My simple opinion: “No.”
Seems like just last year we were agonizing over the fact that no one wanted to attend the annual meeting any more. Attendance was down. Interest was flagging. God has a sense of humor and the SBC provides plenty of occasions for a good laugh.
We’ve had this covered for 175 years. Everything moves along as needed. Budgets and funding may be approved by other bodies. We still have officers and trustees. The Cooperative Program rocks along as it has. Our system is deliberately designed to preserve the status quo. It’s a good and wise system. Absent absolute, mindless, nonsense the SBC at the national level doesn’t drive local church activity or decision for the most part. We autonomously do what we autonomously want to do.
No entity is in such a state that the annual meeting cancellation would affect their day-to-day operations.
Resolutions don’t mean diddly squat in my opinion, other than to fuel insider outrage and stir a disgruntled minority. It wouldn’t matter if the 2020 convention rescinded, enhanced, or didn’t touch last year’s CRT/I resolution. It’s all opinion. We would be better off postponing resolutions until 2121.
The convention in session could have expressed an opinion on the SBC Executive Committee’s vote to investigate the ERLC. I don’t know that they could stop it and no report or action was planned until later this year.
If any reform candidate were elected president, that would be significant but it wouldn’t change anything immediately other than who gets to crow.
The annual statistical report would be the same, since it would report 2019 data. We will get the report anyway and I suspect it will be lamentable with, perhaps, a slight increase in baptisms.
If there was such a mind for the convention in session to change budgeting or the nominating committee report from the floor, that would be significant. Other than a few stray changes here and there, this has never been done to my knowledge. A simple majority vote by the convention in session can change major items. Thank God the SBC is a deliberative body where real people meet in a real place and cast physical votes.
Many of those who cry that the SBC sky is falling are ecclesiastical anarchists, cheap populists, rabid conspiratorialists, and shameless crisis hawkers. That’s my sagacious, serene, and savvy opinion, anyway. I alliterate when necessary.
Baptisms have been trending down for two generations. The SBC entities can’t do much about this. It’s all retail church work, a pastor leads his church of 10, 100 or 1000 to reach his community.
Church attendance in general has been declining in America, and not because of anything the SBC is doing or hasn’t done. It isn’t impacted by the latest SBC political events.
The Cooperative Program is almost a century old. Trends for cooperative vs. societal giving are consistent and long-running. There is no instant change formula for that other than to precipitously change the SBC CP Allocation Formula. It would create chaos to do that from the convention floor but it can be done.
If we had a decade of reform elections, like the Conservative Resurgence, we could see significant changes in time. Whatever the reformers boast, one might be reminded that all the megapastors of the CR promised but didn’t move the baptism numbers.
Look at it this way – we get 15 months to fuss and fight before the next meeting. Sweet!…for those Southern Baptists who like such things.
We could, and should I suppose, consider it all providential.
William, while hunkered down in his basement survival bunker. Toilet paper holding out fine. Still have some frozen chicken pies. Dandelions can be eaten, I understand, but I just pulled them all. I’m a bit skittish about eating wild mushrooms. Looks like a good year for my wife’s blueberry bushes but I could use some ice cream.
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The cancellation matters to airlines, hotels, restaurants, Uber drivers, etc. I’d expect that some SBCers who made plans to attend have laid out money they can’t get back.
I expect that Voices will have a series of articles on the meeting cancellation. Mine is first, not because it is better but because I get up earlier than my colleagues. I look forward to what they have to say.
