according to the BSC president.

Praying together (soon after their election in November) are First Vice President Mike Cummings, President Mac Brunson and Second Vice President David Crocker.

"If that's an agenda in the conservative camp, I've not heard it," Mac Brunson said.

But Brunson added that he is "sure there are some people out there who want that."

Brunson, a conservative, was elected president of the BSC in November. Conservatives have held at least two of the top three BSC posts for three straight years.

A letter to the editor of the Biblical Recorder raised the issue of whether recent conservative wins were a move toward balance or a "gentler, kinder takeover." Conservatives aggressively gained power of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) beginning in 1979 and now control all SBC agencies and institutions.

Brunson, pastor of Green Street Church in High Point, said in an interview with the Biblical Recorder that nobody on either side of the controversy has called him to tell him what to do.

"I would not be here if somebody would have said ŚWe"re going to run you and here"s our agenda,"" he said.

Brunson said before the election that a conservative needed to be president of the BSC for balance because the president of the BSC General Board was likely to be a moderate. He wouldn't apply that statement to the conservative-dominated SBC, but he did say that recent efforts at cooperation in North Carolina could be a model for the SBC and other state conventions.

"Moderates on the national level have felt shut out," he said. "Conservatives on the state level have felt shut out."

Brunson used the Old Testament story of David"s fight with Goliath as an example of how the two sides of the controversy should act.

Before David fought Goliath, David"s brother angrily asked David why he was at the battlefield. David realized that his brother wasn't the enemy, Brunson said.

"He refused to fight with his own brother," he said. "That's where we need to get to."

Brunson said N.C. Baptists need to realize that even Jesus" disciples were a diverse group.

"We know there are differences," he said. "We"re not alike, but we don't need to be alike.

"I spend a lot of time trying to help people understand that cooperation does not mean compromise."

Brunson said he has come to see moderates such as David Crocker, Mike Queen and David Hughes as godly men.

"I'm sure there are some people out there who are so liberal that we"d all have problems with them," he said.

Instead of concentrating on differences, N.C. Baptists should focus on the lordship of Jesus Christ and reaching people for Him, Brunson said.

"You"re not going to find anybody who"s going to disagree with that," he said.

Brunson said conservatives and moderates might eventually have to talk about their differences. "But right now, especially at the stage we are at, I don't think we need to keep hammering on our differences," he said.

Brunson said that when he studied a debate over Calvinism in Baptist history, he couldn't find where the issue was settled.

"I just think time takes care of some of these things," he said.

Brunson said he believes he and Larry Harper, the new president of the General Board, can continue the cooperative spirit started by former BSC president Greg Mathis and former General Board president Mike Queen. He said and Harper were pastors in the same association in Virginia.

Brunson said he told Harper he would give him every telephone number he has in order to make it easy for Harper to reach him.

"I'm going to give him numbers only my wife and mother have," Brunson said. "He"s going to have a tough enough time defending me to his crowd and I"ll have a tough enough time defending him to mine."

Brunson, BSC First Vice President Mike Cummings and Second Vice President David Crocker appointed the three candidates who lost elections in November to the Committee on Committees. Brunson said the officers wanted to show that they are serious about sharing leadership.

"We just felt like it would be a way for us to reach out and show that we want to be inclusive," he said.

Each of the three officers selected four others for the 15-member committee, Brunson said. He said he thinks there is a "good balance" of conservatives and moderates on the committee.

"I tried very hard to stay away from radical people," Brunson said.