SBC annual meeting

Let’s all go to Columbus

Meredith Flynn — June 12, 2015

Midwest is host for Southern Baptist business, prayer next week

Columbus, Ohio | Missions, evangelism, and cultural impact will highlight the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention June 16-17, which also will emphasize prayer—“extraordinary prayer.”

In his year as SBC President, Ronnie Floyd has positioned the Columbus meeting as an opportunity for Baptists to pray together. The annual meeting’s theme is “Great Awakening: Clear Agreement, Visible Union, Extraordinary Prayer,” based on Romans 13:11. Floyd told Baptist Press he hopes Southern Baptists of all ages and ethnicities will attend and “rise to this moment in our nation calling out to God for the next Great Awakening in our nation.”

“We’ve got to understand that we need everybody,” said Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas. “I know historically and biblically there is no great movement of God that ever occurs that is not first preceded by the extraordinary prayer of God’s people.”

The prayer focus will culminate in a Tuesday evening Call to Prayer to be streamed on sbcannualmeeting.net and broadcast on the Daystar Television Network. “We will join together in the same room and around the world via technology for this one epic night of prayer,” Floyd blogged last month. “Plan now to adjust your dinner or fellowship to before this session or gather with friends after the session itself. Please let NOTHING
keep you from this extraordinary night of prayer together.”

Floyd also will host a discussion Wednesday afternoon on preparing churches for the future of marriage in America. Panelists include two SBC pastors, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore, Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler, and Rosaria Butterfield, author of “The Secret Thoughts of an Unchurched Convert: An English Professor’s
Journey into Christian Faith.”

On the Saturday before the Convention convenes, more than 140 projects and activities are planned for the annual Crossover evangelism outreach.

Sending Celebration
The North American and International Mission Boards will hold a joint missionary commissioning service during the Wednesday morning session of the Southern Baptist Convention. Along with celebrating the missionaries about to embark for their mission fields, the service also will celebrate the churches that are sending them.

“The mission fields we serve are unique and need to be approached differently; but the people we want to reach are growing more similar all the time,” said NAMB President Kevin Ezell. “The Sending Celebration is another example of the greater collaboration between IMB and NAMB.”

Musicians Shane & Shane will lead worship during the celebration.

Movies, meals, and an app
LifeWay Christian Resources will offer free screenings of two upcoming movies in Columbus.

“War Room,” the newest film from Alex and Stephen Kendrick, will be shown June 15 at 9 p.m. in the convention center. “Woodlawn,” a true story about spiritual awakening among high school football players, will screen June 16 at 9 p.m. in the convention center.

LifeWay’s The Gospel Project will host a light breakfast and panel discussion on different preaching styles and philosophies. The June 16 meeting begins at 6:30 a.m. and features Pastors H.B. Charles (Florida), J.D. Greear (North Carolina), Chip Henderson (Mississippi), and LifeWay VP Ed Stetzer. Register at Gospel Project.com/SBC15.

The SBC Men’s Breakfast is June 17 at 6:30, sponsored by the North American Mission Board and LifeWay. Speakers include Greear, Matt Carter (Texas) and Michael Catt (Georgia), along with LifeWay and NAMB personnel.

The annual SBC Ministers’ Wives Luncheon, featuring author Angie Smith, is sold out, but there are several other opportunities for women attending the Columbus meeting. The Pastors’ Wives Conference begins at 8 a.m. on Monday, June 15, at the Hyatt Regency, and a women’s expo area will be open prior to each of the events. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary will host “Tea at 3” on June 15 from 3-4 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency, featuring short messages from women in a variety of leadership roles.

The SBC’s two mission agencies will co-host the fifth annual Send North America Luncheon June 15 at the convention center. Ezell and International Mission Board President David Platt will discuss how the mission boards’ closer cooperation will serve Southern Baptists. Free tickets are available at snaluncheon.com.

