Editor’s note: Tennessee Baptist messengers are invited to attend a dessert fellowship hosted by the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board on June 10 from 8:30-10 p.m. in Capitol 1 and Capitol II Rooms on Level 1 in the Indiana Convention Center.
INDIANAPOLIS — If you’re a Southern Baptist who loves the business session of meetings, then buckle up for this year’s SBC Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, June 11–12. This year’s meeting will feature an extra Tuesday evening business session that SBC president Bart Barber approved.
Going into his last SBC meeting as president, Barber said he didn’t really have a choice. “It had to be done,” Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church Farmersville, Texas, said in an annual meeting promotional video released by the SBC Executive Committee.
“We were already compressing the annual meeting to as much business as we could put into the sessions that we had. Something had to give.”
The newly added business session will be loaded with two reports and a field of six candidates running for SBC president. Among the reports in this session will be The Great Commission Resurgence Evaluation Task Force and The Cooperation Group.
GCR evaluation: The Great Commission Resurgence Evaluation Task Force released its final report May 13.
Last year, messengers approved the formation of a group to study the success of the GCR Task Force, which presented seven recommendations in 2010. Related to the evaluation report, recommendations will be released no later than a week before the SBC annual meeting. SBC messengers will then vote on those recommendations in Indianapolis.
The overall consensus in the report is that the GCRTF did not accomplish its goal of reversing the decline in baptisms in the SBC. “The answer is a clear and decisive, No,” the evaluation report noted. The answer to who is responsible, though, is more complicated. The full report is available at tbponline.org/GCRreport.
Cooperation Group recommendations: The Cooperation Group, named to study what “friendly cooperation of faith and practice” means for Southern Baptist churches, released its initial report May 1. They are:
Recommendation 1: “To ensure that edits or amendments to The Baptist Faith & Message follow the same process as amendments to the Constitution (two-thirds vote, two consecutive years), we recommend the Executive Committee propose changes to our governing documents for the Convention’s consideration at the 2025 Annual Meeting.”
Recommendation 2: “To ensure that the sole authority for seating messengers is vested in the messenger body, we recommend the Executive Committee propose changes to our governing documents for the Convention’s consideration at the 2025 Annual Meeting. We also recommend celebrating churches seating messengers for the first time.”
Messengers raise their ballots during the 2023 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans. — Photo by Sonya Singh / Baptist Press
Recommendation 3: “To ensure the fidelity of our trustees to our doctrinal confession, we recommend the Executive Committee propose changes to our governing documents for the Convention’s consideration at the 2025 Annual Meeting to require the Committee on Nominations to nominate as entity trustees and standing committee members only those candidates who affirm the Convention’s adopted statement of faith.”
Recommendation 4: “To clarify our cooperative unity, we recommend the Executive Committee evaluate the usefulness and accuracy of a public list of churches and report their updates at the 2025 Annual Meeting.”
Law Amendment: See “Q&A with Mike Law” HERE.
ARI Task Force: The Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force will also share a report with messengers in Indianapolis. The task force met with state leaders in Dallas on April 9 to preview their report. One of the big questions that remains unanswered, according to the task force, involves “finding a permanent home for abuse reform.”
In February, the ARITF announced plans to launch a “new independent nonprofit organization to help Southern Baptist churches and entities prevent and respond to sexual abuse.”
ARITF chair Josh Wester said the creation of an independent organization would have “more credibility with survivors, more flexibility to help our churches and more success in accomplishing the mandate given to us by the messengers.” But funding for the nonprofit remains a big question mark.
During the Dallas meeting, the task forced reportedly noted it was working to provide “definitive answers” to that question in June.
SBC presidential election: See Q and A with each candidate HERE.
Candidates for other SBC offices: Michael Clary, founding pastor, Christ the King Church, Cincinnati, first vice president; Brad Gaines, senior pastor, First Baptist Church, Ada, Okla., first vice president; Michael Pardue, pastor of First Baptist Church Icard, Connelly Springs (N.C.), second vice president; Wesley Russell, pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Pikeville, Ky., second vice president; Don Currence, renomination, SBC registration secretary; and Nathan Finn, renomination SBC recording secretary.
Resolutions and motions: Messengers approved changes to Bylaw 20 at last year’s meeting, which moved the timeline for submitting resolutions and working on resolutions and publishing a preliminary report.
This year, messengers were able to submit resolutions as early as April 1 and no less than 20 days prior (May 22) to this year’s meeting.
The committee is mandated to submit a preliminary report 10 days before the convention. For more information, go to sbc.net/resolutions.
Motions do not have to be submitted ahead of the annual meeting. They are made by messengers and request specific action by the SBC or one or more of its entities, according to sbcannualmeeting.net. B&R
