denomination

Some Thoughts on the SBC Annual Meeting 2023

I’m posting my thoughts intentionally several days after attending the SBC Annual Meeting. Taking several days has allowed me to process the events of last week and distill them thoughtfully. For those in the Wilkesboro area, I will be presenting a more detailed report at Wilkesboro Baptist Church on Wednesday evening June 21.

Historic

One of the more noteworthy events (at least as far as the news media is concerned) was the appeal of disfellowshipped churches to the convention messengers. Never before in annual meeting history have disfellowshipped churches appealed directly to the messengers for reinstatement. Those appeals and votes took place during Tuesday’s business session. The three churches that exercised their appeals lost the votes and were not considered in friendly cooperation. Two churches (Saddleback included) were disfellowshipped on grounds that they have women pastors and one church was disfellowshipped on the grounds of knowingly affirming a pastor with a history of abusive and/or immoral behavior. While the moment was historic in the sense of what took place, anytime churches are considered not in friendly cooperation, we should grieve.

Pioneering

One of the greatest aspects of being a Southern Baptist is our cooperative mission efforts. Through combined giving efforts, nearly 3,500 full-time IMB missionaries serve the nations with 79 commissioned this year in New Orleans. But there still remain more than 3,000 unreached and unengaged people groups in our world. Unreached and unengaged are groups (signified by language and culture) who have no access to the gospel. The IMB is recruiting 300 pioneering missionaries who will be making a two year commitment to seek out these unreached groups. Their mission will be to seek, discover, and learn where these unreached groups are in order to strategize mission efforts to these groups. This new initiative is an exciting way for Southern Baptists to be on front of international missions.

Conservative

One of the recent themes at SBC Annual Meetings has been the suggestion that Southern Baptists are drifting liberal theologically. That is just simply not the case. At this year’s annual meeting, the messengers affirmed in a number of ways the commitment to a complementarian view of church leadership. A complementarian view of gender holds that God created men and women uniquely and differently. Husbands are to be the spiritual leaders in their homes (Eph. 5:22-33), and the role and function of pastor is reserved for qualified men (1 Tim. 2:12-14; 3:1-7; 1 Cor. 11:5; 14:33-35). The alternative position of egalitarianism holds that while men and women may be distinct, they can both serve in any role in the church. The primary text that the egalitarian position points to is Galatians 3:28. After this year’s annual meeting, the conservative roots and trajectory of the SBC are evident. Led by theologically conservative presidents, SBC seminaries are training and sending out pastors to lead congregations from a theologically conservative viewpoint.

Tone-Deficient

Southern Baptists are unfortunately notorious for finding issues and topics to disagree about. Part of this is due to the SBC value of local church autonomy. The denomination doesn’t tell local churches how to function. However, this year’s annual meeting seemed hyper-focused on one issue–women as pastors. While I’m pleased with the conservative, complementarian direction (see paragraph above), I was frustrated by the tone-deficient constancy of the focus on women as pastors. With the afore-mentioned disfellowshipping of churches regarding this issue, there was an amendment passed on the issue, an edit made to the Baptist Faith and Message, and resolutions that addressed the topic as well. Being in the room this year felt as if we kept clarifying and restating what we already believe. It’s one thing to be clear and define the parameters of our cooperating relationships (this is what happened in New Orleans), but it is another to restate over and over again the same thing. Personally, I think much of this tone-deficiency could have been avoided with a little better leadership from the committee on order of business and the platform. I am grateful for the heritage of godly female ministry in the SBC (Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong) in my (my mom) and my church involvement (past and current women in ministry in the church).