Baptist21 will host its annual lunch and panel discussion on June 16 immediately after the morning session. Panelists, including Platt, Moore, Mohler and Charles, will discuss the most pressing issues facing the church. Register at baptisttwentyone.com.

Messengers can once again schedule their SBC activities with help from an app available for iPhone, iPad, and Android
devices. Search “SBC Annual Meetings” in the app store. Along with up-to-date schedule and speaker information, the app also includes a map of the exhibit hall, local restaurant list, PDF versions of the book of reports, daily bulletins, and SBC Life, and a list of area churches.

SBC messengers can register online at sbcannualmeeting.net. Each messenger will receive an eight-digit registration code to present at the annual meeting’s Express registration lane. Childcare for kids in grades 1-6 will be provided, as will hands-on mission opportunities for teens. Pre-registration is required at sbcannualmeeting.net under the “Children/Youth” tab.

SBC Annual Meeting information is from Baptist Press, online at BPNews.net. For more, including a schedule of the Annual Meeting June 16-17, read the May 18 issue of the Illinois Baptist online.

In Uncategorized Columbus, evangelism, Missions, Prayer, SBC, SBC annual meeting, Southern Baptist Convention

Three reasons to look forward to the Southern Baptist Convention

Meredith Flynn — April 16, 2015

Editor’s note: The following Trevin Wax column from BPNews.net first appeared on his Kingdom People blog, hosted at thegospelcoalition.org.

COMMENTARY | Trevin Wax

Summer is for vacations and, for many pastors, denominational gatherings. The Southern Baptist Convention is no exception. This year, we’re meeting in Columbus, Ohio, the 15th largest city in the U.S., one that is well outside of the Southeast where most of our churches are based.

In the past decade, though the attendance at the annual meeting has risen and fallen in conjunction with the location and the major topic of conversation (or controversy), the overall trend has been a dwindling of messengers. This isn’t surprising, considering the loosening of denominational loyalty and the variety of good conferences a pastor can attend.

But Columbus might buck the decline. Here are three reasons I’m particularly excited about this year’s annual meeting.

1. The annual meeting is trending younger.

In Baltimore last year, we saw a 10-year high of younger messengers involved in the convention proceedings. Baptist Press has reported that “nearly one-fourth (24.68 percent) of attendees were younger than age 40. That surpassed by more than 4 percentage points the previous best for the age group, recorded in 2013.”

My first visit to a Southern Baptist Convention was in San Antonio in 2007 as a 25-year-old associate pastor. I remember my initial shock at the small number of young people present. Recent years have seen an upswing in younger Southern Baptist engagement, a reality that is especially surprising when considered alongside the millennial generation’s diminishing enthusiasm for institutions in general. What this tells me is that the annual meeting is beginning to show signs of becoming a vibrant network, not just a report on denominational infrastructure.

2. The schedule of the annual meeting has been reworked in order to highlight the things we are most passionate about.

Few people get excited about a business meeting. Most messengers admit they come to network and see friends, not sit through every session of the SBC. But this year will be different, thanks to a reworking of the schedule under the leadership of the SBC’s president, Ronnie Floyd. For example, all the missions entities will present on Wednesday morning, and it won’t just be a time of reports, but also commissioning of missionaries.

The Send North America conference, slated by the North American Mission Board for this summer in Nashville, already has drawn more than 7,000 registrants, a staggering figure when you consider the fact that only one Convention since 2010 has come close to that number.

What does this tell us? Southern Baptists are hungry for a meeting that casts vision and rallies our people around a great cause. They’re not necessarily there, first and foremost, to vote on resolutions.

But resolutions matter. And so does our business. As Southern Baptists, we should care about the annual meeting, and we should care about this meeting because we care about the Kingdom of God. Business meetings come and go, with their moments of boredom and hilarity, awkwardness and quiet power, and yet in these moments, decisions are made, courses are set that define our cooperative work the rest of the year. It’s not glamorous, but the work of the Kingdom rarely is. This year, however, features a streamlined schedule that emphasizes what we’re there for.

