Yesterday was an awesome day as we celebrated Father’s Day with a report from last week’s youth camp and a challenging message from our Youth pastor, Austin. In the 11:00am service we were blessed to dedicate Jones Lowe Abercrombie, son of Josh and Briana Abercrombie. Also, Morgan Dickerson was presented with her certificate of License recognizing her call and surrender to vocational ministry. On top of all of this, we rejoiced with Brock Grambling’s public profession of faith!
Austin and several veteran chaperones reported that they witnessed a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit at this year’s youth camp than any they had ever participated in. That is the result of prayer! Now – please pray for our children’s camp this week at Waukaway Springs in Vossburg. They are leaving at about 1:00pm on Monday and will return around lunchtime on Thursday.
Many have asked about this year’s SBC annual meeting Janice and I attended last week in Nashville. I will attempt to share with you some of my observations and thoughts. Also, I will include a few links that will give you a more comprehensive report:
My very simplistic observation is that 2019 was very turbulent for Southern Baptists. Beth Moore’s theology was being called into question, and her apparent support for women in the pulpit was disturbing. ERLC President Russell Moore was on record as speaking out against President Trump and his supporters. As politics was heating up nationally, racism was a hot topic, and many convention goers in Birmingham that year were introduced to the terms Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Intersectionality. Also, Southern Baptists were confronted with a heightened awareness of sexual abuse in churches and the problem of how to deal with it.
Therefore, the topics that drew the most attention that year were racism in the SBC, CRT, intersectionality, complementarianism, and sexual abuse in the church along with the way it is reported and handled. A lot of Messengers (me included) went away with a lot of questions, our heads spinning, and concern for the direction our convention seemed to be headed. After SBC 2019, messengers and church members at large read, researched, and became more knowledgeable on all of these topics. The SBC annual meeting was not held in 2020 due to COVID, so this year 2 years had passed since Birmingham, and there was a heightened interest among Messengers to see where our Convention stood on these issues. Of parallel interest was the election of a new president.
So, you can see the interest and concern as Messengers came together in Nashville this year. That is why we had the highest attendance at an annual meeting in 25 years.
Here are some of my observations and thoughts from SBC 2021:
1. Comments from the podium and the floor were encouraging. Statements and questions from the floor revealed widespread concern over Critical Race Theory. Comments from the podium unequivocally asserted that the SBC does not ascribe to CRT. All 6 seminary presidents united in a joint statement affirming that CRT is not biblical and would not be taught in our seminaries. Overall, messengers approved a resolution which renounced, “any theory or worldview that denies that racism, oppression, or discrimination is rooted, ultimately, in anything other than sin.”
2. Comments and resolutions also made it clear that Southern Baptists will not tolerate sexual abuse in our churches. The Executive Committee had announced plans to hire a 3rd party to investigate the mishandling of sexual abuse claims by the EC. A concern arose over the EC seemingly controlling the parameters of the investigation. In a statement move, messengers adopted a motion removing control of the investigation from the EC and assigning responsibility to a task force to be appointed by the new SBC president.
3. Perhaps the greatest surprise, and concern for many, of the annual meeting was the election of Dr. Ed Litton as president. Some view him as a “moderate,” and are concerned about the direction he will seek to lead our Convention. You can Google him and draw your own conclusions. I personally do not believe that Litton’s election signals a liberal turn in the SBC. Even though he undoubtedly has his own supporters, I believe his election was more about messenger concern over the leading candidates Al Mohler and Mike Stone, for various reasons. Plus, Litton was nominated by Fred Luter, a past SBC President who holds a lot of respect from across the SBC.
4. The effect of Ed Litton’s presidency remains to be seen, but my overall takeaway from SBC-2021 is that our Convention remains strongly conservative, unapologetically committed to the authority of Scripture, unswerving in its commitment to eradicate racism and sexual abuse from our churches, and uncompromising in our demand for transparency from our SBC leaders at all levels.
Thank you for allowing Janice and me to represent you as messengers to this year’s annual meeting. Other links from which you can read additional information from SBC-2021 are:
