OK, so I wished we could have had all winners and no losers for #SBC18 but, alas, didn’t happen. There were many winners though. Here they are:
J.D. Greear: The election wasn’t close. The Convention coalesced around a next-generation candidate with a stellar church growth and mission support record. OK, so he talks so fast I have to try and understand what he’s saying while catching only every third or fourth word. I’ll manage.
Ken Hemphill: Quality and integrity from crown to cowboy boots.
Women in general and not just in the context of abuse.
SWBTS trustees. The absolute and ultimate vindication by the entire SBC in annual session (it doesn’t get any higher than that), enhanced by one trustee deciding to be open and transparent with the convention assembled. I don’t doubt that all of our trustees ‘trust the Lord’ but wish more would embrace transparency and ‘tell the people,’ as did…
Bart Barber SWBTS executive committee trustee who spoke plainly and forcefully about the Patterson decision. He was obviously nervous and understandably so. But why him and why not the others? No doubt the Hatley motion would have failed anyway but it’s about time for trustees to be more open and transparent with those who pay the bills…which brings up…
Jeff Bingham, SWBTS Interim President. Had the hottest seat for questions from the floor. Did great. Trusts the trustees. That’s the gold standard.
Social media. Pass all the resolutions you want against social media in general but this is how folks get their information. If it’s not always pretty or proper it does force conversations out of hallways and back rooms.
Next generation Southern Baptists. I still don’t get the tattoos and other oddities about these brethren and sistren but this is where we are. Generational change is good. Did you take a taxi or an Uber? I’m curious about the messenger survey results. Looked like a younger crowd and the codgers have been sniffing that the younger SBC pastors and others just weren’t into mass meetings and such.
Cooperative Program. OK, so the numbers are down. Convention results should prove positive (one hopes). Lots of factors at play, though.
Minority participation and diversity. Evidence abounded at the meeting. Let’s hope the politician debacle didn’t do any lasting damage. I suspect we can have Trump/Jeffress/Graham along with all the ethnic SBC subgroups only if we don’t kick the latter in the teeth as happened Wednesday.
Southeastern Seminary, which is not above bragging about their grads being SBC president and first vice president this year. That’s what we SBCers do, brag a lot.
Wait staff all around the convention center, at least when I was doing the tipping. I came late in life to the position that it’s good to be an above average tipper. This parson repented of his earlier parsimoniousness. I can’t speak for the other ten thousand or so convention attendees.
Augie Boto, unexpectedly pressed into service as SBC Executive Committee interim leader. Did a great job.
Bellevue student choir, super.
New system for keeping speakers within time limits. If you were there, you need no more explanation.
The Vice President’s Secret Service detail. Efficient, professional, polite.
There are more…you may think of them. I don’t have every good thought that ought to be thunk.
Streaming Technology. Without it, I would’ve been left to watch Twitter opinions exclusively.. This is the first year I watched the proceedings from my desk. I wonder what the traffic stats looked like.
I also liked the crowd shots when votes came up.
Mark Terry was a winner, too. I was blessed to have two conversations with William Thornton and one with his daughter, Christy, a PhD student at SEBTS. Skinny jeans were a big winner, though not worn by me. Diversity was also a big winner. The first SBC meeting I attended was in Dallas in 1975. The SBC messengers are lots more diverse these days. Hurray for that. Suits and ties were losers this year. Back in 1975 the men wore suits and ties, and the women wore dresses. Everybody looked more comfortable this year.
Here Here Mark. I was 19 however in 1975, just sayin. 🙂 I feel very good about the meeting this week. I am excited as everything I believed was good for all(men, women, children, people of every race not white, immigrants etc.) happened in one swoop this week. Wow. I have followed the Convention for about 13 years online and have never seen what I was privileged to participate in and see this weekend. Except for more praying that I wished would have taken place as described in Sam Rains excellent article, I don’t think it could be topped.
I saw several guys in skinny jeans whose bodies were shaped like mine and who NEVER should have chosen skinny jeans.
I would add transparency as a winner. After the initial Patterson settlement was undone and he was sent packing in total, this convention looked like it would be an all out war. After the letter from PP’s ex chief of staff’s wife, the EC had to respond. They did, and it eased many concerns including mine. And with the Hadley resolution at the convention, it was the transparency of Bart Barber that led to true unity in the convention. There is no way you get that vote turning out as it did without the additional sunlight that was shed on the situation. It should be a lesson to all our entities, and a lesson to us to expect it, from those who do work for and represent us. Trust the trustees, but as we just witnessed, when the trustees do come forward with more info to clarify things, what a few weeks back looked like a division that was going to be difficult to overcome, disappeared.
This was my first convention in person, so I was unaware that keeping speakers on time was such an issue that we had to hire a mobster to correct it. But desperate times I guess …
Also as a fist-timer, I was surprised by the youth and diversity there. Pleasantly surprised. Expected more grey hair and cowboy hats (not that there’s anything wrong with either.)
The memes about that guy were hilarious
As I was watching the webcast, I noticed the gentleman come up and tap the speakers on the shoulder when their time was up. It seemed to work. I also did not see Kie Bowman listed here, though I thought that, of all of the speakers at the SBC, he had by far the most difficult job.
I understand the emotions surrounding the SWBTS trustees, and why there would be some admiration for Barber’s statement. But goodness, the trustee board was put together by Patterson using the influence he has gathered over the years because of his role in the Conservative Resurgence. He’s had a blank check in that regard, and the things that Barber described, attempting to remove trustees he didn’t like, or individuals who crossed him, or working to separate those he sees as enemies from their jobs, or firing an employee because he dared agree with Ed Stetzer, have been going on for decades. But that’s been OK with the trustees up till now. At least the messengers see the importance of supporting the trustee system. Related to that is the issue regarding the trustee from the ERLC from Kansas-Nebraska Convention who was going to be denied a second term because he supports Russ Moore. That got knocked down as well.
The only winning move is not to play.
Now that goes back a while, lol
Would add that all Southern Baptists and all former Southern Baptists were winners. I think Southern Baptists have been wandering in the wilderness the past forty years. Two spies put fear in the hearts of the people, made a god out of the Bible and the denomination turned from its special destiny. The conservative clique of the circumcision and its nationwide network of cronies are finished and done. Grace is back and the yoke of oppression is lifted. These are exciting days ahead. Am so excited about the future. FRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDOOOOOOOOMMMMMM in Christ!
Wow.
Delusional. Our commitment to the Bible hasn’t changed, Jerry. Neither has our appreciation for the fact that the SBC did not follow the tendency of other denominations to drift to liberalism and spiritual decay. Take pot shots all you want – we are vulnerable now. Kick us while we are down.
But there is NO regret that we stood for the absolute inerrancy of the Bible. Sorry, Jerry. No apologies for doctrinal fidelity.
For the past twenty years doctrinal fidelity has been what Patterson decrees it to be. He took out Hemphill and Rankin this way. You are not going to tell me that those two are loathsome liberals, are you?
Maybe a ‘vitriol free zone’ here would be good? I deleted a pretty vicious comment. Disagreements are fine, though.