Congratulations, Jared!
Jared received 66% of the vote and is the next 2nd VP.
Jared Moore was being nominated as I walked in the building. Now, Bob Pearle is nominating Don Cass, a pastor and former state ministry leader in New Mexico and Texas.
The vote was taken and results will come back soon.
Registration is at 5066, unbelievably low for a Texas convention. What will happen in Baltimore next year?
Jared,
Congratulations…and please promise only to use the chainsaw on the Enemy! I feel quite sure you will do a much better job than your Yankee supporting predecessor.
Liberal
Not to take anything away from Jared, but being elected on 451 ballots out of 5,066 messengers shows that there is a problem not only with apathy about making the pilgrimage, but there’s a problem with showing up when present.
Somehow, that’s just not right.
Anyway, all the best to Jared as he takes the reins from you, your excellency.
Behold Doug:
You are describing but one glaring example of how disassociated SBC elected and entity leadership is from people and pastors in local churches that support its work.
You make a good point, but in the messengers defense, things were running ahead of schedule. Many messengers were still in route.
So 4400 people were running late?
In that case, it is a consistent problem with the Wednesday AM session and the program committee needs to pay attention to it and move any voting back by a couple of hours, not start the session until after 9. Perhaps, if there is no business to schedule, like today, instead of accelerating the program, push it back. It was known last night that there was no business to schedule, so it could have been adjusted to start at 830 instead of 8. That would have bought more time.
How many more people, though, would have been there? I know it’s been a few years since I was at the SBC, but you’d have had to wait until at least 10:00 to get more people present.
You are right about the number of people in the main convention hall during much of the meeting. I sat through more of the convention this year than I usually do, but it is nearly impossible for me to sit through all of the meetings.
1. The posterior can only endure so much.
2. There are many other meetings going on at the same time.
3. We don’t have an unlimited budget to stay in the convention hotel. The time it takes to get back and forth to other hotels or homes and restaurants can make things difficult.
4. We have to get our children bathed and in the bed at some point.
5. I confess that boredom can play a role at times as well.
But I take heart in the fact that the convention is so much more than the meeting taking place in the main hall. The wive’s luncheons, alumni meetings, fellowship gatherings, etc. have a great deal of value as well. I wish that more churches would help their pastors finance the annual trip. The administration of our cooperative efforts are worth it, and the fellowship and encouragement for those who attend is priceless.
Amen, Matt, on all points!
Congrats Jared! I’m a little surprised given the name recognition of the other candidate, but I’m sure you’ll do well.
Well, congratulations. I was far off the mark in my prediction.
Here’s an observation: when the convention hall is mostly empty, a blogger, especially a Calvinist blogger can pull a lot of votes.
I’m guessing that even though the 2VP position is mostly worthless, folks who pay attention to voting patterns will get a message here.
I think a congratulation Jared is appropriate here. Pay no attention to the naysayers. They will always be. You won. Good job.
William, Debbie’s dig aside, I think you make a very important observation of a paradigm-shift in SBC life–the denomination in the age of the internet.
At least Jared is a pastor. I don’t think he will do a bad job as 2nd VP. He’s as good as anyone else I don’t know who was running. I’ve grown to be bloggily fond of my imaginary friend, Jared. It sort of ruins it in a way to see his earthly form and not know him simply by his writing.
Congratulations Jared.
But, let’s assume for a minute the 2nd VP is really an important position in SBC life–I won’t debate it one way or another–has Jared “proved himself” as Paul demanded to be a spokesman for Southern Baptists?
Not, is Jared a bright, hard-working, God-fearing, family-loving willing to do what it takes man? I’m convinced of all that by what I know–which admittedly is not much.
But, is that what qualifies one to be elected by a 16 million member denomination for a “top spot?”
Now, consider other top leaders of a major SBC entity–three years pastoral experience according to the online CV. That seems pretty slim pickin’s to speak for a denomination where being a pastor is, at least in theory, the main plank in the platform.
I truly congratulate Jared. As I’ve said, I’ve grown to respect him as a pastor and scholar. His stock value went up greatly when he admitted to driving the church van for VBS. I felt an immediate kindred spirit.
My point in response to William: I think you are correct that we are in the midst of a paradigm shift in SBC life. Now . . .
