I am going to be in Des Moines on Friday and Saturday for the the Baptist Convention of Iowa 2013 annual meeting. It doesn’t look like ours will be particularly eventful this year. Last year was an anomalous and tumultuous year for the BCI, but this year looks to be a return to the norm.
I will mention if anything significant happens here over the weekend, but the trip got me to thinking and wondering – what is happening in State Conventions? Are they trending up or down in attendance? Are there a lot of issues? Do some of the issues at the national level find their way down to the state level?
What happened at your state convention this year?
The Missouri Baptist Convention was great (Oct 28-30). A very upbeat meeting focused on promoting Partnership Missions, Moving the MBC towards a 50/50 Cooperative Program split and hearing great inspiring preaching/teaching from Dr. Robert Coleman.
I agree with Allen. The MO convention was great we had the great joy of hearing from Robert Coleman, Thomas Schriener, Bruce Ware, and DA Carson. A lot of unity among MO Baptists as well. We had over 1,000 in attendance
Our Iowa Convention went very well, I thought. Really enjoyed seeing and hearing from Micah Fries. Lots of changes in the works, but it looks like we’re headed in the right direction, thanks to the selfless service of men like Dave Miller 🙂
As interested as I am and have been in the SBC, I have never attended a state convention meeting. So I got no news. Sorry.
Our State Convention meeting starts a week from tomorrow, but I won’t be able to go this year. I’m sure it will be fairly well attended and the preaching will be great. There are no controversial items that I’m aware of on the agenda.
Florida starts next on the 11th. We are celebrating Dr. John Sullivan’s 25th anniversary as Exec Director. There might be some fireworks in terms of the GCR’s insistence on going to a strict 50/50. There might be something else, but it is only a possibility. (spooky musical background beginning)
Haven’t ever been. My church supports the BGAV. Sadly this 190 year old state convention has slid off into liberalism. I hope one day we can move toward leaving the BGAV and uniting to the SBCV.
The BGAV did not “slide” into the deep end of the liberalism pool. The dive was a perfect 10 with hardly a cup full of back splash.
Long live the SBCV and the boys who brought her to be. They brought hope to the most liberal state convention in the SBC.
cb! You’re alive!
Agreed. Taking the long view that we’ll eventually leave it. Not a fight to pick right now. One battle at a time.
The Baptist State Convention of Michigan met last week and for the the 2nd straight year voted “No” to the proposed constitution. Most will admit that the document itself is not flawed. Instead, these votes reflect a clear rejection of the direction, vision, and leadership of the Executive Director of our state. He has forced out well-loved, highly productive and faithful leaders of our state, including our State Director of Missions and our Evangelism Ministries leader. This has and is hampering the work of our convention. There is a basic feeling of dissatisfaction, disillusionment, and disgust among the churches of our convention with the direction our state is heading. Please pray that wise leaders will see the situation clearly and demand change for the sake of Kingdom work in, among, and through BSCM.
The rest of the story is that Michigan Baptists have slid further and further behind over the previous decades. A Michigan pastor once said to me that when Southern Baptists went to Ohio, they went with a will to reach the people with the gospel, but when Southern Baptists went to Michigan, they went to start churches they were comfortable meeting in.
BIG difference — the difference between outreach and inreach.
The result can be seen in the differences between Ohio, which has become a main SBC state, and Michigan, which remains a “pioneer missions” state.
I have talked at length with several Michigan pastors and the state staff, and am convinced Executive Director Bobby Gilstrap is taking Michigan on an outward course, a course to expand God’s kingdom. (Remember also that NAMB’s policy change for financial support resulted in some of the personnel decisions.)
My question to the Michigan poster is, how would you do things differently from Dr. Gilstrap, that would result in a statewide outward focus? Figure that out, and talk with him, rather than about him. I am saddened to read you would rather fight than work together, since surely both of you want the same thing: For God to be glorified in what His servants are doing in Michigan. I think fighting doesn’t advance God’s kingdom.
Karen, you may be convinced. I am not… and from the last 2 votes at our convention meetings, neither is our state.
I do agree with you, though, that fighting doesn’t advance the Kingdom. Similarly, burying our heads in the sand won’t make the issues go away! Just as there may come a time in a church in which the pastor no longer has the support of the people he is shepherding, there can come a time in which the state’s leader no longer has the support of the churches of the state. That is the case here and now. I will not deny that some of the bigger churches of our state may support Dr. Gilstrap, but he truly is not leading our state. Basically, if you ask churches and leaders outside of S.E. Michigan, you will see the lack of support he has.
For the record, I never advocated fighting; I advocated that those in a position to do so would demand accountability and call for change.
(By the way, “NAMB support” is an often-cited and convenient excuse, but the truth is that it is an erroneous claim. NAMB would support a State Church Starting Strategist right now, but we don’t have one now. Why? Power and control would have to be ceded to this person, so it’s pretty clear why we don’t! But that’s OK, NAMB is a convenient scapegoat for all of our state’s changes and financial challenges.)
Speaking of scapegoats, just wait and see… I’m already hearing grumblings that a scapegoat(s) is/are being found for why the constitution failed again. It is time for our Executive Director to quit blaming others and recognize this for what it is: a vote of “no confidence”!!!
I’m not sure which workers you’ve talked with from the state staff because morale among state workers is at its lowest in recent history.
When enough disillusionment and disgust sets in across our state about the direction and leadership of BSCM, churches will just “check out” and distance themselves from our convention in their giving and participation and /or the exodus of talented Kingdom leaders will continue.
