San Antonio – the SBC annual convention
by T. C. Pinckney Vol. XX, No. 6, June/July 2007
SBC messengers totaling 8,618 from all fifty states plus the District of Columbia met in San Antonio Tuesday and Wednesday, 12-13 June. Not surprisingly the largest number of messengers (1,592) were from Texas, followed by Tennessee 652, North Carolina 626, and Georgia 600. Virginia was represented by 331 messengers.
Elections
Not surprisingly, Dr. Frank Page was re-elected SBC president by acclamation.
For first vice president, there were two nominations: Jim Richards, founding director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, and David Rogers, a missionary in Madrid, Spain, and son of the late Adrian Rogers. Richards won with a vote of 2,177 or 68.7% to 966, 30.5%. Richards is a member of First Baptist Church, Fort Worth, TX; has served as chairman of the SBC Christian Life commission (now the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission), and the SBC Committee on Order of Business.
There were also two nominations for second vice president: Eric Redmond, pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church, Temple Hills, MD, and evangelist Bill Britt of Gallatin, TN. Redmond was nominated by Doyle Chauncey, executive director of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia. Redmond was elected by 1,765 (61.69%) to 1,077 (37.64%).
Redmond serves as a trustee for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and an executive board member of the National African American Fellowship of the SBC. He is an adjunct professor of hermeneutics at Capital Bible Seminary in Lanham, MD. He is also a member of the Evangelical Theological Society.
Re-elected by acclamation were John L. Yeats as recording secretary, and Jim Wells as registration secretary.
CP Budget
Last year’s meeting asked the Executive Committee in consultation with state executive directors to develop a definition of what is meant by CP monies. This year the Executive Committee proposed the following, “The Cooperative Program (CP) is Southern Baptists’ unified plan of giving through which cooperating Southern Baptist churches give a percentage of their undesignated receipts in support of their respective state convention and the Southern Baptist Convention missions and ministries.”
In response to messengers’ questions, Morris H. Chapman, president and CEO of the Executive Committee, explained that the definition does not change any current policies or practices regarding CP giving.
Mark Dever, messenger from Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, asked whether the new definition would result in any change regarding who will be credentialed as a messenger at SBC annual meetings. Michael Lewis, vice chairman of the Executive Committee’s CP Subcommittee, answered that he definition has “no bearing” on who qualifies as a messenger and will not result I any changes to present messenger registration policies.
GuideStone Financial Resources had informed the Executive Committee that it no longer needs its longstanding allocation or 0.76% of the CP budget for retired ministers or their widows with minimal or no pension income. Instead, GuideStone will incorporate those relief needs into its own budget.
Consequently, the new budget increases funds for the three smallest SBC seminaries, the Executive Committee, and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. This amounts to one-time distributions of $347,710 each to Southeastern, Golden Gate, and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminaries. In subsequent years those seminaries will receive the equivalent percentage.
The ERLC budget will increase from 1.49% of the CP budget to 1.65%, a net increase this year of $320,962. The Executive Committee allocation will move from 3.32% to 3.40%, a net increase of $160,480 this year. The EC increase is for the purpose of funding the stewardship ministry recently assigned to the Executive Committee.
The 2007-2008 allocation budget totals $200,601,536.
Entity Reports
Each SBC entity reports during the annual convention. Space does not allow full coverage here, but below are some high points.
– International Mission Board: IMB President Jerry Rankin noted that in 2006 Southern Baptist missionaries and their partners baptized more than 475,000 new believers, planted 23,000 churches, and discipled more than 500,000 Christians. Rankin also praised Southern Baptists for the largest Lottie Moon Christmas Offering in history, a goal-breaking $150,178,098. Last year 784 new missionaries were appointed and went to many countries. IMB missionaries began work last year among 104 people groups where previously no evangelical missionaries were sharing the Gospel.
– North American Mission Board: Of course, one major item in the NAMB report was the introduction of its new president, Geoff Hammond ... previously Associate Executive Director of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia. Hammond focussed on NAMB’s primary objectives: “We have drawn together all of our responsibilities under three main objectives; sharing Christ, starting churches, and sending missionaries with our Acts 1:8 partners.” NAMB also thanked messengers for the largest Annie Armstrong Easter Offering ever – $58.5 million. NAMB assists in sending more than 5,100 missionaries and more than 300,000 volunteers who serve as short-term missionaries in North America.
– Midwestern Seminary: Midwestern celebrated its 50th anniversary and noted its record-breaking 1,096 student headcount.
– New Orleans Seminary: President Chuck Kelley testified to God’s faithfulness and to thank southern Baptists for their help after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which left the campus flooded. Kelley said the restoration of the campus is a miracle of God. The dramatic restoration is nearing completion. While the total bill will reach $56 million, God has provided $55 million through the sacrificial giving of Southern Baptists. Kelley thanked other SBC entities for their gifts in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane. He mentioned the Cooperative program gift of $6.2 million, the IMB gift of $1.5 million, LifeWay’s gift of $500,000, four months of staff and faculty insurance benefits covered by GuideStone Financial Resources and the offerings collected by the other SBC seminaries. In addition, he thanked the many Southern Baptist volunteers who came to work on campus restoration efforts. Their work saved the seminary over $3 million. Enrollment at NOBTS has rebounded. Kelley hopes the seminary will finish the year just 300-400 students short of its previous record enrollment.
