A unique energy was present in the hotel lobbies and surrounding streets on Sunday morning, June 12, as the 2022 SBC Pastor’s Conference prepared to kick off at the Anaheim Convention Center just across the street from Disneyland.
Families in matching custom-made Mickey Mouse t-shirts could be found munching on waffles at hotel breakfast tables next to from gray-haired couples in Sunday casual attire sipping coffee. With this was a generous portion of middle-aged men in Tennessee Vols and Georgia Bulldogs apparel.
On the streets, families streamed toward Disneyland, many squeezing in a vacation day of rides before joining the Pastor’s Conference on Sunday night or Monday.
Outside the facilities on sidewalks lined with palm trees, security guards stood by entrance points to check the pre-registration credentials of those entering the convention center grounds. The heightened security was a late addition following a spring filled with gun violence and increased instances of protests and vandalism resulting from the expected Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Inside the convention center, musicians from California Baptist University sang worship music as a light, but steady stream of men, women, and children arrived and headed to the messenger check-in lines downstairs. The official count had over 4,000 messengers and guests checked in by Sunday evening.
Before the preaching began, there was an extended time of prayer, led by Robby Gallaty, pastor of Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and Bill Elliff, pastor at the The Summit Church in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Several hundred people gathered near the front of the cavernous convention hall and were led in worship and times of individual and group prayer.
Small circles of people formed throughout the crowd. At times they cried out to God in corporate repentance. At other points they could be heard begging God for wisdom, unity, boldness, and the power of the Holy Spirit to direct the meeting and messengers.
By 6 p.m. the convention hall had filled to a few thousand. The SBC Pastor’s Conference, themed “We Proclaim Him,” is focused on exposition of Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Interspersed with worship, the first three of twelve scheduled preachers began to walk through the text of the epistle, explaining its inspired meaning while each giving his unique application.
The trio covered chapter one, verses one through twenty, emphasizing encouragement for the weary pastor. “Your confidence in what God will do,” said the second expositor, Omar Johnson, from Temple Hills, Maryland, “is fueled by what God has done.”
As the evening drew to a close, the sidewalks outside filled again, as messengers marched into the cool California evening. Some headed out to grab a late dinner. But for many, feeling the effects of the two- or three-hour-time difference from their Bible Belt homes, it was already bedtime. And so ended day one.