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 Okay, here’s a few random ramblings from the SBC Annual Meeting last week. This was my first time attending the annual meeting, despite growing up Southern Baptist, graduating from two SBC seminaries, and being involved in Southern Baptist churches for most of my life. All in all, I’m glad I attended and plan to continue this level of involvement in the future. With that said, here’s my thoughts from my three days in Nashville:

Day 1: Monday, June 14, 2021

1) Sure, there's lots of anger and angst on the internet but there's lots of love in the room. Could it be that we're made for face-to-face interaction, not digital grenade-launching online?

2) The IMB Sending Celebration was phenomenal. To hear from 60+ men and women who are going to the nations was incredible. I was moved to tears more than once. This is why I've been a Southern Baptist for almost my entire life.

3) On that note, it was sad to me to see how few single men are willing to use their singleness to take the Gospel to the nations. Out of all the singles we commissioned last night, I think every one was a lady. Praise God for courageous sisters. Lord, give us courageous men!

4) The acapella hymn sing at First Baptist Nashville with 9Marks at 9 was phenomenal. Total fire.

5) Mark Dever's reminder to that group was my biggest takeaway from the day: What happens in your church this Sunday is more important than anything that happens in the SBC over the next few days. Praise God! Let's be faithful to serve and lead our churches well! 

 

Day 2: Tuesday, June 15, 2021

1) With God's help, I'll never complain about a long business meeting again! We started at 8 and finished day 1 of a 2-day meeting about 12 hours later. That said, if you expect to maintain Baptist polity in a denomination with approximately 50,000 churches, it's gonna take a long time to get anything done. That's just the way it is.

2) I left the meeting with INCREDIBLE respect for outgoing SBC president J.D. Greear. He led a sometimes rowdy crowd of 15,000+ with gentleness, firmness, humor, and grace. Well done, sir.

3) It is clear that most Southern Baptists are very concerned about our Executive Committee. After recent accusations of mishandling sexual abuse, the messengers sent a resounding message that the EC has a lot of work to do to regain trust among the denomination.

4) It is also clear that most Southern Baptists are very concerned about sexual abuse. Sadly, this has been a problem in some SBC churches. The messengers made it clear that we will not turn a blind eye to this evil.

5) The flurry of accusations on Twitter and the media that Southern Baptists are "going liberal" are completely ill-founded. This is a denomination of people that are committed to the inerrancy of Scripture and the urgency of the Great Commission. Sure, we disagree on some things. But as H.B. Charles reminded the crowd at 9Marks at 9, we agree on most things and we agree on the most important things.

6) There is a right-wing group within the SBC that appears hellbent on doctrinal witch hunts. Many of them are sad and angry tonight because they did not win the day. Pray for them. Pray we can figure out a way to work together, even if we don't agree on everything.

7) Not every vote went my way today, including my choice for president. I would've loved to see Dr. Mohler, the president of my alma mater, win the SBC presidency. Instead, the convention elected pastor Ed Litton from Mobile, Alabama. I'm committing to pray for Pastor Ed and for the Lord's blessing on his leadership for the next two years. In the church I pastor, not every vote goes the way everybody wants either. Sometimes motions are put on hold because it's obvious we're not unified enough to proceed. Sometimes people speak against a motion but it passes anyways. What do we do when that happens? We remember the essentials that unite us and move forward in Christian love. With God's help I'll do the same as a SBC pastor.

8) The media was looking (hoping?) for a dumpster fire of a meeting today. By God's grace, they didn't get it. Pray that the same is true tomorrow as we conclude another full day of important business.

 

Day 3: Wednesday, June 16, 2021

1) Today I made a point to spend time with a few friends from WAY back in my Mid-America Seminary days. Loved the fellowship with these brothers!

2) It was pretty exciting to hear about some of the initiatives that Southern Baptists help support. Things like "Send Relief," which does disaster relief all over the world and "Go2," which encourages college graduates to spend their first two years post-graduation serving a church plant in a strategic world city.

3) It was an honor to attend a luncheon with alumni and friends of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, my alma mater. I was able to reconnect with several old friends and a former professor. It was great to hear Dr. Al Mohler say "I'm okay," even after losing his bid for SBC president.

4) This afternoon the convention voted on a resolution condemning abortion. (For those not familiar with SBC polity, a resolution is not a binding decision. It's basically just an opinion statement adopted by the messengers of that particular meeting.) Although I care deeply about the sanctity of human life, I did have multiple concerns about this resolution. Chief among them was it's condemnation of incremental steps to make abortions less accessible (things like heartbeat bills, partial-birth abortion bans, etc.). The argument of those in favor of this resolution was that we should only support laws that outlaw abortion entirely with no exceptions. To me, this would be like saying 170 years ago, "We will not rescue any slaves unless we can rescue every slave." Incremental steps are not perfect, but they save lives. Nevertheless, the convention adopted this resolution (with a slight amendment to soften the language condemning incremental steps). I voted against this resolution. NOT because I don't care about the unborn but because HOW we fight for the unborn matters just as much as THAT we fight for them. That said, I think the adoption of this resolution makes two important points. (1) The internet buzz that the SBC is going liberal is straight nonsense. There is no liberal drift in a denomination that adopts a resolution that condemns abortion as fiercely as this one did. (2) The SBC is a diverse group of Baptists. We don't always agree on everything, but we agree on the main things. So even if I would have condemned abortion slightly differently than this resolution did, I still stand behind its condemnation of abortion as the greatest injustice in human history.

5) Once again, the SBC messengers sent a strong statement of support to survivors of sexual abuse and of rebuke to the Executive Committee amidst allegations of mishandling abuse claims. The convention approved a motion to not allow the EC to oversee its own investigation of itself. This is just common sense. If accusations have been made against you require an investigation, you shouldn't have the authority to police said investigation.

6) All in all, I would say it has been a very positive experience attending the SBC Annual Meeting for the first time (despite being a Southern Baptist for most my life). I am leaving with a commitment to be even more engaged for the sake of our call to take the Gospel to the nations.