Frank Page

Frank S. Page was president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) from 2006 to 2008. Page announced his retirement on March 27, 2018, admitting to "a personal failing" that involved a "morally inappropriate relationship."

In March 2018, Page announced his retirement, citing a "morally inappropriate relationship" as the driving cause.

He added, “I also encourage Southern Baptists to realize that we must not only share Christ but we must live out the commands of Christ, or in other words, we need to treat each other the way Christ commands us to treat one another. I'm asking Southern Baptists — from entity presidents to pastors, missionaries, to people in the pew — to make covenants about how we will relate, how we will agree as well as how we will disagree. I believe that we need to be Jesus people!”

In February 2014, in responding to a motion about mental health issues that had been referred to the Executive Committee by messengers to the 2013 SBC annual meeting, Page announced the creation of a mental health advisory council which is slated to issue a report to Page prior to the 2015 SBC annual meeting.

Following the appointment of the Hispanic Advisory Council, Page successively appointed an African American Advisory Council (2012), an Asian Advisory Council (2013), and a Multi-Ethnic Advisory Council (2014), each of which has met at least annually and was tasked to recommend ways in which ethnic churches and church leaders can be more fully engaged as full partners in every level of Southern Baptist life.

In that spirit, during his first report as Executive Committee president at the 2011 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, Page asked the executive directors of forty-two state Baptist conventions that cooperate with the SBC, the presidents of almost twenty ethnic fellowships that work closely with the SBC, the presidents of each of the eleven SBC ministry entities, the president of the WMU (a missions auxiliary to the SBC), and the president of the SBC to join him in signing a document called Affirmation of Unity and Cooperation.

In fulfillment of the fourth pledge in the Affirmation document, Page appointed an Hispanic Advisory Council in September 2011 “to provide information, insight and counsel to NAMB and EC [SBC Executive Committee] staff relative to the special needs and concerns of Hispanic churches and church leaders in the Southern Baptist family of churches."

Also in 2011, Page worked with NAMB to create a new position within the SBC, presidential ambassador for ethnic church relations. Ken Weathersby, former VP for evangelism with NAMB, was tapped to fill the role. Two years later, Page selected Weathersby to serve as vice president for Convention advancement with the SBC Executive Committee. Weathersby became the first African American to hold a vice presidential role at the Executive Committee.

When he began his service as president and CEO of the Executive Committee on October 1, 2010, Page set an immediate goal to establish an atmosphere of trust at every level of Convention life.

Page and his wife, the former Dayle Gibson, have three daughters, Melissa (d. November 2009), Laura, and Allison.

In 2009, Page was invited to serve on President Barack Obama's Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. A few months later, he was selected to lead the evangelization group with the Convention's North America Mission Board (NAMB). While serving as SBC president, Page had challenged the mission agency to develop a new evangelism strategy for reaching twenty-first century people with the timeless message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. NAMB's new strategy was called God's Plan for Sharing (GPS).

The following year, at the Convention's 2008 annual meeting, the Convention received a comprehensive report from the Convention's Executive Committee encouraging churches to report any instance of sexual abuse to the legal authorities and to exercise due diligence in protecting the children and youth under the care of their ministries. As part of its report, the SBC Executive Committee announced it had posted a link to the Department of Justice Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender database on the Convention's website, where it remains as a resource for churches and individuals.

During his two years as president of the SBC, Page was a frequent guest on national and local television networks and programs, including NBC, CBS, CBN, Fox News, and Larry King Live. In 2007, he was named as one of the Fifty Most Influential Christians in America by the Church Report.

The first year of Page's presidency coincided with a national media focus on clergy sex abuse scandals in numerous Christian denominations. In April 2007, Page published a First Person editorial after he had been interviewed for an ABC News segment. He wrote,

A few months later, during the June 2007 SBC annual meeting, the first annual meeting over which Page presided, messengers adopted a resolution on protecting children from sexual abuse which stated, in part,

Page was president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) from 2006 to 2008 and served as vice president of evangelism for the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 2009-2010. He was a member of the SBC's Great Commission Resurgence Task Force in 2009-2010 and a director of Baptist Global Response from 2008-2010.

In June 2006 Page was nominated by Florida pastor Forrest Pollock to become Southern Baptist Convention President. Pollack stressed how much Page's church contributed to the Cooperative Program, which funds SBC projects. After his election, Page said the convention would not change its views on social issues like same-sex marriage or abortion. He said "I do not want anyone to think I am out to undo a conservative movement."

Page's election to his current position followed 34 years of church and denominational service. He served as pastor of Live Oak Baptist Church, Gatesville, Texas (1979–81), LaFayette Baptist Church, Fayetteville, North Carolina (1981–87), Gambrell Street Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas (1987–91), Warren Baptist Church, Augusta, Georgia (1991-2001), and First Baptist Church, Taylors, South Carolina (2001–09). Under his leadership, First Baptist Church of Taylors experienced a period of rapid growth, reaching average worship attendance of over 2,400.

A graduate of Ben L. Smith High School in Greensboro, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina, majoring in Psychology. He was ordained at Immanuel Baptist Church in Greensboro in 1974. He received the Master of Divinity degree and earned his Ph.D. in Christian ethics from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas in 1980 at the age of 28. He is the author of several books, has written articles for various publications and was the lead writer for the Advanced Continuing Witness Training material.

Page was born in Robbins, North Carolina, on August 23, 1952. He was invited to attend Southside Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he professed faith in Jesus Christ at age 9.