3. We will pray for God to awaken His church to the opportunities before us.

The Tuesday evening meeting will be time of prayer and worship, a pleading with God to revive His people and empower our witness. It is easy to bemoan the moral decay of our culture, the encroaching limits to religious liberties and the difficulty of evangelism in a relativistic society.

But we shouldn’t miss the opportunity here. By cherishing once-common things, such as marriage between a man and woman for life, and core Christian doctrines, such as the exclusivity of Christ for salvation, we have the opportunity for our ordinary obedience to shine even brighter in a pluralistic world that bows to Aphrodite. The annual meeting gives us the opportunity to lay aside our differences, unite around our common confession and lock arms for the cause of Christ and His Kingdom.

Trevin Wax is managing editor of The Gospel Project, a Gospel-centered small group curriculum for all ages published by LifeWay Christian Resources.

In Uncategorized Columbus, denomination, Missions, SBC annual meeting, Southern Baptist Convention, young leaders

Floyd edges past two others for SBC pres, no run-off

Lisa Misner — June 10, 2014

Baltimore | Messengers to the SBC Annual Meeting have elected Dr. Ronnie Floyd to serve as President of the Southern Baptist Convention. He received 51.62% of the vote in a three candidate race.

Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY, nominated Floyd. Mohler said, “When Southern Baptists have needed Ronnie Floyd, he has always been there.”

Molher called Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, where Floyd is pastor, “evangelistic, faithful and innovative” and added that it is among the SBC’s top contributors to the Cooperative Program. Floyd has served in numerous SBC leadership posts, including chairman of the Great Commission Task Force, Mohler noted.

Floyd was one of the keynote speakers at the SBC Pastors’ Conference June 8-9 also at the Baltimore Convention Center. The only thing Southern Baptists should be known for is the “power and the glory of God,” Floyd said, urging preachers to make a commitment not to preach unless His glory is on them and they have heard from God.

In addition, he cautioned pastors about trying to be too “cool.” “Some of us have a heart to be so real with people that we just think if we’re cool enough, we’re going to get [the numbers],” he said. “We’re never going to be cool enough to win our towns, our rural settings, to win our cities, to win the nation, to win the world, to win the nations. We’re never going to be cool enough; the only thing that’s going to bring that is a binding movement of the spirit of God that comes only when we are going up to be with God.”

The two other candidates for SBC President, Dr. Dennis Kim and Pastor Jared Moore, received 40.70% and 5.91% each of the vote. 1.77% of the ballots were disallowed.

Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist in Arlington, TX, nominated Kim. “Could it be that God has sovereignly brought Dr. Kim into the life and legacy of the Southern Baptist Convention … for such a time as this?” McKissic asked. Global Mission Church in Silver Spring, MD., where Kim, a Korean American, is pastor, is thoroughly multicultural, McKissic said, adding that Kim would be the first SBC president not from the South. He called on messengers to vote for the candidate stating, “The election of Dr. Kim will signal our future.”

Bennie Smith, a deacon at New Salem Baptist in Hustonville, KY., where Moore is pastor, nominated Moore. “We are a small Baptist church, but I’m trying to speak for smaller churches,” Smith said. “The voice of an average person in our SBC would be valuable.”

Clint Pressley, pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist in Charlotte, NC, was elected first Vice President of the SBC by acclimation — there were no other nominees.

Pressley was nominated by Pastor Ted Traylor of Olive Baptist in Pensacola, FL who said he was a “team player.”

Traylor also called the younger man, Pressley a “weight-lifting, Bible-preaching, sharp-dressing Southern Baptist.”

Pressley is known to wear a seersucker suit on at least one day of the convention each year.

5,001 messengers were registered when the vote for president took place, but only 3,553 messengers voted.

With additional reporting from Baptist Press.