– Southeastern Seminary: President Danny Akin introduced SEBTS’ new mission statement, “Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary seeks to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by equipping students to serve the Church and fulfill the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20).” Akin shared their goal of increasing enrollment to more than 3,000 by 2010.
– Southern Seminary: President Al Mohler said, “If you’re going to hire a seminary professor, you want the one who most comprehensively embraces the truth taught by the Scripture and embraced by this denomination, “ rather than “those who merely meet the most basic requirements.” Mohler noted Southern’s record enrollment: “We will have over 4,400 students enrolled at Southern Seminary this year.”
– Southwestern Seminary: Addressing the charge by some that Southwestern has become fundamentalist, President Paige Patterson said, “...our fundamentalism is a fundamentalism of commitment to the fundamentals of God’s Word and not to legalism, which will kill as surely as liberalism will.” On the issue concerning speaking in tongues and private prayer language, Patterson said, “We are not an institution belonging to the charismatic movement. Consequently, we have stated openly, and state it again, that we will not be the progenitor of charismatic doctrine whether it is what began in the troubled church at Corinth, or continued in Montanism, or is common in our present day.
Resolutions (If you are interested in the complete text on a resolution, you can review it on the SBC website: www.sbc.net/resolutions)
Including the standard resolution of appreciation, messengers passed eight resolutions. These were:
– On the Cooperative Giving by Southern Baptists: This expressed appreciation inter alia to Southern Baptists for their faithful and generous support of the CP, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions.
– On the 150th Anniversary of the Dred Scott Decision: Resolved that messengers “wholly lament and repudiate the Dred Scott Decision” and “fully concur that ‘racism profoundly distorts our understanding of Christian morality.’”
– On Hate Crimes Legislation: The resolution notes that the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 and a similar bill has been introduced in the Senate, and that such laws extend a special protection status to certain people not available to others and criminalize beliefs and attack free speech citing incidents in Britain, Canada, Sweden, and Pennsylvania. Therefore the resolution strongly urges the Senate to reject such legislation, and – if passed – urges the president to veto it. The resolution also urges all Americans to “treat our fellow citizens with the kind of civility we would prefer to receive ourselves.”
– On Global Warming: Notes the conflicting scientific research, the dangers of mandated cuts in emissions which may have no impact on global warming, supports public policy that assists the poor and most vulnerable people around the world, and affirms “our God-given responsibility to care for the earth...” There was much discussion of two other resolve clauses which encouraged government initiatives and funding on global warming and alternative energy sources. The burden of the discussion was on these last two clauses with several messengers pointing out that private enterprise, not government, is the most efficient, effective, and cheapest ways to provide such solutions. When put to a vote, the motion to delete those two resolve clauses passed with a 60% majority. The amended resolution passed virtually unanimously.
– On Pastors, Culture, and Civic Duty: Urges pastors to preach on moral issues and lead congregations to influence the culture.
– On Protecting Children from Child Abuse: Messengers passed, apparently unanimously, a resolution expressing a “deep level of moral outrage” at child abuse, repudiating those “who commit heinous acts against children” and “individuals, churches, or other religious bodies that cover up, ignore, or otherwise contribute to or condone” such abuse.
– On Personal and Corporate Repentance: Called for individual and corporate repentance by Southern Baptists that we might seek the face of the Lord.
Motions:
– On the Baptist Faith and Message: As adopted, the motion affirms the Baptist Faith and Message as the SBC’s “only consensus statement on doctrinal beliefs.” There were two positions regarding this: the maximalist and the minimalist.
A maximalist would characterize the BFM as the most that may be required of any potential SBC employee or policy. If so understood, anything, any practice not specifically addressed in the BFM would be acceptable. For example, a seminary professor could teach students his belief in the acceptability of speaking in tongues, gambling, and the use of alcohol and tobacco.
The minimalist understanding is that Southern Baptists agree on the essential, clear doctrines addressed in the BFM but that other “second tier” doctrines may also be the subject of policies if the leadership, and especially the trustees, of an entity decide that such action is necessary.
Seminary presidents giving their reports after passage of the motion made abundantly clear that they stood firmly and unitedly in the minimalist position. They energetically explained why it is essential for seminaries and other SBC entities have the flexibility to set limits beyond the BFM. Challenges change. New problems arise. Unbelievers or semi-believers are adroit at manipulating language to undercut biblical positions. Our denominational leadership must be allowed the flexibility to proscribe new challenges to God’s standards when they arise.
– Referred Motions: Under SBC bylaws many (usually “most”) motions must be referred to one or more entities for consideration during the next convention year and report to the following annual meeting. This year nine motions were referred for reports next June.
President Bush:
Wednesday President Bush spoke to the convention via a nine minute satellite address. The President expressed gratitude for our support of military personnel and their families, commended the convention for understanding “the importance of fair-minded and impartial judges to our democracy and promised to nominate good judges who will interpret the law and not legislate from the bench. He also pledged to veto any bill from Congress that violates the sanctity of human life. He did not speak about immigration. [Condensed from BP articles.]
Editor’s Comment:
If you have read this far, you are obviously interested in SBC issues. Let me suggest that every Southern Baptist should attend at least one annual SBC meeting. Be assured these conventions are not just dry business sessions. There is great preaching, varied music by great choirs and soloists, videos, prayer times, testimonies from missionaries and third world countries, and a widely varied assortment of Southern Baptists from every state. In addition, you get a look at how the SBC operates.
Why don’t you plan to attend the 2008 meeting in Indianapolis 10-11 June? Put it on your schedule now.