For the last ten years since I began to serve the Middle Baptist
Association I have attended the Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptists
Convention. The SBC is a large network of churches that are in friendly,
willing and voluntary cooperation with one another. There is no hierarchy. If
there is any power in our denomination it is concentrated in the local churches
which comprise it. Every church is permitted to send messengers to this annual
gathering, provided those churches are contributing to the Cooperative Program.
The Cooperative program is the pooled giving of SBC churches that is distributed
to help support our missionaries, seminaries and other SBC entities.
The SBC Annual Meeting is like an Associational Annual
meeting on steroids. It lasts for two days. It is primarily a giant business
meeting with a lot of entity, seminary and niche luncheons. There is also a
large exhibit area where the displays of the entities (IMB, NAMB, ERLC, LifeWay,
Executive Committee) and seminaries are located. Other ministries and vendors
have exhibits there as well. Many groups plan gatherings around the Convention
prior to the event. I am a member and officer of SBCAL (Southern Baptist
Conference of Associational Leaders). This nationwide group of Association
Leaders gathers for networking and learning on Sunday and Monday morning prior
to the SBC.
I am often asked about resolutions that are made or
considered at the SBC Annual meeting. Here is some information I shared recently,
edited for this format: Resolutions at the SBC are non-binding public
statements adopted by messengers. A little over 8,000 of the 15.2 million
Southern Baptists registered and attended the SBC Annual meeting in Birmingham.
Lately, several of the resolutions have discussed issues of race. Here's what I see driving these kinds of
discussions if I view people's motives with grace:
1. The SBC had a very poor historic track record on
issues of race. We were founded to allow slave owners to be commissioned as
missionaries.
2. Currently the SBC doesn’t reflect the racial mixture
of the US population in its churches and entity leadership. That will only
change by bringing deliberate attention to it.
3. Closer to home few MBA churches attempt to reach
minorities even though 50% of 2 of our counties are comprised of minorities and
we have zero African American churches identifying with us. I’d like to see
that change. I am grateful for examples I see of cooperation in places like
Millen BC and Newington BC (to name a couple).
4. According to Pew Research*, ALL denominations skew
toward imbalance racially, but my impression is that's not healthy.
5. I'm more comfortable using biblical concepts than
political language to frame these discussions.
6. Resolutions are essentially non binding discussion
starters and public positions of seated messengers.
7. The SBC as a voting body appears for 2 days, once a year and then goes back to being 46,000 congregations who are mostly unchanged by resolutions.
7. The SBC as a voting body appears for 2 days, once a year and then goes back to being 46,000 congregations who are mostly unchanged by resolutions.
I’m grateful to be a part of our great big tribe. It’s imperfect.
How could it not be? I think assigning the highest motives to people we have
empowered to lead is a good practice. Our Trustee system helps provide good
checks and balances. Any member in good standing can sign up and attend as a
messenger for their church. Next year the SBC meets in Orlando, FL. There is
plenty of time to sign up and attend.
*https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/27/the-most-and-least-racially-diverse-u-s-religious-groups/
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