By Brian Koonce
Baptist Press
The Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting drew an unofficial total of 8,183 messengers to Birmingham, Ala., outgoing SBC registration secretary Don Currence reported.
— Photo by Matt Miller
BIRMINGHAM. Ala. — The Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting drew 8,183 messengers to Birmingham, Ala., June 11-12, outgoing SBC registration secretary Don Currence said in releasing the unofficial total.
Official attendance numbers will be released later in June, Currence, of First Baptist Church in Ozark, Mo., said.
Alabama Baptist churches turned out in force in Birmingham; their 1,366 messenger total was the largest among the states. Nearby Georgia was second at 834 messengers, and Tennessee was third at 738. State-by-state numbers do not include guests, children or exhibitors.
There were nearly 2,000 registered guests plus more than 1,800 registered exhibitors, bringing the total to almost 12,000 in the second time the annual meeting has been in Birmingham; the first time, in 1941, saw an attendance of 5,884.
Newly elected SBC registration secretary Kathy Litton, director of planter spouse development for the North American Mission Board, will assume registration duties for the 2020 meeting in Orlando, Fla.
The unofficial state-by-state messenger registration numbers are: Alaska, 17; Alabama, 1,366; Arkansas, 239; Arizona, 52; California, 129; Colorado, 27; Connecticut, 2; Washington, D.C., 15; Delaware, 12; Florida, 579; Georgia, 834; Hawaii, 13; Iowa, 10; Idaho, 5; Illinois, 146; Indiana, 82; Kansas, 36; Kentucky, 480; Louisiana, 389; Massachusetts, 14; Maryland, 76; Michigan, 39; Minnesota, 3; Missouri, 263; Mississippi, 522; Montana, 7; North Carolina, 450; Nebraska, 4; New Hampshire, 3; New Jersey, 15; New Mexico, 42; Nevada, 24; New York, 35; Ohio, 115; Oklahoma, 155; Oregon, 10; Pennsylvania, 26; Puerto Rico, 11; Rhode Island, 2; South Carolina, 319; South Dakota, 10; Tennessee, 738; Texas, 515; Utah, 5; Virginia, 187; Vermont, 4; Washington, 14; Wisconsin, 8; West Virginia, 35; Wyoming, 5.
Messenger registration for last year’s SBC annual meeting in Dallas totaled 9,637.
