The SBC Annual Meeting will be off with a gavel slam in 15 days. I’ll be there along with around 15,000 other messengers, guests, media, and protesters. Count me in the first group, a messenger from an SBC church.
This is the unofficial SBC Voices guide to the Annual Meeting. Unofficial because I couldn’t get the other guys to sign on to it. Sometimes they don’t see the things I do.
Here are some notes on the meeting.
- The annual meeting of Great Commission Baptists is at the same time, same place and has the same program. I welcome our colleagues who wish to be identified by a moniker not our real name.
- The SBC Annual Meeting app will be your friend. Download it and use it. It will help you not to make stupid motions and be caught at the coffee bar when an important vote is being taken. I’ve got mine all loaded up.
- Through the app you can find a “Girls Wanna Have Fun in Music City” bundle. No joke. It’s not an SBC thing and there’s no “SBC Preachers Wanna Have Fun” package.” Bah. Humbug. Fun is not allowed this year.
- The app has the Book of Reports. There will be stuff in it you have never seen before.
- There doesn’t seem to be a welcome from the mayor or governor. I was counting on that because they can offer forgiveness for parking tickets.
Exhibits
- The Exhibit Hall is always a big hit and we’ve got two years of pent up hucksterism awaiting us. Swathed with swag is the theme this year. I could use some new, quality, pens and markers. I can do without the candy.
- Sign of the times. There will be an outfit there that trains churches on active shooter response.
- I’ll swing by the Chemistry Staffing booth and mix and mingle with those dudes. Some churches are into alchemy I suppose, so there’s a market for this stuff. Maybe they’re giving away litmus test strips. Lotta churches already use those.
- Adrian will have an exhibit. I’ll visit that one. He is missed.
- The SBC Executive Committee has a “Vision Stage.” OK. I’ll take a look.
- After some digging I see that “Secrets Savored” is a women’s discipleship thing. Some orgs have names that don’t immediately suggest what they are, like Chemistry Staffing.
- There is more than one Creationist org with a booth. Betcha one has a T-Rex head. Probably made of paper mache just last week. Dinos are young in that universe and Fred Flintstone might even be at the booth. I’ll stop by and provide evidence, in the flesh, that there are some old fossils around.
- Many, many, more.
Meetings of every kind imaginable and some unimaginable. A few selected…
- Large Church Roundtable Pastor’s Breakfast. I understand there will be a special session on how to strut.
- Miss the Large Church thing? Maybe you can get into the Big Cow thing. Look it up on the app.
- Yep. The CBN has a breakfast. Haughty indignation on the menu. Maybe some artwork will be displayed.
- Liberty alumni reception. I think that one will be on a yacht on the Cumberland River.
- All the seminaries have meetings. Some even sing at them.
The main event this year will be the presidential election. Be in the hall at 2:15 on Tuesday afternoon. You porkers who want to eat at the downtown Brazilian steakhouse, Texas de Brazil, need to wrap it up and get back to the hall. You can have a gluttonous meal later.
Not in the official guide but your humble hacker and plodder blogger has learned that there will be a twilight craft beer brewery crawl for the Calvinists. No joke. The Cals, they aren’t a joking group when it comes to beverage alcohol.
If you can get to a mic, by all means do so. We might be a declining convention but the SBC Annual Meeting is the largest true democratic meeting in the world. Any registered messenger may offer motions, discuss things, and the like. Simply put, any fool can get up and talk at the SBCAM and some always do.
I’m optimistic about this year’s meeting. It’s had campaigning like never before but perhaps the wisdom of the assembled messengers will be shown.
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Hey, dude! Leave a generous tip whenever you can. Many of these servers are used to Baptists being cheap.
Look me up. I’d love to meet you. I’m the guy with one eyebrow always raised.
If you wear a toupee, those were abundant in the old days but rarely seen these days, I’d like to take your picture and use it.
I’m always on the lookout for some good bbq. Suggest a place.
OK, yeah. The theme of the meeting is “We Are Great Commission Baptists” written in a 19th century riverboat font, like Showboat. You can’t make this stuff up.