In Baltimore 2014, SBC, Southern Baptist Convention SBC annual meeting

Baltimore Oracles: Small numbers, big impact

Meredith Flynn — May 29, 2014

COMMENTARY | Eric Reed

Editor’s note: Leading up to the Southern Baptist Convention in Baltimore June 10-11, the staff of the Illinois Baptist will preview the annual meeting in “Baltimore Oracles,” a series of columns about SBC elections and key issues.

When there was but one candidate for SBC president, attendance at the Baltimore gathering seemed of little consequence in the outcome of the proceedings. The analysts would comment on the demographics and decline.

But now, with three candidates in the running, the convention promises a bit more of a horserace. And the headcount becomes more important.

The 2011 annual meeting in Phoenix is the lowest-attended in recent history, with only 4,814 messengers registered. Many would attribute the sad nadir to distance from the Southern-states home base – faraway conventions are rarely well attended.

And since 1985’s peak of 45,519 messengers in Dallas when Charles Stanley was elected president, there hasn’t been a political debate or theological wrestling match to draw ordinary church members in large quantities. Only the stalwarts have continued to make the annual trek, no matter how far from home the host city may be.

Attendance has declined steadily over the past two decades. When 7,484 registered in New Orleans in 2012, Fred Luter’s election as the first African American SBC president was the big draw and debate over renaming the convention received second billing. The following year, when it was thought the simmering dispute about Calvinism might boil over, only 5,103 showed up in Houston.

If the proponents of Reformed theology had put forth a candidate this year, then location and attendance could have significantly swayed a genuine two-man race. Location and attendance were big factors in Stanley’s win, when busloads of messengers from nearby states traveled to Texas to raise their ballots and secure conservative control of the denomination.

But after Southern Seminary president Al Mohler said he would nominate megachurch pastor Ronnie Floyd, it appeared there would be no duel over theology and no need to rally support from the Reformed bases near Baltimore. Convention attendance, except as a measure of personal investment,
wouldn’t be an issue.

Now, however, attendance becomes a factor with the announcement by Jared Moore that he will run against Floyd. With registration expected to be near record lows, a relative unknown running on a “small church” platform could muster a respectable showing when ballots are raised. And the late entry of Maryland pastor Dennis Kim makes every vote – cast in his home state – even more important.

It’s been a long time since the convention elected a president who wasn’t the pastor of a megachurch. Mississippi businessman Owen Cooper served two terms starting in 1973 with a win in Portland, Oregon, and only 8,871 messengers registered.

With the denomination’s recent voting history, such a dark-horse win seems unlikely. But the race for SBC president just became interesting.

In Commentary Baltimore, Baltimore Oracles, SBC, SBC annual meeting, Southern Baptist Convention

Baltimore Oracles: Math makes a difference

Meredith Flynn — May 28, 2014

COMMENTARY | Meredith Flynn

Editor’s note: Leading up to the Southern Baptist Convention in Baltimore June 10-11, the staff of the Illinois Baptist will preview the annual meeting in “Baltimore Oracles,” a series of columns about SBC elections and key issues.

Leaders of smaller Southern Baptist churches will be watching closely in June as the SBC Executive Committee considers a change to the denomination’s constitution. The article in question (Article III) governs how many voters – known as messengers – individual churches may send to the Convention’s annual meeting.

Here’s how Article III stands now:

Churches in friendly cooperation with the SBC can send one messenger to the annual meeting, as long as the church contributed any amount to SBC causes the previous year.
Additional messengers may be sent for every 250 members, or for each $250 given to Convention causes.

Under the proposed changes:

Churches may send a minimum of two messengers, provided they meetthe guidelines for friendly cooperation (including undesignated, financial contributions either through the Cooperative Program, toward Convention causes, or to Convention entities).
Additional messengers are based on contributions (one for every $6,000 or full percent of the church’s undesignated receipts, whichever results in more messengers).

