Family reunion

As I was preparing for my first IBSA Annual Meeting as Executive Director almost 20 years ago, I remember one long-time staff remember exclaiming, “I just love the Annual Meeting! It’s like a big family reunion.”

Having just moved back to Illinois three months earlier, I didn’t yet share his enthusiasm. I was still meeting new people almost every week and only beginning to get a feel for different personalities, preferences, and needs. It seemed like every meeting was full of new faces whose names I didn’t know yet. So, even among so many new friends, I sometimes felt alone.

But then came that first Annual Meeting. Walking the halls of the Crowne Plaza hotel in Springfield, I started recognizing people. First it was friends of my parents, then people I had met once or twice in a meeting, then one pastor or associational leader after another.

The name tags helped. Sometimes I knew only a face, and the name tag made the connection. Sometimes another person and I thought we recognized each other, and our name tags helped us both.

The setting gave us permission to assume that we were both Illinois Baptists. We were both committed to our respective churches, and loved the Bible, and were pursuing the Great Commission. Whether we knew each other well yet or not, we were family. And however challenging our church or ministry situations might seem, we were not alone.

Then came my second annual meeting, and my third. And somewhere along the line, I also began exclaiming, “I just love the Annual Meeting! It’s like a big family reunion.”

That’s why I encourage every pastor, and messengers and guests from every IBSA church, to broaden their ministry network and come to this year’s IBSA Annual Meeting. Perhaps you already know the joy of that family reunion. But even if you’re relatively new to your church, or to the state, or even if you’ve not attended often before, please come.

For one thing, this is my last meeting as IBSA Executive Director, and I’d like to see you, and to thank you for your church’s partnership, or perhaps to meet you for the first time and introduce you to some folks. I’d like you to know more of your family, and to remember you’re not alone.

Walk the hallways and read the name tags and introduce yourself. Peruse the exhibit hall and talk to someone who has a resource or opportunity that fits your church. Attend a Wednesday morning workshop that addresses a special need you have. Sit beside someone in the big meeting room and tell them your story and ask them to tell you theirs. Then stand and sing. Pray and listen and interact with hundreds of other Illinois Baptists, from all regions of the state. Feel in your heart and spirit that you are not alone.

This year especially, we as Illinois Baptists and Southern Baptists are celebrating 100 years of biblical unity as expressed in the first Baptist Faith and Message, and 100 years of missional cooperation as expressed in the Cooperative Program. Though it sometimes can feel like it, our generation of Baptists is not alone in history either. And we have always been stronger together.

The word family can stir up a variety of images, both negative and positive. “Family feud” speaks of conflict and broken relationships. “Family first” reminds us that there’s nothing more important. What about family reunion? I guess it depends on the family, on whether they make the effort to keep hanging out together. And that depends on individual family members, like you and me.

Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Respond at IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org.

Learn more about the 2025 IBSA Annual Meeting, including how you can register to attend at IBSAannualmeeting.org.