Though I grew up in a pastor’s home, I didn’t attend a national Southern Baptist Convention until I was 34. I’ve learned that’s not unusual. For most pastors, it’s not easy to carve out the time and resources needed to travel to the various cities where the SBC meets each year, especially with their families.
But that year of my first SBC, the convention met in Indianapolis, as it will again this year, by the way. And for my family in the Chicago suburbs, Indy was as nearby as any SBC in my lifetime. So my dad and a good friend from my Sunday School class and I decided to share a car and a hotel room and make the road trip together.
Even though there were more than 18,000 at the convention that year, from the moment we walked in the door, I felt at home. The music was familiar and worshipful, and of course big. The gifted preaching was inspiring. In the hallways, I witnessed reunion after reunion of Christian friends from college, seminary, or previous ministry days.
Even the exhibit hall felt familiar. The vast Lifeway store offered Bible studies and curriculum options my church had used, and ministry resources that I couldn’t wait to try. Trusted authors and musicians I recognized were there signing their books or recordings. And I could hardly pull my dad away from the largest selection of Bibles either of us had ever seen.
Perhaps most engaging to me were the exhibits and events hosted by our SBC mission boards. While photographic displays from faraway places told stories of the world’s lostness, missionaries and staff members stood throughout the exhibit and surrounding aisles, ready to speak with anyone about needs and victories in the places they were serving.
These were the women and men living out the stories I had learned about in my church’s missions studies. Some served in places where they were the only known believers. I was awestruck at the opportunity just to listen to them and ask questions.
Though I personally knew only a handful of the other messengers there in Indy, I remember thinking to myself, “These are my people! These are the folks who share my life values!” All around me were pastors and leaders from churches like mine, seeking to know the Lord and follow his Word, doing life together as brothers and sisters in their churches, offering the gospel to the people of their communities, and working together to send missionaries and churches to the ends of the earth.
And though our churches were many different sizes and styles, and from many different towns, cities, and states, that gathering in Indy showed me clearly that we as a convention of churches were together on the same mission. I knew who I could call for help. And I knew that my church was not alone.
I’m going back to Indy this year, and I would encourage you to do the same if you can. Especially if it’s been a while, or if you’ve never been, it will provide a larger and lasting picture of how many different churches from different places are following the same Lord, the same Bible, and the same mission to the world.
And perhaps just as important, when you return to the home church that you love so much, you will find yourself a more informed and passionate advocate for how our family of Baptist churches cooperate to advance the gospel. Churches did this throughout the New Testament, of course. And this year they will continue to do so, from Indy.
Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Respond at IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org.