I know, we don’t have a pope and I don’t want to be one. I’ll bet Steve Gaines aged 7 years just trying to run this thing the last couple of years and having papal powers over this bunch would be like trying to herd autonomous cats with soul competency. I have no authority but I do what I can. I “type a lot.” (A guy at the convention saw my name tag and said, “Are you the guy who types a lot?” I said I was. He looked at me and said, “I’ve been praying for you to get saved!”) Let me type-type-type out some of my thoughts about SBC 2018.
I came into the SBC Annual Meeting with much fear and trembling – the pre-convention hostility had me thinking this thing might look more like Wrestlemania than a gathering of Baptists. It didn’t turn out that way. We had lively debates and some pointed discussions but in the end, our votes gave evidence that we are not as divided as we might have thought. I am not sure anyone thought the presidential election would turn out with the kind of landslide majority that it did. Other votes that were expected to be contentious ended in 90% or greater majorities.
Obviously, if you were on the losing side of those votes your perspective might be a little different – that’s majority rule and the democratic process for you, I suppose.
But there were a few things that I would change if I were king, pope, or could get hold of Harry Potter’s wand and knew some of those spells. I remember “Avada Kedavra” but I really don’t want to use that on anyone in the SBC. Really. I don’t! Not even the guy who is praying for me to get saved.
Steve Gaines was a fair and able president. I would think that even those whose positions lost did not go away believing they’d been treated unfairly. I never voted for Gaines for president. I supported David Crosby then JD Greear in 2016 and in 2017 I was too tired to make an appearance and hoist a ballot after the PC. But Gaines handled himself well. The criticisms and suggestions I am about to make are not meant to be pointed at him, because in general, they are multi-year trends that came to a head this year.
1. If I were the Baptist Pope, I would remind people of exactly what the SBC Annual Meeting is.
It is a 2-day business meeting – let’s not try to whitewash that. The business that we are there to do matters.
We have the Pastors’ Conference (great job, HB Charles) and SEND Conferences and ERLC conferences and all kinds of other get-togethers for Southern Baptists. The annual meeting is a business meeting. We are there to do the business of the SBC.
I suspect that falling numbers in recent years caused us to try to create interest in the Annual Meeting by putting other things into the schedule. Those other items we insert are interesting but they are extraneous to our purpose. I realize that what I am suggesting may not increase attendance but if someone wants to be entertained then the SBC Annual Meeting is likely not their cup o’ tea. You are there to work, not to be entertained.
If the idea of listening to entity reports, voting on the budget of the SBC, working through the EC recommendations, and dealing with resolutions is boring and unpalatable for you, then being a messenger to the Annual Meeting may not be your best choice.
Having said that, I say the following.
2. If I were the Baptist Pope, I’d do away with (or severely cut back on) panels, extra speakers, and other program fillers that distract from our business.
I agree in principle with the work of Dave Ramsey, but we devoted a LOT of floor time to enlisting people for his programs. A half-hour speech (or more) one day and a panel the next. There was a lot of time devoted to patriotism and to politics, with both the governor of Texas and the Vice President of the United States. These things took up a lot of our valuable time. Every minute we devote to other stuff is time we don’t have for the stuff we came to do.
3. If I were the Baptist Pope, there would be MORE time for messenger input, motions, resolutions, and all of the stuff that makes our convention messy.
Augie Boto said that we are the largest unscripted business meeting in the world. (I think I got that right.) And what we do can be awful messy. During the Patterson debate, there was one speech that people are still trying to figure out. Was this person for or against? Just killing time? Confused? People get up and say ugly things. Embarrassing things. Confusing things. They introduce motions we will never vote on and resolutions that will never see the light of day.
But that is what we are here for.
We are there to do business. Give messengers more time to speak. More time to debate. More time to challenge nominations. More time to ask questions. More time to offer amendments. I am not talking about unlimited time, but 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there would give people the sense that their voices had been heard.
4. If I were the Baptist Pope, there would be MORE time for the questioning of entity leaders.
I was just unfriended and blocked by every entity leader with whom I am friends on Facebook or Twitter. They now officially hate me.
I was sitting just behind that Rager fellow (aptly named?) when he attacked Karen Swallow Prior and the ERLC in the dying moments of the last session on Wednesday. Dr. Moore gave a brilliant response. I wasn’t in the room, because my wife and I didn’t feel up to standing in line to go through security for the VP address, when the seminary reports were given. But I am told Dr. Bingham, the interim at SWBTS, answered some tough questions very well.
I understand that the Q&A is not the favorite moment of the year for entity heads, but it is a unique feature in Southern Baptist life. Our entity leaders stand and take questions from any messenger who goes to the mike.
And as much as they may hate me for even suggesting this, I think this benefits the entities and their leaders. They are generally brilliant at answering questions. Combative questioners often slink away with shoulders slumped after the answers they receive from the stage.