I’m a statistics junkie. Check my blog tomorrow for more on vote totals and their implications.
Exactly:
It is possible that campaigning on a blog site can result in a young pastor on the theological fringe of SBC life being elected to office.
In fact, one apparently needs only 500 possible voters and a few tweet alerts prior to a convention event for which there is interest only on the part of a few registered pastors and their buddies.
Hey…two heartbeats away from leading the selection of key committees is no position to smirk at even if it takes less than 10% of the advertised participation at the annual meeting and .08% of presumably active Southern Baptists and .003% of all claimed Southern Baptists to be elected for that position.
Not that the position is entirely symbolic and therefore meaningless or anything…
I think Fred Luter was 2nd VP under Bryant Wright(?).
The vote was early in the morning. I say that’s why numbers of registered messengers voting was low. Baptists are notoriously last minute/late people.
Houston is incredibly expensive. Flights over 400 bucks.
All that being said….the nomination speech for Cass illustrated in a perfect manner why a simple speech nominating a normal non mega church pastor is going to bring about future “shocks” like this. IMO.
There was no shock. I predicted that Jarod would win….if his nominator played up the young, small town, rural Pastor aspect…which he did. Many people voted for Jarod for that reason alone…to give some recognition and power to the small Church pastor….I didnt get to vote due to the buses running very, very late….my wife and I stood outside for an hour waiting on a bus to pick us up at our hotel….then, the 25 minute ride to the convention center….so, I didnt even get to vote on 2nd VP…but, congratulations, Jarod.
The low attendance was incredible….only 5,066! In Houston, Texas! This has to be one of the lowest attended SBC’s since the 1970’s. I’ve been to 22 SBC’s, and I’ve never seen one so poorly attended. What are we gonna have show up in Baltimore and Columbus? 3,000? less?
David
PS. BTW, I got to meet Randall Cofield and Chris Roberts, today….I saw waaaay too many bloggers to mention…..but, I never saw DWIGHT MCKISSIC!
The attendance drop is startling. We’ll be able to hold the SBC in Little Rock in a few years if this keeps happening.
Doug,
Not just in Little Rock, but also in Jackson, TN! Maybe even in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN…..
What do you think it is? I think it’s a number of things….apathy about the SBC(like the apathy people have towards the local Association); people dont like the way things are going in the SBC; people think it doesnt matter if they go, or not…things are gonna be the way they’re gonna be; lot of the older people not coming anymore…..
You know, something to think about….we’ve done all the things the experts said we need to do to get the younger crowd involved….changed the names of things…like the SBC; adopted the Great Commission Resurgence; we had panel discussions this year at the Pastors Conference; shortened the meeting times; etc, etc, etc. And, while I would have to say that there are more younger people attending….the overall attendance is shooting down….and, it has been for years….all the way down to the pitiful attendance we had this year in a SB stronghold like Texas.
What do you think?
David
David
David, in my opinion, I think many people are just aren’t interested. We see it somewhat in our association (maybe not to such a large degree) but we have usually at our annual meeting 1.5-2% of our total members? And we certainly could use some young people. I wonder where we’ll be 10-20 yrs from now at the current rate. It’s concerning.
We should do a survey here in the WCBA churches and see just how many of our members can name one resolution that was voted on by the SBC this year. I think we would be shocked.
Also, I would love to attend the SBC, but being bi-vo, it’s very difficult to get the time off to go. Several of my vacation days this year, were used up doing things ministry related.
Doug,
At this rate, Stuttgart might be a future possibility.
Houston is expensive and there is not much to see here. Maybe next year folks will tie a family vacation together with the trip to Baltimore. There are some folks around my house who would love to see the Hibbard clan there next year.
My pastor feels it is a waste of time attending the convention. This is disappointing. Why do we sent money to support it, if going to the “main” business meeting of the SBC is a waste of time? The dropping attendance needs to be addressed, as to the why?
Seems there is a choice: controversy and fighting or low attendance.
I’m willing to be that 99.9% of the folks in my church didnt even know that the SBC is meeting this week. Same goes for the other churches in my area.
I bet most couldnt even tell you how often they meet or what generally goes on.
I can honestly say the I can not recall one time in my life where I have ever heard it mentioned during a local church service I was attending.