Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting 2021

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is made up of local, autonomous churches who hold to similar theological doctrine and cooperate together to reach the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ. That is, churches of all shapes and sizes share financial resources through the Cooperate Program to fund global missions, evangelism, church planting, local ministry, and theological education and training.

Every year, churches send representatives, known as messengers, to the Annual Meeting to conduct the business of the Convention, which includes: adopting the Cooperative Program allocation budget, electing officers as well as trustees to oversee SBC ministries, receiving reports from entities, passing resolutions, and voting on recommendations for Convention action.

I had the pleasure of being a messenger for our church at this year’s Annual Meeting, where I joined other messengers (and numerous guests and exhibitors) in Nashville in June. With more than 15,000 registered messengers, this was the largest gathering at an annual meeting in more than 20 years. As someone who pays a decent amount of attention to what goes on in the SBC, I was eager to hear from some of the leaders of our denomination and address a number of growing concerns and often very public issues that have come up over the last few years. And it seemed as though the majority of the messengers were eager to do the same.

From the moment SBC President J.D. Greear opened the meeting on Tuesday, June 15, it was clear that the messengers to this year’s Annual Meeting were ready to make changes and challenge a few traditions, all in the name and pursuit of the Gospel.

The Annual Meeting is, first and foremost, a business meeting — there were certainly moments where that was very obvious — and I was ready to do some business. I had my fluorescent yellow ballot book in hand and I was ready to cast my vote. But as I sat in the middle of a sea of messengers on that first morning, the atmosphere felt more like a time of worship and celebration. Over the next two days, there were plenty of opportunities to cast my vote for important and consequential items, including choosing our next SBC President, but there were equally as many opportunities to celebrate what God has done over the last year. We heard reports from the International Mission Board (IMB) and the North American Mission Board (NAMB), highlighting our mission and church planting efforts and reaffirming our cooperative efforts. Even in the midst of a global pandemic, the Good News of the Gospel is still being shared amongst the nations. The day before the Annual Meeting had even begun, sixty-four new IMB missionaries were appointed at a Sending Celebration. They will join 3,631 IMB missionaries already on the field around the world. NAMB also reported that Southern Baptists have planted more than 8,200 churches in the past decade.

The presidents of our six seminaries gave their reports as well. Some, like Gateway president Jeff Iorg, shared about faculty efforts to address current cultural issues with the Gospel, while other presidents highlighted major changes at their schools, like Southwestern’s president Adam Greenway, who made the decision to rename the seminary’s undergraduate program to Texas Baptist College. But all of the presidents reported increased enrollment at their schools, despite the pandemic. SBC entities like Lifeway, the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission (ERLC), and the Women’s Missionary Union (WMU) all gave their reports as well, but none faced as much resistance from the messengers as the Executive Committee.

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee (EC) is an 86-member group of officers that are elected and appointed at the annual meetings. Their main job is to conduct business on behalf of SBC churches when the Annual Meeting is not in session. The EC drew opposition at multiple points over the two days of the meeting, with messengers claiming that they had too much authority and needed to be held accountable.

A number of motions were made calling for an investigation into the alleged mishandling of sexual abuse claims by the EC, including a motion from Tennessee pastor Grant Gaines on behalf of a group of sexual abuse victims, who moved that the new SBC president appoint a task force to oversee this investigation. Initially, the motion was referred to the EC for consideration, but messengers overturned the decision and overwhelmingly adopted the motion. With a sea of yellow ballots raised high, the messengers of the 2021 Annual Meeting signaled to a watching world that we are tired of sweeping these issues under the rug.

The EC also encountered an overwhelming defeat on a proposed revision to the SBC’s Business and Financial Plan. The debate over the proposal noted the apprehension that messengers felt at the prospect of expanding EC powers over other SBC entities, and the recommendation failed after a vote. The EC’s proposed Vision 2025 plan for missions, evangelism, and the Cooperative Program giving was approved after an amendment and the addition of a statement on the convention’s intent to eliminate all incidents of racism and sexual abuse.

Resolutions

Messengers also voted in favor of nine resolutions*, including statements on government policies like the Hyde Amendment and the Equality Act, a measure recommending that churches permanently bar sex abusers from the pastorate, as well as the adoption of a broad resolution on the Bible’s sufficiency regarding race and racial reconciliation. The resolution on racial reconciliation drew spirited debate from messengers, with critics opposed to the absence of language specifically targeting Critical Race Theory. In response, James Merritt, the chairman of the Resolutions Committee, commended the use of broader language and stated that the committee rejects any theory that says “our problem is anything other than sin and the solution is anything other than” the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A messenger from the floor immediately called for the vote, and after taking a show of ballots to approve moving forward with the vote, we approved the resolution by a strong majority.

In other resolutions business, the messengers’ passed a statement on the Hyde Amendment, again affirming the SBC’s opposition of abortion and the federal funding of the procedure. A motion was later made by Bill Ascol, a pastor from Oklahoma, to bring a resolution on abolishing abortion that was previously rejected by the Resolutions Committee before the messengers for a vote. The messengers agreed to bring the resolution to a vote, and after several minutes of contentious debate on the second day of the Annual Meeting, the resolution, which rejects an incremental approach to ending abortion in favor of “abolishing abortion immediately, without exception or compromise,” was adopted.

*A resolution has traditionally been defined as an expression of opinion or concern, as compared to a motion, which calls for action. A resolution is not used to direct an entity of the SBC to specific action other than to communicate the opinion or concern expressed.

New SBC President

Ed Litton, pastor of Redemption Church in Saraland, Alabama, was elected SBC president in a runoff with a 52 percent majority over Georgia pastor Mike Stone, immediate past chairman of the SBC Executive Committee and a steering council member for the Conservative Baptist Network. The vote went into a runoff after none of the candidates received a majority of the vote. The initial vote included four candidates: Mike Stone and Ed Litton, as well as Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler, and Northwest Baptist Convention Executive Director Randy Adams.

Other elected officers included:
• Lee Brand Jr., an administrator at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, was elected first vice president 
• Ramon Medina, lead pastor of the Spanish ministry at Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston, TX, was elected second vice president 
• John Yeats, the executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention, was reelected recording secretary for the 24th time
• Don Currence, administrative pastor at First Baptist Church in Ozark, Missouri, was reelected registration secretary
• Juan Sanchez, pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, became the first Hispanic elected convention preacher, and will deliver the convention sermon at next year’s Annual Meeting

The 2022 SBC Annual Convention will be held in Anaheim, California on June 14-15. New SBC President, Ed Litton, recently announced that the theme for the 2022 meeting will be “Jesus at the center of it all,” drawing inspiration from Colossians 1:15-22.

Mississippi Baptist Convention Annual Meeting Recap
October 26-27, 2021

Combined choir from our three baptist colleges at the Mississippi Baptist Convention Annual Meeting (Photo Credit: Bart Lambright)

The 135th Annual Meeting of the Mississippi Baptist Convention met on October 26-27, 2021 at First Baptist Church in Jackson, MS. You can find a recap of events, introductions of our new MBC officers, and more in The Baptist Record. Click here to read the full write-up of the meeting.