This year, the SBC’s annual meeting was held in Birmingham, Alabama with nearly 8,200 messengers representing the more than 47,000 SBC churches throughout the United States. Every year, these messengers gather together to handle the business of this convention of churches, hear reports from our various entities, ask questions, become informed and educated, and meet up with brothers and sisters from around the nation. In many ways, the annual meeting is like a giant family reunion and world’s largest business meeting rolled into one. Don’t let that discourage you, however – it’s nowhere near as bad as it sounds!
I’m thankful for the thousands of Southern Baptists – the overwhelming majority of whom are average people from average churches – who willingly volunteer some of their time to serving our national convention of churches by being messengers. While some treat it like a vacation, most of the time the hall is filled with messengers listening to reports, reading resolutions, thinking about how they are going to vote on upcoming motions, and praising the Lord through song and the sermons that are sprinkled throughout the day. I was especially thankful for the five other messengers from Faith who attended this year: Andrew and Sarah Valentine, Judy Shearer (all of whom have attended other annual meetings in the past), Lisa King, and Marie Babcock (the latter two attending their first annual meeting this year). Not matter what challenge was presented (just ask them about what they were!), these individuals met them head on with joy and dedication. Brothers and sisters, these folks not only represented you well – they represented their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ well. There were early mornings and late nights, but I never heard a cross word or snippy attitude from any of them.
Each year I go to the SBC annual meeting is a chance for me to be amazed at God’s providential guidance. Please allow me to share some examples. As I was walking through the exhibit hall this year, I stopped at the booth for 20 Schemes (www.20schemes.com). The young man working the booth saw on my name tag that I was from Michigan and said, “I just preached there yesterday!” Turns out, this young man is being considered for a family pastor position at Monroe Missionary Baptist Church, one of our sister churches in Monroe, Michigan. This seemingly random conversation produced an immediate connection between us, with me being able to provide Scott some information and connections here to make his transition easier. Another booth provided me with some very promising ministry connections for our anti-trafficking ministry here at Faith. One More Child (www.onemorechild.org) is a ministry that includes anti-trafficking resources. The conversation I had with the two men there was both encouraging and will produce Gospel fruit in our efforts to see this horrific assault on the imago Dei stopped in our city, state, and hopefully world. These are just two examples – I could fill a few pages with just such experiences!
I know that some people question whether our participation in the SBC and attendance at the annual meeting is worth it. Let me say unequivocally: it is! I believe that every member of the church should attend at least one annual meeting in their lifetime (for those of you interested, here’s the upcoming schedule: 2020 – Orlando; 2021 – Nashville; 2022 – Anaheim; 2o23 – Charlotte (NC, not MI); and 2024 – Indianapolis). Of those who have traveled to the annual meeting with me over the past several years, I have never heard anyone say, “What a waste of time.” To the contrary, I have heard people encouraged, challenged, invigorated, refreshed…and ready to do it again in the future, Lord willing! Over the next few weeks, you’ll be seeing some thoughts in this section on the specific aspects of the business and issues that were wrestled with by the messengers this year. As you read through them, I think you’ll see that the annual meeting is not fluff, it’s not a waste of time, and it’s not something that the churches that form the SBC should ignore or write off. Rather, the decisions made by the Convention have long-lasting and important ramifications. Those decisions, however, are only made by those who are “in the room.” The only question is, who is that going to be? Just something to think about…
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