Some random reflections before bed tonight.
1) This was an historic time, because the SBC took a huge step in racial reconciliation with the election of Fred Luter as president.
However, and I may write more on this later, we cannot allow this to be seen as the finish line in the process. There is a lot more work to do. Maybe one day a black man will be elected and no one will even mention his race. Maybe, one day black men will be candidates for the pulpits of white churches and be hired to those positions. One day, maybe we will have a seminary president or entity head who is Asian, or Hispanic, or African-American.
Until then, there is work to be done.
2) This was, all in all, a peaceful and encouraging convention. A lot of good is happening among us.
3) One new force in the convention is twitter. Tweeting is the primary means of communication and dissemination of opinion. If you wanted to know what was happening, you simply needed to open the SBC 12 app and watch the scroll of #sbc12 tweets and you would be informed, amused and possibly angered a few times.
4) Blogging is no longer the dirty little secret of the SBC. I’ve read several opinions about the election I was involved in and what it means. I’ve got my opinions, but for now, I’ll let those remain my own. But if I (or any other blogger) had run for office five years ago, the fact the person was a blogger would likely have had to be hidden. Alan Cross did not do so. He made it clear that I was involved at SBC Voices. Several of the entities are looking for ways to build rapport with bloggers. Things have changed for bloggers in the SBC.
5) Enjoyed meeting a lot of people. I know the convention is expensive, but I’d hate to see us go to online voting. The hanging out and eating together and fellowshiping is part of the charm.
6) Great line from a friend of mine today, about our Bloggers and Beignet gathering (which was a lot of fun). He said, “That is perfect. Both are puffed up and full of a lot of air.” That was great.
7) My apologies to Wade Burleson. He was making a movie and I walked through it wearing my lime green jacket on Monday night. My bad.
So, I may have more to say, but I will not be around SBC Voices tomorrow, or much on Friday. Thursday is our hang-out-in-NOLA day. I can spend the time with my wife or conversing with you. You lose. Friday, I’m flying.
I will set a couple of posts to go up tomorrow, but contributors, if you have something to post on Thursday or Friday, just put it up. Play nice, boys and girls.
From what I saw on the Twitter feed, the SBC live feed, and comments here and there, the only downside to the Convention was possible trouble with Tribble.
I hear the collective groan from a few of you……
Dave and Dale,
After NOLA 2012 I am changing my view on eschatology. I am now post-Tribble. Before the SBC2012 I was pre-Tribble, during the convention I was mid-Tribble.
Tim,
LOL!!!!
Dwight
I’m planning on going to next year’s convention in Houston. I want to see it with my own eyes, for only then can I say that nobody knows the Tribble I will have seen.
Okay–I’ll stop now. My own last name lends itself too easily to it’s own set of references……And I’m sure he’s a great guy.
Sounds like I’m a-Tribble.
Funny thing is: my parents had classmates that lived underneath us in married student housing in the mid-60s by that last name. They were good folks and saw her on fb day before yesterday and sent a friend invite.
Tim,
Good call. I’ll join you in the post-Trimble camp.
Mr. Tribble just called to say he resembles that remark.
My wife asked me, on the way out of the convention, if this had been the Tribble-ation period. Good thing I wasn’t drinking coffee at the time.
I had the opportunity to meet him. A nice guy, realy, just fired up about a few things. He would probably find these jokes amusing. He made a couple of good Tribble jokes himself.
Dave:
I agree about hanging out with people. This year the convention was a very productive time of encouraging other pastors and Christian workers.
We got to have a 2 hour conversation with a DOM and some guys from Kansas City about church planting and discipleship. Also got to hang out with a guy and his wife who has just planted a new church in a low income area of our city.
I went to the 9 Marks meeting Tuesday night, and it was great. Lots of young people dialoging about their churches and the future.
I believe that the Convention is going to get better in the years to come.
Does anyone know if a the audio is posted from the pastors conference? I would like to listen to Platt’s sermon but I can’t seem to find it anywhere (it may not be up yet).
Thanks
In years past, it hasn’t been posted. It can be purchased, I think at sbctapes.com
It being the audio in general–not Platt’s specifically.
Thanks Doug,
I had not considered that it would be sold. I know a few years ago they would archive the sessions online free for anyone to listen to but when I read your comment I remembered that for the last several years they had not done that.
I made this comment in another blog, but I’m trying to get thoughts on this:
What did you guys think about the motion to disclose executive salaries? And was President Wright out of order when he refused to let a messenger speak Wednesday morning and closed the business session with 5 minutes remaining although the messenger speaking about the motion had asked for permission to speak? It was dealing with the motion about disclosure of executive salaries. Coincidence? Just getting your thoughts, as it appeared that this motion was receiving some support by the floor through applause, etc.
What I heard of that motion was an idea worth considering, but as a motion it was stuck in an out-of-order zone.
Here’s the thing: the SBC Annual Meeting elects trustees to handle all of those types of business. Those who were in NOLA voted to allocate budgets overall, but did not vote on individual salaries or anything of that sort. Instead, by rule we empower the trustees of each entity to set those amounts and policies.
So, to get that info, you are going to have to get each entity board to disclose it, rather than move that the SBC disclose it.
I think that people, in general, would like to know for certain that CP money is not going to exorbitant salaries, and they’d like more than just a “Trust us, it’s not.” However, you can’t get past the structure–it would have to come from the trustee boards. And they may have standing policies against disclosure, which would have to be amended first. And those policies may be contractual, which means you would either have to grandfather in existing contracts or get agreement from existing employees to modify those contracts….
At best I think we could compel data from the SBC Executive Committee, but I don’t think it could be compelled from any other entity.
Dave:
It was a pleasure. At my age, that’s enough to say.
Blessings, brother. Happy to have been whatever part my vote played.
Enjoyed hanging out, Bob. It was fun. Someone has to keep an eye on CB, and you did your job.
Dave:
First of all, congrats on being elected 2nd VP!
I have just a small beef about the newness of Twitter and blogging. For some of us old fogies on the Internet, we would like to contest the newness of the significance of SBC blogging, especially in light of Frank Page’s election in 2006. Time Magazine wrote about it here:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1204271,00.html
I would also say that the 2009 Annual Meeting was the beginning of the Twitter revolution for Southern Baptists. I highlighted that in this blogpost (see point 8):
http://timmybrister.com/2009/06/26/reflections-on-my-first-sbc-annual-meeting-10-highlights/
I do think that blogging and Twitter played a role this year, but it is not new. Just had to throw that out there for old SBC bloggers like Marty Duren, Alan Cross, Wade Burleson, et al. 🙂
Incidentally, I sat in the hall before the 3pm session, for perhaps 45 minutes, and talked with Richard Tribble. He’s as nice a guy as you’d want to chat with, and we talked about a lot of things, including how God is moving in his establishing a new church amid 4 mobile home parks near where he lives.
I really felt bad that I stood about a foot behind his head when I spoke against his motion (I won’t describe it further than that) a few minutes later.