Indianapolis | A Native American praise choir, pinewood derby races, a 60-foot RV dressed in full Bible murals, and multi-colored fudge. These are but a few of the sights, sounds, and smells that was the opening day spectacle ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Over 10,000 messengers from SBC churches across the United States are expected to flock to Indy over the next few days to worship, catch up with old friends, and vote on proposed actions affecting the cooperative fellowship of over 46,000 churches.
Messengers to this year’s convention will deliberate action on several significant decisions, chief of which is a second vote on the Law Amendment, named after its originator, Virginia pastor Mike Law. The proposed amendment to the SBC Constitution would add language to limit pastors of any kind to male only, providing additional grounds for deeming churches with female pastors of any kind as not in friendly cooperation.
However, the constitutional amendment is not the only noteworthy item. Messengers will also hear reports and recommendations from the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force (ARITF), the Great Commission Task Force, and the Cooperation Group. The ARITF is expected to ask for messenger approval to complete key objectives which have been called for by sex abuse survivors and advocates since at least 2019.
The other two groups will present findings and recommendations intended to strengthen increasingly tenuous bonds of cooperation between SBC churches and catalyze more convention-wide results in local church evangelism and missions.
But on Sunday, two days before the business sessions of the meeting begin, the atmosphere was full of good-natured energy.
The so tempting ‘Fudgie Wudgie Fudge and Chocolate Factory’ shop, strategically set up just outside the doors of the registration area.
A slow but steady stream of messengers trickled into the enormous Indiana Convention Center throughout the afternoon. If one was able to avoid the siren smell of the ‘Fudgie Wudgie Fudge and Chocolate Factory’ shop, strategically set up just outside the doors of the registration area, they found a well-oiled machine of volunteers from state convention IT staff and Baptist Student Ministries. The volunteers kept the lines moving briskly, shuffling messengers out into the Exhibit Hall with their credentials, ballot, and information bag in hand.
A walk out into the larger facility led to sounds of worship coming from the second floor. In the Women’s Missionary Union (WMU) Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting, the Native Praise Choir from Tulsa, Oklahoma, sang in the languages of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee Creek, and Seminole tribes. The same choir sang later at the Asian Kick-off Celebration of the SBC’s Asian American Collective.
In the Exhibit Hall, there was a never-ending array of pens, pins, mints, and mugs. But t-shirts were the hot item this year. The Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary booth had a line for their popular ‘For the Church’ state-specific shirts, as did the North American Mission Board (NAMB) display for their Indy car festooned apparel. Over at the WMU area, a crowd gathered to cheer on several grade-school aged boys competing in a pinewood derby competition. SBC entity heads, including International Mission Board (IMB) President Paul Chitwood, were scheduled to get in on the act later in the afternoon.
While arriving Southern Baptists greeted friends, picked up swag, and acclimated themselves to the floorplan, a small group of 150 or so gathered in the meeting hall to cover the next several days in prayer.
Pastors Bill Elliff of Little Rock, Arkansas, and Robby Gallaty, of Hendersonville, Tennessee, facilitated the gathering through corporate prayer from the platform interspersed with soft worship music from accompanying musicians. Each segment included extended time for the crowd to gather in small groups and pray, offering adoration to God, times of corporate confession, and supplication for God’s unity and power for mission.
Just a few hours later, that same cavernous hall was filled with thousands, anxious to worship and hear preaching, as the SBC Pastors Conference began.
By Sunday evening, 5,000 messengers had completed registration. That number is expected to double by Wednesday. This year’s proximity to Illinois is expected to garner a large contingent from Illinois Baptist churches. Over 380 had preregistered as messengers or guests from 123 different churches, and dozens were already on hand by Sunday afternoon.
For several on hand, this was their first time attending an SBC Annual Meeting, and they looked forward to listening, learning, and helping to shape the cooperative network of churches for the future. And to experience everything the convention has to offer, which will probably include some fudge.