Illinois pastor gives voice to concerns at SBC

Posted by Meredith Flynn

(New Orleans) — Dr. Richard Tribble, interim pastor of Emmanuel Southern Baptist Church in Decatur, Ill., has become a familiar sight on the convention floor in New Orleans. Tribble made four motions Tuesday morning, and spoke against the SBC’s name change recommendation in the afternoon.

Tribble’s motions asked convention messengers to:

1. Limit the use of the podium microphone during the SBC’s annual meeting, requiring those nominating persons for office to use the floor microphones.

2. Require those nominating officers to also communicate to messengers the Cooperative Program giving percentage of the nominee’s church.

3. Ask the SBC Executive Committee to prepare a manual that would set official procedure for replacing a sitting officer of the convention, even if the convention isn’t in its annual meeting session.

4. Move the SBC’s annual meeting to a date later in June that wouldn’t conflict with Father’s Day.

His frequent trips to the mic made Tribble a kind of hero to people who agree with him, and even those who might not, but still appreciate his bold voice. As we sat near the convention hall’s Starbucks, several messengers stopped by to thank him. One even made a reference to “The Trouble with Tribbles,” an old episode of “Star Trek.” Tribble laughed good-naturedly, and admitting that it is draining to advocate change from the convention floor, but it’s what he’s called to do at this convention.

“I believe the motions that I made addressed real needs we have in the convention,” Tribble said. “They weren’t frivolous, they were well thought out. They spoke to areas that need attention, and I pray that we will get attention because I made them.”