Whew. What does all that math actually mean for churches? In the March issue of SBC Life, Executive Committee Chairman Ernest Easley explained the thinking behind the changes: The new version adjusts for inflation. The $250 figure was adopted 126 years ago. And the proposed wording is an opportunity to “lift up Cooperative Program as the preferred model of giving to Convention work.”

But what about smaller churches, some asked. Won’t the new giving standards make it more difficult for them to send additional messengers?

“…If the perception is that it will hurt small churches, this is DOA,” Executive Committee President Frank Page told EC members at their February meeting. “My heart is with small churches, and I don’t want anything that even seems to be in some way pejorative toward their involvement.”

The EC meets just prior to the Convention and will decide whether to bring the amendment to messengers for a vote during the meeting June 10-11.

Any debate surrounding the proposal, especially if it makes it to the convention floor, could have some bearing on the race for SBC president. Ronnie Floyd pastors a megachurch, while Jared Moore is from a smaller, rural congregation. Dennis Kim’s Maryland congregation of around 1,700 is somewhere in between.

If the conversation about messenger representation swings the momentum in favor of smaller churches or those in regions with fewer Baptists, Moore or Kim could gain some extra visibility at the Convention. If the measure doesn’t come up for a vote or passes without much debate, Floyd would remain the better known candidate with the most SBC leadership experience.

Math may make a difference when Baptists meet in Baltimore.

Previous Baltimore Oracles columns:
The Southern Baptist Convention’s new ‘traditionalists’
What a single-candidate election could mean for the SBC
Why geography matters

In Commentary Baltimore, Baltimore Oracles, SBC, SBC annual meeting, Southern Baptist Convention

Marriage Update: 19 states approve same-sex unions, one ban remains unchallenged

Meredith Flynn — May 27, 2014

THE BRIEFING | Meredith Flynn

Oregon and Pennsylvania became the 18th and 19^th states to approve same-sex marriage after judges struck down their states’ same-sex marriage bans May 19 and 20.

An Oregon appeals court denied a request to stay the ruling, and no appeal has been filed in Pennsylvania. In both states, the attorney general has said she would not defend the ban.

Layout 1 Earlier in May, Arkansas became the first southern state to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Arkansas joined the list of states in limbo between a judge’s decision and current law. In Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, the debate is over whether to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

Only one same-sex marriage bans remain unchallenged – North Dakota – after lawsuits were filed late last week in Montana and South Dakota. The Minneapolis attorney who filed suit in South Dakota told the Post he will do the same in North Dakota within six to eight weeks.

Same-sex marriages were scheduled to begin June 1 in Illinois after the passage of SB10, the “Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act.” But many counties began issuing licenses after Attorney General Lisa Madigan gave clerks the go-ahead in March.

According to a Gallup poll released May 21, 55% of Americans approve making same-sex marriage legal, including 78% of those in the 18-29 age bracket.

More news:

Baptist seminary criticized over admission of Muslim student
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson faced criticism this month when a blogger reported the school had admitted a Muslim student to its Ph.D in archaeology program. Patterson told the Southern Baptist Texan that the student “had had no other options for Ph.D. work in his field,” and that he hoped to win him to faith in Christ. Patterson also said, “We required that the student would agree with our moral standards while a student at Southwestern. It was no problem for him.”

The decision, which Patterson said he is responsible for, was debated online after Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson published the report on his blog. Trustee chairman Steven James said the board will discuss the issue at its scheduled meeting in September. According to the Texan, Southwestern’s website includes requirements for graduate-level courses including “a mature Christian character” and “desire for Christian ministry.”

Boy Scouts president stands by decisions made last year
Robert Gates, president of the Boy Scouts of America, said he supports the organization’s decision last summer to include openly gay participants, and would have extended the policy change to include adults too. But Gates, a former U.S. Defense Secretary, also said it’s time to let the issue rest, according to a report on ChristianPost.com.

