Baptist Press has just released a statement informing us that the SBC annual meeting in Orlando has been canceled. The EC voted 77-0 to take this action.
This has been expected for a couple of weeks but is now final.
Key information:
1. The elected officers will continue for another year. J.D. Greear remains president for another year. There is great rejoicing in some quarters and weeping, wailing, and rending of garments in others.
2. Each entity will operate by its own bylaws in terms of operating its trustees. It seems that the biggest question left will be the rotation of expiring trustees and election of new trustees. Evidently, the charters of each entity cover this contingency.
3. The idea of an online meeting or virtual voting has been rejected by messengers repeatedly. Recent messes in primary voting show how awful an idea this would have been. This messenger is glad they canceled instead of walking down that road toward chaos.
The complexity of implementation; the vulnerability of sessions to potential technology failures; the accuracy of voting; and the mechanics of conducting business sessions, with messengers seeking recognition for debate. There’s also no precedent for official business to be conducted using virtual methods at annual meetings of SBC state conventions.
4. The Pastors’ Conference has also been canceled by David Uth. There is no word yet what will happen concerning the 2021 Pastors’ Conference in Nashville.
5. The Executive Committee has the authority to pass the budget, as the convention ad interim. We implore them, at this time, in the interests of peace, to abandon their unwise and unnecessary actions against the ERLC.
There are many questions, but the key fact is this: we are not going to Orlando in June.
(Warning: I worked to get this up quickly. If there is an error, I may make corrections – and act like that’s what I said all the time!)