Cooperative

Being a Southern Baptist means cooperating for the purpose of missions. I lost several of the votes I cast at at the annual meeting. And while there are things that frustrate me regarding our denomination, cooperating for the purpose of mission is worthwhile. SBC President Bart Barber, who was elected for a second term, preached one of the most gracious presidential addresses that I’ve heard at a denominational meeting. He was biblically clear while also reminding the messengers and guests of their need to look for what is lovely and right within our denomination. Cooperation requires a willingness to work together. We may not all think alike, believe alike, or hold certain doctrines as first order or second order doctrines. But we must look for the best in one another, the best in our denomination, and seek the glory of God through the spread of his gospel through our entities. One of our church mission partners, the Pillar Network, provides our church an opportunity to partner and network for cooperative mission goals. While I served as a messenger in New Orleans, Tad Craig, our Associate Pastor of Youth and Education at Wilkesboro Baptist, was leading a team of students and adults working with a Pillar Network (SBC) church to minister to the masses in New York City. When Baptists find ways to cooperate for the purpose of spreading the gospel, we are at our best.

Work in Progress

While we are farther along in implementing abuse reforms, we still have a ways to go. The implementation team rolled out this website to assist churches in protecting the vulnerable in our congregations. We ought to be grateful for the commitment of our denomination to keep working on this issue. Like this issue and our individual lives, our denomination is a work in progress. Until we arrive perfected in heaven, we must remain attuned and vigilant spiritually. As such, here are some prayers for our denomination:

  • That we will remain steadfast theologically and continue to train pastors, missionaries, and theologians for the upbuilding of Christ’s church and the spread of the gospel.
  • That we will develop an attitude of grace, patience, and generosity toward each other. We are too often known for our squabbles and denominational in-fighting.
  • That we will pursue humility and Christ-like gentleness instead of hubris. May we seek only praise for the name of Christ rather than praise for our own names.
  • That we will be faithful and fruitful in finding the unreached peoples of the world and obeying Christ’s commission to make disciples of all nations. Pray especially for the 300 pioneer missionaries the IMB will send out.
  • That we will seek and find points of agreement and cooperation even with those who may hold different theological positions than we do.

SBC ’21 Annual Meeting Reflections

I had the privilege this week of attending the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. I’ve been a Southern Baptist for my entire life and have been to denominational meetings since childhood. My education came from Southern Baptist schools, and my vocational ministry has been at Southern Baptist churches.

The 2021 annual meeting in Nashville, TN was memorable and important. Here are some of my reflections on the annual meeting.

Cooperation is vital to Southern Baptists. Southern Baptists are the largest evangelical denomination in the U.S. with 47,000 churches and 15 million members. The beauty of the denomination has been its commitment to cooperate together for the purpose of sending missionaries across the world and spreading the gospel to unbelievers. We can do more together than we can separately. In 1925, the denomination developed the Cooperative Program whereby churches can give through their Baptist State Conventions to the work of Southern Baptist entities in order to send missionaries (International Mission Board), plant churches (North American Mission Board), and support theological education and cultural engagement (6 Southern Baptist Seminaries and other denominational entities). The annual meeting this week reaffirmed the commitment of Southern Baptists to cooperate for the purpose of spreading the gospel.

SBC messengers demand transparency from its leaders. This year’s meeting was one of the largest of the denomination’s largest. In previous convention meetings, the SBC overwhelmingly affirmed measures to address sexual abuse among Southern Baptist churches. For example, churches that hire sexual abusers or cover up sexual abuse can be removed from the denomination. In recent weeks, critiques arose concerning how allegations of misconduct among churches have been handled. Going into the meeting, a plan had been put forward by the SBC Executive Committee to hire a firm for an independent investigation. While this move was welcomed by many, it carried an apparent conflict of interest (the Executive Committee would be hiring a firm to investigate itself). But in the meeting this week, a motion was presented to have the newly elected SBC president select a task force who would oversee how the independent investigation is to be handled. Overcoming a number of procedural hurdles, convention messengers overwhelmingly affirmed this motion to place the responsibility for the investigation outside the Executive Committee. This action by the messengers was a clear statement that rank and file Southern Baptists decry sexual abuse and demand transparency in how leadership will handle any and all allegations.