“Given the strong feelings – the passion – involved among our volunteers on both sides of this matter,” Gates said at the organization’s annual meeting May 23, “I believe strongly that to reopen the membership issue or try to take last year’s decision to the next step would irreparably fracture and perhaps even provoke a formal, permanent split in this movement with the high likelihood that neither side would survive on its own.”

Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting to focus on prayer, revival
Restoration, revival and prayer are the themes of this year’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, scheduled for June 10-11 in a city known for its place in American and Baptist history. And baseball and crab cakes.

SBC President Fred Luter will preside over his final annual meeting as his second one-year term draws to a close. He told Baptist Press this year’s meeting theme is similar to last year’s – revival – with added importance given to prayer. The meeting also will include a Tuesday night revival service. “…We just come for worship and the word,” Luter said. “That’s it. No business will be conducted.”

Three candidates will reportedly be nominated to succeed Luter: Ronnie Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas; Dennis Manpoong Kim, pastor of Global Mission Church of Greater Washington, and Jared Moore, pastor of New Salem Baptist Church in Hustonville, Ky. Read more about the SBC Annual Meeting at BPNews.net.

In Briefing Boy Scouts, Culture, education, Faith, homosexuality, Marriage, revival, Same-Sex Marriage, SBC annual meeting, Southern Baptist Convention

Denomination’s decline is hot topic at Southern Baptist Convention

Meredith Flynn — June 18, 2013

Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter was re-elected to a second term during the denomination’s annual meeting in Houston last week. Luter is the SBC’s first African American president.

THE BRIEFING | Meredith Flynn

Southern Baptists arrived at the 2013 Annual Meeting in Houston expecting lively conversations about Calvinism and the Boy Scouts. But those issues took a back seat to a report released by LifeWay Christian Resources just before the convention, showing declines in baptisms, average attendance and membership in SBC churches across the country.

Concerns about the report and the denomination’s future were compounded by a low number of registered messengers in Houston – just 5,103 by the time the final total was tallied.

Just before the convention convened, LifeWay released the 2012 Annual Church Profile, which showed declines in baptisms, church membership, average attendance and total giving.

Almost every leader that stepped to a microphone or sat in on a panel discussion in Houston offered input on how to reverse decline in the Southern Baptist Convention. But their solutions didn’t necessarily offer hope that the downturned numbers will rebound. Rather, they encouraged Southern Baptists to look at the effectiveness of their own local churches.

“This is not a convention problem; this is a local church problem,” said David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, at a luncheon for young leaders. “To bring it a little closer to home, this is a pastor problem.”

Are we making disciples, are we multiplying the Gospel, Platt asked. “I want to lead out in this by example.”

Fred Luter’s president’s message rang out across the convention hall with a similar theme: Lord, send a revival, and let it begin with me! And, let us be unified.

“Lord, revive us and make us one like the early believers in Acts 2 where the Scripture says that the believers and Jesus Christ were all together in one accord, in one place,” preached Luter, who was re-elected in Houston to a second term as SBC president.

“Let me say that again, that the believers were all together in one accord, in one place and as a consequence, because they were all together in one accord, in one place, the Bible says they turned the world upside down.”

Do Baptists have the opportunity to change the world, even a world that may not recognize them for the cultural force they once were? In his report, SBC Executive Committee President Frank Page offered an optimistic outlook:

“Some have said that doing denominational work and being a part of a denomination in the 21^st century is like the Titanic, it’s headed for disaster. And the best you can do is rearrange the deck chairs,” Page said.

“I choose to believe that kind of analogy is not appropriate. I believe that we together can see victory moving forward and applying Christ-like selflessness, can see days of cooperation and days of victory ahead.”

Read all of the Illinois Baptist’s 2013 SBC Annual Meeting coverage in the current issue, online at ibonline.IBSA.org.

