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Home > Baptist and Reflector News
Reflections Generally speaking, the 2008 meeting was fairly routine — no major issues arose to disrupt the sessions. Several things merit consideration. Hunt elected president Messengers elected a well-known conservative pastor Johnny Hunt on first ballot. That may have been the biggest surprise — not that he won, but that an election with six candidates did not require a run-off ballot as many observers predicted. Hunt, by all accounts, is an excellent preacher of the Word. He has preached numerous times in Tennessee and other states, so his popularity exceeds his home state of Georgia. Hunt is closely identified with the conservative resurgence, but then all six candidates were strong conservatives. Some question the fact that Hunt’s church, First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga., gave only 2.2 percent ($393,798) of its undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program. In his nomination speech for Hunt, Florida pastor Ted Traylor focused not on CP giving, but the $3.3 million the church has given for SBC missions, which includes CP, contributions to the two mission boards, and the Georgia Baptist Convention. I have nothing against him. He’s popular among Southern Baptists and has earned his shot to serve as president. But remember that two years ago Frank Page was elected on the basis of his church’s strong support of the Cooperative Program. Let’s hope Hunt’s election does not send a signal that giving through the Cooperative Program is not important. Without all churches giving together through the Cooperative Program, there would be no national convention. Registration One distressing thing about the convention is that attendance continues to decrease. Messenger registration was the lowest since the convention met in Phoenix in 2003. Not only did the 7,277 total fall way short of the 8,630 who attended in San Antonio last year, it was about 1,400 below the registration when the convention met in Indianapolis just four years ago. In fairness, there was terrible weather in the midwest, but did it really keep that many messengers away? If anything affected the attendance, my guess would be the cost of gasoline which in some places exceeded $4 per gallon. The outrageous cost of gas no doubt kept some messengers away. Keep in mind that this was an election year for the presidency and there were six announced candidates. If that was not an incentive for messengers to attend, what will it take? I have written this before and will continue to do so. Convention leadership needs to seriously consider an annual meeting every two years. It would not take away from the election of a president. Most presidents are re-elected for a second term. If for some reason, the president did not want to serve the second term, the vice president could move up and take over the helm for that second year. Several millions of dollars would be saved, not just money from messengers who attend, but the money that would be saved by the convention itself and all the institutions that send employees to staff exhibits and hold alumni gatherings. Money saved every other year could be directed to missions causes. If gasoline prices continue to soar, attendance will do nothing but continue its downward spiral. As it is now, our business is being decided by a small fraction of the membership. Having the annual meeting every two years could increase the number of messengers who attend. Kudos on decision I must confess that I do not always agree with the decisions of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee, but I must applaud their decision not to establish a database of sex offenders. The Executive Committee provided two valid reasons for not doing so. First, the report noted that “it would be impossible to assure that all convicted sexual predators who ever had a connection with a Baptist church would be discoverable for inclusion on such a list.” The report also stated that a Baptist-only database would likely omit sexual offenders coming to SBC churches from other denominations. That is true. And, how many churches would actually report an offender? The Executive Committee recommended that Southern Baptist churches access the U.S. Department of Justice’s national sex offender database, calling it the best resource for protecting congregations against employing known sex offenders. I find it hard to argue with that point. Basically, churches need to do a better job of screening potential staff members. Don’t rely just on recommendations given by the prospective employee. Do a thorough background check, followed up by phone calls to people who could be described as “non-listed references.” Some may see the Executive Committee action as being weak, but I really think it is sensible. The government database should be more thorough than what we could develop. Combine that with a more aggressive effort from churches and hopefully we will see fewer and fewer stories of ministers abusing our children and youth. The wrong issue? One of the most talked about subjects at the annual meeting and at the Pastors Conference which preceded the annual meeting was the fact that baptisms in the convention are continuing a downward spiral. Messengers also tackled the topic of “regenerate membership” by adopting a resolution encouraging churches to tighten up the church rolls. Quite frankly, churches should do a better job of keeping their membership rolls updated. It would not surprise me to find that members who have been dead for years are still listed on membership rolls of Southern Baptist churches. But before we do a purging of the lists, let’s consider this statistic I heard. To be honest, I don’t remember if it was presented during the discussion on the resolution or if it came from the Pastors Conference which preceded the annual meeting. But the number was tossed out that the SBC has a membership of 16 million people but on any given Sunday, only six million are in church. That is astounding to me. When 37.5 percent of our membership does not attend church, it suggests that our real problem may not be evangelism. There appears to be a serious discipleship problem. When I was a kid, Southern Baptists had a strong “Training Union,” in which adults and children were taught doctrine and other aspects of what it meant to be a Christian and a Southern Baptist. Even as a child I knew what the Cooperative Program was. Today, many Southern Baptist adults have no clue as to what it is and why it is important. If we were able to find just half of the 10 million on our rolls who do not attend, get them back into church and disciple them, evangelism would take care of itself. Our number of baptisms would increase each year instead of decrease or just “hold steady.” Maybe it is time the Southern Baptist Convention made an all-out effort not just to evangelize but to go that extra mile and disciple those who make decisions. Keep in mind that the Great Commission instructs us to “make disciples” and that involves more than baptizing and adding numbers to a church roll. [ Back to B&R Home ]
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Another annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention has come and gone.
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