Wilkey
One good thing about not having a printed issue immediately following the SBC annual meeting is I have an opportunity to think about all that transpired during those two packed days in Indianapolis.
I won’t rehash the business itself. We have numerous articles on the website from the annual meeting as well as a good wrap up of events from the SBC, some of which have not been on the website yet.
I originally was going to focus on “keeping the main thing the main thing” or “it is all about the gospel” because you hear numerous variations of those phrases throughout the convention and we should. That still needs to always be our goal, but the convention also is about the messengers.
After all, the annual meeting is for the messengers who represent the Southern Baptist churches that “pay the bills” through their Cooperative Program gifts.
When messengers or even convention leaders go to the microphones they don’t always understand that secular media will be looking for any comment they can turn into a sensational story or headline. The messengers are just expressing legitimate concerns or seeking answers.
As a result, just look at some of the headlines (mostly from secular news outlets):
“Al Mohler doubles down against IVF (in vitro fertilization), Trump verdict” — The Tennessean
“From women pastors to sexual abuse to Trump, Southern Baptists have a busy few days ahead of them” — U.S. News & World Report
“Southern Baptist ban on women pastors fails in historic vote” — USA Today
Messengers raise their ballots during the 2024 SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis. —Photo credit: The Baptist Paper
I have to comment on this one. It is a very misleading headline. Southern Baptists overwhelmingly (91 percent affirmative vote) unseated a historic Virginia Baptist church whose position on women pastors is in direct opposition to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. The headline referred to the vote on the Law Amendment over amending the SBC Constitution. Though Baptists disagree over whether the amendment was needed, they agree that Scripture is clear that the office of pastor is to be held by a man.
Though our focus indeed is the Great Commission, the secular world is likely to miss these headlines as reported by Baptist media outlets:
“Service celebrates 83 new missionaries”
“Ezell celebrates large baptism increases across the U.S.”
“Thousands hear the gospel; many respond during Crossover”
All of these headlines or a variation of them represent articles in this paper, but we also include the additional news articles that reflects what the messengers consider important.
If it was up to me, we would never have resolutions because they eat up valuable minutes at every SBC annual meeting as messengers often tend to want to amend the resolutions. Resolutions are non-binding and represent the views of those at the particular convention. Yet, resolutions and motions are important to the messengers. More than 50 motions were made this year.
Messengers have the right to express their opinions and they deserve to be heard. These two days in June are the only time messengers can gather in a national setting and express themselves.
For years, I have advocated that the national SBC meeting should be held every two years simply due to the money spent by Baptists.
The city of Indianapolis estimated that this year’s annual meeting had an economic impact of $20,169,855 (according to Jonathan Howe of the SBC Executive Committee). Think of the impact on “the main thing” if millions of dollars could be channeled every other year to the mission field.
I still think the idea has merit but I also realize that those committed to ministry in the SBC (whether ministerial staff or the people in the pews) need a time where they can gather and see and hear for themselves how their Cooperative Program gifts are used and to have input on these matters. Annual meetings will continue to be the norm, at least for the immediate future.
My prayer is that Southern Baptists will find ways to express themselves so that God is glorified in such a way that a lost world can recognize that He is the main thing. B&R