Other news:

Lottie Moon offering tops $149M
Southern Baptists did get a piece of very good denominational news: They gave the third-largest ever Lottie Moon Christmas Offering in 2012, sending more than $149 million to support International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries serving across the globe. The offering, more than $2.4 million more than the previous year, “is a reminder that missions is the stack pole around which Southern Baptists place their hearts, afire for the Gospel,” said IMB President Tom Elliff. Read more at BPNews.net.

Atheist group plans 1-800 hotline
Recovering from Religion, an atheist group in the U.S. and Britain, plans to launch a telephone hotline to offer advice and answers to spiritual doubters, CNN reports. In response to criticism that the 24-hour hotline is devised as a way to convert people to atheism, Recovering from Religion executive director Sarah Morehead said, “Most of the people who contact us are working their way towards disbelief, so of course we are very equipped to handle that. That is not the goal, though, or the job of the facilitators.” Read the full story on CNN’s Belief blog.

Majority says gay marriage ‘inevitable’
A Pew Research survey released this month found 72% of Americans say it’s “inevitable” that same-sex marriage will be legally recognized, compared to 59% who thought so in 2004. Of those in the nearly three-fourths majority, 85% are same-sex marriage supporters, and 59% oppose it. Read more at PewForum.org.

Book explores faith on the field

“Intentional Walk”, a new book by sports writer Rob Rains, explores the Christian faith of several members of the St. Louis Cardinals, including manager Mike Matheny and stars Adam Wainwright, Carlos Beltran and David Freese. The book, subtitled “An inside look at the faith that drives the St. Louis Cardinals,” chronicles the 2012 season. “These players realize how lucky and fortunate they are to play for the Cardinals and to play Major League Baseball in general,” Rains said, “but they also realize how lucky they are to have such a strong faith in God. Read the full story at BPSports.net.

In Briefing atheist, baseball, Faith, Fred Luter, Houston, international missions, Lottie Moon, Same-Sex Marriage, SBC annual meeting, Southern Baptist Convention

Southern Baptists head home after quiet days in Houston

Meredith Flynn — June 12, 2013

“Elizabeth, you can now exhale, my girl.” Fred Luter adjourned the 2013 Southern Baptist Convention with a smile, a word to his wife, and probably a sigh of relief. His first convention as president brought little controversy – a half-hour discussion on a Boy Scouts resolution was the most buzz-worthy topic. And, while fewer in number than in previous years, Baptists gathered at the George R. Brown Convention Center were focused on reversing the denomination’s decline, with a focus on true revival.

“Lord, send a revival, and let it begin with me,” Luter said in his last words to messengers.

Unofficial numbers show 5,103 messengers registered in Houston. Despite the low-key tone, trends emerged that could chart a new course for the SBC:

-Events targeted toward young leaders were well attended, allaying fears – for now – that the next generation is unengaged and uninterested.

-Under the leadership of new Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore, Southern Baptists’ policy agency could be marked by an emphasis on “convictional kindness.”

-The convention’s declining baptism and membership numbers are very real indicators of decline, but for the most part, the meeting kept a hopeful tone, buoyed largely by Luter’s good-natured approach to his time at the podium. Re-elected to a second term, he will play a key role in reigniting Baptists’ passion and commitment to cooperate together, as the convention looks toward the 2014 Annual Meeting in Baltimore.

The June 17 issue of the Illinois Baptist will cover all this and more – read it online this Friday and ibonline.IBSA.org. And thanks for following along these past few days. As they say in Texas (we think), So long, pardner!

Fred Luter and his wife, Elizabeth, are recognized by convention messengers Wednesday afternoon. Luter was elected to a second term as SBC President in Houston this week.

In News, SBC, Uncategorized Fred Luter, Houston, SBC annual meeting, Southern Baptists

Southern Baptist resolution calls for Boy Scouts leadership change

Meredith Flynn — June 12, 2013

HOUSTON | Messengers to the 2013 Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution this morning calling for Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to “remove from executive and board leadership those individuals who, earlier this year, sought to change both the membership and leadership policy of Scouts.”

