RESTRUCTURING, PRESIDENTIAL VOTE TO HIGHLIGHT NEW ORLEANS SBC

by   Herb Hollinger                                                                                                                                             Vol. IX, No. 5, May 1996

The annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention returns to the Superdome in New Orleans June 11-13 with the election of a new president, reports on a major restructuring of the denomination, consideration of a myriad of business items, sermons, music, and fellowship.

It will be the 139th session of the nation's largest evangelical body - which is in its 151st year - and will mark the ninth time it has met in the Crescent City. The first was in 1877 when 164 messengers were registered and the last was in 1990 when 38,403 messengers were in attendance. Last year in Atlanta for the SBC's 150th anniversary celebration, 20,654 messengers were on hand.

The theme for the 1996 meeting is "if My People ..." taken from 2 Chronicles 7:14, with a different person each session sharing a subject front the familiar Old Testament revival passage.

Messengers will elect a president to succeed Jim Henry, pastor of First Baptist Church, Orlando, FL, who finishes a second one-year term. The only announced candidate for the non-salaried, largely ceremonial post, but one with important appointive powers, is Tom Elliff, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church, Del City, OK. If elected, Elliff is seen as continuing a denominational direction begun in 1979 called the "conservative resurgence.

Messengers also will get to see the first blueprints of the restructuring of the denomination, called the Covenant for a New Century, which was approved at last year's annual meeting. A second vote on SBC Bylaw 15, which lists the 19 agencies of the convention, will be taken and, if passed, will reduce the number of agencies to 12 through dissolution or merger of several entities. SBC officials hope to provide messengers with some of the transition plans for the restructuring and some indication of the economies of the new structure.

The opening gavel will be Tuesday, June 11, at 8:30 a.m., and the three-day session will conclude Thursday, June 13, at noon.

In between, messengers and guests will hear reports from all the SBC agencies, vote on a range of business items and resolutions, hear a bevy of sermons and special music, and spend time visiting with friends in the Baptist family.

Major addresses will be heard from Henry; the convention sermon by Ronnie W. Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church, Springdale, AR; and the final message by Bill McCartney, founder of Promise Keepers, the fast-growing men's renewal movement across America.

Another highlight is the Wednesday evening presentation by the Foreign and Home Mission Boards followed by a "commitment invitation.” A special evangelistic blitz of the metropolitan area, called Crossover New Orleans, will precede the convention, as has been the custom for a number of years.

Preceding the annual meeting are a host of satellite meetings, like the Pastors' Conference and the Woman's Missionary Union annual meeting.

The Superdome also will have a unique configuration for the meeting, with a large curtain, from roof to floor, separating the dome's main seating area. Half of the floor will be the exhibits area, with the other half for the meeting itself. SBC officials said the configuration has been tried by other religious groups in the cavernous Superdome and proven effective.