Southern Baptists are better in a room than some are on social media. The media and social media lead up to this annual meeting was considerable. Search media sites like The Washington Post for national media coverage on the meeting. If you are on twitter, you can search #sbc21 for more social commentary on the convention. One of the inherent problems with social media in general is that it is far easier to make an accusation or to post something vitriolic from a distance than it is to say something to someone’s face. As I read through twitter leading up to the convention, there was accusation, argument, and mischaracterization by individuals on different sides of the issues. This was disheartening. But that vitriol largely stayed on social media. The messengers in the room behaved themselves cordially, and there were no major divisive outbursts even though there were areas of stark disagreement. The lesson going forward is that Southern Baptists need to have more face to face conversations and guard their social media interactions with a demeanor of gentleness and respect.

Because Southern Baptists have great diversity, we don’t agree on every theological issue. The Baptist Faith and Message represents what Southern Baptists believe on key theological issues. But inside the framework of the Baptist Faith and Message, there is room for diversity of theological opinion. SBC ’21 in Nashville reflected this diversity through resolutions, motions, amendments, and various reports by denominational leaders. One issue that received a great amount of attention is CRT or Critical Race Theory due in part to a resolution made in the Birmingham meeting in 2019. At the 2021 convention, the messengers overwhelmingly affirmed resolution 2 on “The Sufficiency of Scripture for Race and Racial Reconciliation,” albeit after considerable discussion and amendment recommendations (see page 7 of the Tuesday daily bulletin ). The diversity of Southern Baptists precludes agreement on every issue. What I took away from the meeting, and what we need more of, is willingness to disagree agreeably when the issues are tertiary and not primary.

Southern Baptists remain theologically conservative. Another reason for the high attendance this year was election of the SBC president to follow J. D. Greear. The SBC President represents the denomination as a spokesperson, is responsible for appointing individuals to serve on committees that appoint entity trustees, and moderates the business sessions at the annual meeting. Four men were nominated, Albert Mohler, Mike Stone, Ed Litton, and Randy Adams. After the first vote did not see a candidate with more than 50% of the vote, Ed Litton was elected to serve as SBC president in a runoff with Mike Stone. Ed Litton is the pastor of Redemption Church in Mobile, Alabama. Mike Stone was the preferred candidate of a recently formed Conservative Baptist Network. While each of these candidates differ on theological issues, they each hold to the inerrancy, sufficiency, and authority of Scripture, the exclusivity of Christ for salvation, and the Baptist Faith and Message. Differences of application for handling racial, political, and interpersonal issues remain among Southern Baptists, but it is unfair and unhelpful to critique nuanced differences of theological application as liberal or moderate. After leaving the meeting, I’m convinced that our denomination remains theologically conservative. Some of you reading this may have preferred a different candidate or may think differently about some of the outcomes at the annual meeting. That’s ok. Reach out in the comments below. We’ll make time to talk.

The local church is the primary change agent for our denomination. Southern Baptist polity is congregational. Denominatioal leaders don’t dictate to the convention churches as in a hierarchical polity. Southern Baptists believe in the autonomy of local congregations. This is a blessing and was evident in the events of the business sessions. While Southern Baptists, like many other denominations are experiencing a decline, hope for change does not rest in denominational entities or leadership. Hope for change rests in the power of God working through local churches. Each local congregation is the body of Christ for its community and to the world. Denominatioal change begins with our local churches.

Here are a few of my favorite moments at the meeting. (1) I was greatly encouraged by the times of special prayer, especially seeing 13k messengers on their knees in prayer. (2) On Monday afternoon 64 missionaries were commissioned to the nations. One missionary left his dream job at NASA to take the gospel to the nations. May his example motivate each of us. (3) During extra sessions on Monday night and Tuesday night, I gathered at First Baptist Nashville for the 9 Marks at Nine Events. Before beginning the event, attenders sang congregational hymns acapella. The boisterous sound of a thousand Baptists singing praise to God was inspirational and worshipful.