On today's episode of the Sword and Trial, I have the wonderful privilege of interviewing my friend Willie Rice.

Willie is the pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Florida, a historic Southern Baptist Church,

and he has agreed to be nominated for the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention this year in its annual meeting in Orlando.

And whether or not you're Southern Baptist, I'm sure you understand that the Southern Baptist

Convention matters.

What happens within the convention, through the convention has a ripple effect on other

churches, other denominations, religious organizations, and on the American cultural scene, as well as

the work of the gospel around the world. So listen in to this conversation between Willie and me.

I hope that it encourages you.

Welcome to this episode of The Sword and the Trial.

The Sword in the Trial is a podcast of Founders Ministries and Founders Exists for the Recovery of the Gospel and the Reformation of local churches.

And I'm Tom Askell, and I'm not Graham Gundin. And Graham is not here with us. He is on a well-deserved

vacation. Today's episode is brought to us by the Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center in Lake Yale, Florida,

a beautiful venue. If you need a retreat or you're looking for something to do with your group,

contact them. They have wonderful facilities. Today, it's a real joy for me to be able to welcome

to the Sword and Trail, my good friend Willie Rice, Willie Pastors right up I-75 from me in the

Tampa area in Clearwater at Calvary Church. And he and I have become friends over the last several

years, and I've just grown in my admiration of him. He's one of those friends that wears well.

So some friends are better to have at a distance, but others, the more you get to know

them, the better you like them.

And Willie is in that latter category.

So Willie, thank you for joining us today here on the Sword and Trial.

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