truth of God's word, and he's going to lead Missouri with a passion for planting churches and winning souls."

Anthony Jordan, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (BGCO) said of Clippard, "Dave is a man of integrity, a compassionate soul winner and a mission leader. I believe he has the ability to re-focus the Missouri Baptist Convention on Kingdom business." Pardon me, but when did Missouri Baptists cease focusing on kingdom business?  Was it when Roger Moran led the Project 1000 campaign to find a liberal under every rock and behind every tree?  Was it when Moran and his followers began focusing on MBC institutions and executive leaders with the puerile "guilt by association" rhetoric?  Is Clippard going to the lead MBC in a more positive direction than Jim Hill did?  I seriously doubt it.

In my opinion, Dave Clippard doesn't have the stuff to re-focus the MBC toward making forward steps.  The MBC has already taken too many steps backward to make the turn toward re-focusing on much of anything.  Clippard will become but another pawn for Roger Moran to play in his fundamentalist chess game.  Moran and the fundamentalists will control Clippard in much the same way that Anthony Jordan controlled him  in Oklahoma.

Tom Elliff, former SBC president and pastor of Del City, OK First Southern, where Clippard is a member said of him, "Dave Clippard’s experience as a businessman, as a pastor and, most recently, as one of the nation’s leading state evangelism directors, enables him to bring to the table a rare combination of experience, inspiration and vision. These are crucial days for Missouri Baptists. Dave Clippard will bring integrity, decisiveness, doctrinal conviction and evangelistic zeal to the position of executive director."

What does being an experienced businessman have to do with leading a Baptist state convention? What is so crucial about these days for Missouri Baptists? Does experience as a state evangelism director qualify Clippard to serve as a state executive director? Between 1983 and 1988,  he served as interim minister of adult education at Fort Lauderdale, Fla., First, with  O.S. Hawkins, then the church’s senior pastor and now president of the SBC Annuity Board. How does serving as an interim minister of adult education  qualify a man for the position of state executive director?

Clippard was  pastor of the Sarasota Baptist Church in Sarasota, FL from  1988 to 1996. Apparently, the Sarasota church was the one and only church where he served as senior pastor. Eight years as senior pastor of a single church hardly qualifies a man for being an executive director of a state convention of Baptists. Then what does qualify Clippard to become the executive director of the MBC?  Can it be political connections with SBC leadership in high places?  Or is it personal skills and abilities with denominational structures? I believe he had political support in high places to gain the position. Based on my personal observations of his service among Oklahoma Baptists, he exhibited neither the skills nor abilities to lead a convention of Southern Baptists. 

I believe Clippard is man of integrity and a very personable fellow, but he doesn't have the leadership skills necessary to "re-focus" the MBC away from the direction that Roger Moran and the fundamentalist leaders have taken the convention.  He is an excellent soul winner and was an admirable state evangelism director for the BGCO. Credit him for that.  But executive director material? Frankly, I don't see that in him. He had a positive  impact on evangelism in Oklahoma but I don't recall much of anything he did while he was serving as associate executive director of the BGCO. I didn't see him as being a strong leader.

Dave Clippard is an excellent example of the Peter Principle, (The theory that employees within an organization will advance to their highest level of competence and then be promoted to and remain at a level at which they are incompetent.) I believe he was a fine state evangelism director.  His record declares as much.  But when he was promoted to associate executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, he was promoted to a level at which he was incompetent.  Clippard  is now two levels above his competence.  The Missouri Baptist Convention is now saddled with a man far less competent than Jim Hill, the man who was rudely forced aside by Roger Moran and his fundamentalist henchmen. When will the MBC begin stepping forward?  Certainly not soon with Dave Clippard at the helm.

- September 4, 2001