Andi and I recently returned from the 2015 SBC Annual Meeting in Columbus, OH and we couldn’t be more thankful. Here are a few highlights from our convention experience this year, followed by two important motions my blessed wife will be making at next year’s convention in St. Louis.
1. The preaching. Standing in the pulpit of Graefenburg Baptist Church every Sunday is probably my greatest passion, but it is important and necessary for me to be under anointed preaching. Andi and I were blessed by several sermons, but we were especially moved by James McDonald’s sermon on humility. I have a copy if you want to hear it. Powerful.
2. The family. It doesn’t take long at a convention meeting to truly feel like you are sitting in the middle of 5,000 family members. That is special.
3. The unity. This particular meeting was marked by remarkable unity in essential areas of faith. I almost had the feeling that we were taking the first steps into letting go of tertiary issues because of the cultural reality in which we live today. We are going to need one another, and this was beautifully on display through a 3 minute standing ovation for Barronelle Stutzman, recognizing her boldness and courage in her convictions.
4. The prayer. President Ronnie Floyd has spent a year building us up for a meeting of prayer for awakening and revival. He delivered on that promise.
5. The leadership. It is simply encouraging and motivating to be around such Godly, capable, powerful leaders. It reminds me of the blessing of leading my flock and the importance of leading well.
6. The motions. Yep, motions from the floor remain my favorite part of the Annual Meeting and this year delivered some pretty darn good ones, including a motion for Ronnie Floyd to run for president and a motion to boycott Zondervan. Motions to boycott are a Southern Baptist tradition, but thankfully after the Disney boycott mess, we are a bit more weary of the whole idea. Not surprisingly, that motion was ruled out of order.
7. The sleep. What can I say? I was able to sleep in a king size motel room with my wife without children waking us up. That is pretty massively awesome.
8. The exhibits. They are just fun.
9. The schedule. The convention does a great job of staying on time, but like anything else, sometimes people have a tendency to run over. During the Oscars, if a winner takes too long with their acceptance speech, the orchestra just starts pumping out the music. At the SBC meeting, you will either get Ronnie Floyd slowly walking on stage in a stalking manner, or a piano will begin to lightly play a beautiful, but “wrap it up, man” gospel song. Both were fun to watch.
10. The company. I was with my wife. Enough said.
Speaking of Andi, during our time in Columbus she discovered two areas of SBC life that must be addressed, and her intention is to bring two motions to the floor at the 2016 annual meeting. Those are:
1. For a new SBC logo to be designed and adopted immediately. Below is the current logo. Yes, it is time for a change.
2. At the convention you can purchase compact disks or DVD’s of the sermons. The name of this service? SBC Tapes. Yes, SBC Tapes. Most of the millennials at the meeting don’t know what a tape is. SBCtapes.com is going strong, but shouldn’t we change the name to sbcmedia or something like that? I mean…tapes?
(By the way, I’m kidding. She isn’t really going to make those motions. Or is she?)
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