5. If I were Baptist Pope, the IMB commissioning service would be given the highest priority slot in the convention.
If this seems to contradict everything I have said, then I have not spoken clearly. The business of the SBC is missions. I love NAMB and Kevin Ezell, but in my mind, the work of the IMB is our highest priority as a denomination. The fact that we give 51% (approximately) of our national CP receipts to the IMB would indicate that the SBC agrees with that.
Is the Tuesday night slot considered a primetime slot? I don’t know. When the afternoon session runs as long as this year’s did and we have to wait an hour or more for a restaurant and the wait staff is overwhelmed, it is hard to get back to convention hall for all of the evening’s activities.
I don’t know exactly what slot to give it. Maybe we move the IMB commissioning to Tuesday, just after lunch and just before the elections. Spread out rest of the business. What a reminder that would be before we vote for president! This is why we are here. But the IMB commissioning service should be primetime, front and center!
6. If I were Baptist Pope, the entity reports would be highlighted.
Okay, let’s admit it. They are often boring. Oh, I remember a few that were riveting, but entity reports can be snoozefests. But remember why we are here. We vote the budget and we elect the trustees and they are telling us how they are doing. Perhaps we need to give the entity leaders some parameters so that they don’t just put a good face on things but tell us exactly how things are going.
The best entity report I’ve sat through in recent years was David Platt’s when he told us what a financial mess the IMB was in. He was both honest and forward-looking. That is the kind of report we should be getting. That is the kind of report we should be demanding. We should be asking penetrating questions to keep entity heads accountable. These should be more than just pep rallies, but real reports about what is happening at our entities.
7. If I were the Baptist Pope, the exhibitor’s hall and convention hall would have some new rules.
Let’s get to the important stuff here.
- If you are giving away t-shirts, for the love of all that is holy, realize that 3xl and 4xl are not rare requests in the SBC. People! I went to booth after booth on Monday and was told, “We are out of everything larger than a large.” It is anti-Baptist discrimination. We have potlucks and potlucks produce 3xl and up preachers. Ask Guidestone.
- If you are giving away candy, at least 1/2 of your candy by weight and volume MUST be dark chocolate. I am tired of combing through all the Kit-Kats and Mr. Goodbars to find a few cherished dark chocolates.
- Coffee is not meant to be served on ice. Whoever served coffee on ice should be sent a letter of reprimand and if it happens again, be banished.
- This one is for the convention hall. The thermostat must be set above 27 degrees Fahrenheit. People, if I am cold, it is cold. If you can see icicles forming on people, adjust the thermostat.
Okay, numbers 1-6 may have been of slightly higher importance.
Honestly, I thought it was a pretty good convention. But I think we’d do better to give more time to business – that’s why we are there. Again, if you hate business meetings, you can hang out in the Exhibitors’ hall or tour the city. But when we gather, let’s not be ashamed of what we are – the largest Baptist business meeting on earth. It can be unsightly, unseemly, and ungainly, but in the end, we often get things right.
Let the SBC be the SBC.
Great article Dave! We missed the IMB commissioning service because it ran so late. Childcare will only hold your kids so long! Also, the extra speakers need to go! Even though Dave Ramsey gave the pastors free coffee and snacks we do not these speakers during convention!
The phrase “autonomous cats” is redundant. Who ever heard of a cat that truly recognized anyone’s authority?
Great ideas here. This was my first convention in a few years. I’ve attended about 10. There was a time that we ran ahead of schedule. This year, everything ran late. Every speaker, went overtime…especially the “special” ones. Every schedule item was allowed to go overtime. The one thing that wasn’t allowed to go over was the time for motions, debate, and amendments. You are right, we are there as messengers (not delegates) from our churches. We are there for business. When we allow extra time for everything, but close the final time for motions while people are standing at… Read more »
Well, at least one guy is praying for my salvation!
We will probably never be able to accommodate every messenger but it would be nice to try
I can quibble with the temp, I’d rather be cold than hot. I actually like northern Illinois weather better than North Carolina.
But 1-6, can I second? It is a business meeting and should be treated like one. I go for the business, not a conference. More time for motions, questions, discussions, etc.
The day I wore a suit, I was fine.
I’m with you Dave. I was disappointed in the schedule, and not just the thing with the VP. We had two Dave Ramsey commercials, but shut down people who traveled hundreds of miles to make a motion or speak to something. If we have time for Ravi and Ramsey then we should have time for messengers to speak. It is a business meeting. We betray our values when we allow time for the other nonsense.
To be fair to Dave Ramsey, his exposure is an effort to influence enough pastors and churches so that giving is increased. He didn’t invite himself. I’m all for sbcers getting out of debt.
Then put Dave Ramsey’s wares in the Exhibit hall, Lifeway could sell them for him and leave the time for important business or debate. We would have been better served to have the Commission service in Ramsey’s spot. If there is a Baptist let alone a Southern Baptist, who does not know Dave Ramsey and his advice, they must have been living in the woods for many years.
As for the special price he offered, Lifeway or whoever could have put a huge Sale sign in front of his box set.
I didn’t disagree with anything gbhe said. I just thought that was t the best time for that. I’d rather heard from other messengers than from Ramsey twice.
I was very upset that Pence was allowed to disrupt everything. This was one of the most important Conventions in several years, and I was hoping Sam Rainey’s fine article would be heeded. Fortunately it did not upset the vote, but we could have used that time as Luke said or in prayer and reflection, or both. That upset me deeply when late Monday night we found out Pence was coming. God is able despite.
I am not against Dave Ramsey at all and I would agree that debt is likely one of the biggest obstacles to giving. What he does is good.
But i am guessing that if you put a stopwatch to it, the Ramsey speech and the panel probably had more floor time than all of the messenger business sessions combined.
That is my objection to the VP speech as well. It prevented messengers from attending (if they couldn’t stand in line) and took up time.
My point…we come to do business.
Agreed, Dave.
I too was concerned about the logistical nightmares but actually my concern there was proven unfounded as there were not lines to speak of – and the ones that did exist moved quickly and were much shorter than the ones at the restaurants.
When was the panel? Do you mean the between-sessions talk he and Rachel Cruze gave during the lunch break Wednesday?
That’s an amazing insight Dave. The time he spoke probably was more than when actual SBC’ers spoke. That’s a great observation.
Am I the only one who thinks Ravi and Ramsey sounds like some punk/country fusion duo?
For the schedule: 2 sermons: President and Convention Sermon. IMB Commissioning Service. Entity reports, including adequate time for questions and no more than 20% of the time of the report being delivered with videos. I can watch videos at home, quit sucking up your time showing the same video you already emailed everyone. If you need a video to show what is happening on scene (Seminary construction, disaster relief, okay) then short. But it’s a live person gathering and if we are not interacting live but watching movies, we blunt the point of being there. And that’s it. Put entity… Read more »
If they are the dark chocolate variety, I rescind my objection.
Dark chocolate must be a Yankee-fan thing. How much must you hate life to want your chocolate bitter too?
Dark chocolate isn’t bitter – it’s bold. Aren’t we all called to be bold? Then our chocolate (and our coffee) should be as well.
Yes!
1-6 are great. I affirm them completely!
However if I wanted to eat tree bark I would go out in my yard and eat tree bark… Leave the dark chocolate someplace else!
Cooler is 100 times better than hot!!
I’m shrinking down and can wear a 2x now – but I still prefer a 3x in T-Shirts. (Hoping to soon be down to XL!
(I did get 3x at IMB and NAMB booths though. The imb one I got on Wednesday)
I didn’t attend the convention, but followed it closely online, and agree with Dave’s insights. On the Dave Ramsey time slot, perhaps the planning committee could consider a separate evening session on day one for those who wish to hear his presentation? We had these at a women’s conference I attended last week, and found them to be valuable, and well-attended.
I like that idea a lot. The only quibble I had with Dave M.’s post is the idea that Dave Ramsey’s program info was off-point. It wasn’t business-meeting business, and it wasn’t directly SBC (more para-church), but the Financial Peace principals really can be applied by churches directly toward the SBC mission- to be on mission in our local churches! To give $ to CP and fund NAMB and IMB work alike! If anything, his time (which should have been kept shorter) was more in line with SBC business than the political speeches or even Ravi Zacharias’ message (and I… Read more »
Having Ravi speak was the worst decision by far. He was a total snoozefest and I won’t name names, but I saw an entity head and also a former SBC president sleeping about halfway through the talk(I know this because i was sitting right behind them). It was pointless and added nothing to the time we spent together and I’m a big fan of apologetics. It took away from our IMB missionaries and forced many people to get up and leave before the most important aspect of the annual meeting occurred.
I am not involved in planning conventions, but I believe that perhaps the thinking is, “let’s get this big name or that here as a draw so people will attend.” I find it a distraction from our business.
I completely agree with you Dave.
I vote for number 7. Good to see you there.
It was good to see you as well.
Agreed!
I’ve never understood why the IMB report and service was held in the evening. It should be right after the order of business committee report on the first day, prior to the first vote, when more messengers are in the room than at any other time. I also watched the webcast and thought having the gentleman touch the speaker to let them know when they needed to wind down, though he didn’t show up when Dave Ramsey and Steve Gaines went on and on and on well past their time. The webcast was a great way to see things up… Read more »
Seems like FMB/IMB always had one of the evenings. Used to do a parade of flags, quite a spectacle, but now security concerns have dampened all that. Things have changed. I didn’t make it back for the IMB time. Greear’s COB, and he gets to hand pick this bunch, should look at this and work with IMB to find a more favorable arrangement. On nominating speeches, it’s easy and appropriate to have flashing lights or the time policeman. But, what do you do when it’s a guy who is supposed to lead a prayer moment who tacks on a sermonette… Read more »
The nomination committee lost the vote on the ERLC because the ERLC Trustee chairman gave a much better argument from the floor than the Nom Com did from the platform – they were not well prepared to defend their controversial action at all. The SWBTS trustee motion failed because Barry McCarty strongly implied it would be a terrible decision and then of course Bart Barber gave the speech of the convention, plus it was such a long shot motion anyway.
Sounds like excuses to me, but this is not the place.