As for how I would do things differently, I would realize that the greatest resource Michigan Baptists have (beyond the Holy Spirit, of course) is people. When you fail to treat people right, you can not expect those people — or others — to rally behind you. This is Leadership 101. Showing respect toward leaders and empowering them to do their ministries would be a great start. Quit micro-managing. These would be just a few of the areas I would advise him on. … but then again, why would he listen to me when he has dismissed and been dismissive of others who’ve said the same thing to him already?!?
By the way, why do you think the constitution was not approved for the 2nd straight year (and this year by an even larger margin)?
I didn’t respond to your initial post to fight Bobby’s battles for him, Kyle. I agree that he is a micro-manager. But at least he’s doing something more than just appeasing everybody.
He’s got a plan. He was hired to refocus Michigan Baptists, so why not let him do it? Why not HELP him do it?
Your biggest objection to what Bobby is doing is that “he doesn’t respect people.” I am as guilty as the next person of being ego-centric, so I understand what you’re saying. Matter of fact, he once apologized beautifully and ever so sincerely to me when I confronted him. There is not a bit of meanness in him. I believe, however, that it is Bobby’s absolute passion for the cause of Christ and Michigan Baptists that makes him seem less than respectful.
I think he truly believes most every Southern Baptist pastor and leader in Michigan wants to bring glory to God through an expansion of His kingdom. That’s his focus; the people he thinks of as walking in step with him aren’t his focus.
If people feel he’s trampling over him, I think it’s because they think he has to go THROUGH them to get to his objective (which is to bring glory to God). The problem here, the lack of communication, is that he truly does not see them standing in front of him because he thinks they’re beside them.
I disagree with the implication of what you said — “Just as there may come a time in a church in which the pastor no longer has the support of the people he is shepherding….” I know of a church in the western U.S. right now where people wanting power are undermining a pastor’s leadership. But if God called that pastor there, should he leave just because some power-hungry folks want him out? Who’s in charge? God is supposed to be.
I agree with you that NAMB takes lumps for decisions state conventions make, but bottom line, NAMB says, “We’ll give you no more than $X. You can use it however you want, title your staff whatever you want, as long as they plant churches.”
Please be a peacemaker in Michigan, Kyle, so that everyone can focus on God’s Kingdom work.
Karen
Karen
The Dakota Baptist Convention met the last week of September (after the great blizzard convention of 2009, I would be surprised if we try to do another convention in November anytime soon). It was fairly well attended and mostly non-contentious. We did vote to adopt a fairly aggressive set of goals from now through 2020 which are not based on anything required by the GCR or NAMB but are instead the result of the work of our own task force and the recommendations we brought to the convention this year. I am pretty excited to see what God has in store for us in the coming years as we seek to “grow up” and take more responsibility for ourselves as a convention and partner in ministering to our states and beyond.
Did you hear anything about that guy they elected president?
I heard he was kind of a yahoo!
They elected an Iowa Baptist Yankee Fan? 🙂
Doug Hibbard – you are Quick!
I vote for you for next SBC President!
He’d actually have to attend.
But if he attends, I will nominate him for the meaningless position of 2nd VP.
If can get to Baltimore, we’ll see what happens. Anybody coming through AR want to give me a lift?
I do appreciate the sentiment. It would be the best assurance of protection that an SBC pres and 1VP could have.
In Arkansas, we voted to…well, I’m not sure. We heard from church planters, campus ministers, and children’s home folks about the work they all do. We heard about lost people saved, saved people set right, and people stepping forward to carry the Gospel.
We resolved that we appreciated people, resolved that we aren’t fans of marijuana, resolved that churches should reach all people, and resolved that the church should teach/uphold that marriage should be for life between one man and one woman.
We elected a guy named Archie as President–MABTS grad, I think. He’s a good guy, though Greg will be hard to follow.
We approved a continued shift of a little bit more to Nashville, and openly showed in the budget how much goes to “shared” items, with an explanation of what those were.
And we had some awesome cookies at the OBU Alumni reception.
I discovered the biggest problem in our annual meeting structure is that the coffee pots are packed up during the Wednesday AM session, which makes it hard for the low percentage that sticks around to the very end. Which I did for the first time, and may not if the COFFEE IS GONE NEXT YEAR!!!
Best line from the convention was from an older white preacher, challenging our lack of diversity, pointing out that “We told the next generation that the Gospel was for everyone, no matter their skin color. And they believed us. And then we do not show them churches that act like it.” It hit well.
Pastor’s conference had some sermons, but I didn’t go because I was helping run errands for the pastor’s wives’ lunch. I got Mark Dever’s sermon audios, but haven’t listened yet.
I also found my daughter a job for the upcoming year when she goes to the Evangelism Conference and ABSC next year.
Helped get some work started in terms of ministry on community college campuses in our area, connected a few people to other people they needed to talk to, and got my wife connected to our state newspaper to write a column for minister’s wives.
Also planned some evangelism efforts, Cooperative Program promotion efforts, and even swallowed my grumpiness and talked to a NAMB guy about getting our church involved with a couple of their projects. Talked through some next-steps for our association in our DOM-less existence, and shoved a few slackers at the distance learning recruiters from MABTS, MBTS, NOBTS, SBTS, and SWBTS.
I also ate some form of Pecan Pie-like treat at the SWBTS booth and almost signed up to go there myself.