The resolution doesn’t prescribe any specific action as related to continuing or discontinuing fellowship with Boy Scouts, but does “affirm the right of all families and churches prayerfully to assess their continued relationship with the BSA.”

A messenger from Florida moved that the Resolutions Committee strike a reference to churches who choose to remain in fellowship with Boy Scouts. The amendment was defeated. Debate on the issue last around a half hour, requiring the committee to move the second half of their report to the afternoon session. On the docket: resolutions on the Cooperative Program, WMU, prayer for the President, religious freedom, age discrimination in healthcare rationing, and America’s growing prison population.

This morning, messengers also approved resolutions for:

-Appreciation for the 2013 annual meeting

-Recognition of the Bill Graham Evangelistic Team

-Support for safe and healthy children’s ministries, and to protect children against sexual abuse, and

-Commitment to minister to people who struggle with mental health concerns

In News, SBC Boy Scouts, Houston, resolution, SBC annual meeting

Photo Gallery: SBC Annual Meeting, Day 1

Meredith Flynn — June 12, 2013

HOUSTON | The first official day of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Annual Meeting in Houston started with a joke from President Fred Luter (he pretended to bobble the historic gavel used to call the meeting to order). Luter kept the tone light throughout most of the day, but ended with a rousing president’s message that urged Southern Baptists to reach more people with the Gospel. Here, the day’s highlights in pictures:

Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Seminary, was part of a panel at the “Marriage on the Line” breakfast hosted by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. The meeting covered issues like same-sex marriage, religious freedom for churches, and recent Boy Scouts policy changes.

Reflecting his desire for greater ethnic representation in the Southern Baptist Convention, Executive Committee President Frank Page prays with African American and Asian leaders during his report.

At the Baptist 21 luncheon and panel, the discussion turned to issues that put the church at odds with the larger culture. Alabama pastor David Platt told the audience, “We can’t pick and choose when we believe the Gospel, which social issues we’re going to apply the Gospel to, and which we’re not.”

Richard Land, who served as president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission for 25 years, delivered his final report Tuesday as the entity’s leader.

New ERLC President Russell Moore answers questions at a press conference.

Russell Moore answered questions at a press conference before his first presentation as president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Frank Page (left) stood with the advisory team he appointed to study theological differences within the convention. The group’s work was “an attempt to start talking to each other, rather than about each other and at each other,” Page said.

Fred Luter laughs as Virginia pastor Mark Croston nominates him for a second term as SBC President. Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, was unopposed.

Adam Cruse, pastor of First Baptist Church, Mt. Carmel, Ill., closes Tuesday afternoon’s session in prayer.

Charles Billingsley, worship leader at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., leads convention messengers in worship with help from the choir from Houston’s Second Baptist Church.

“We need to understand that we’re in this together,” Luter said in his president’s address. “It’s not about your church and my church. It’s not about your ministry and my ministry. If’s not about your kingdom and my kingdom. It’s about all of us as Southern Baptists working together.”

Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., hosted a 9Marks at 9 session on “the current state of the SBC.”

Al Mohler, president of Southern Seminary, explains the Conservative Resurgence of the 1970s and 80s to young leaders gathered for 9Marks at 9.

In News, SBC Houston, photos, SBC annual meeting

Archives For November 30, 1999

Let’s all go to Columbus

Three reasons to look forward to the Southern Baptist Convention

Floyd edges past two others for SBC pres, no run-off

Baltimore Oracles: Small numbers, big impact

Baltimore Oracles: Math makes a difference

Marriage Update: 19 states approve same-sex unions, one ban remains unchallenged

Denomination’s decline is hot topic at Southern Baptist Convention

Southern Baptists head home after quiet days in Houston

Southern Baptist resolution calls for Boy Scouts leadership change

Photo Gallery: SBC Annual Meeting, Day 1

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Welcome to iB2

Writers

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Follow Blog via Email

Pages

iB2 News