After a troubled year, messengers hear hard but honest reports Prior to their annual meeting in Dallas, Southern Baptists were already wrestling with issues of leadership. The departures of two key Baptist leaders from their posts had frayed denominational nerves and reignited old conflicts. And the upcoming SBC presidential election deepened divides over theology and […]
Who cares? My doubts about the SBC Annual Meeting led to a blessing
Though I grew up the son of a pastor and denominational worker, I was in my mid-30’s before I first attended a national Southern Baptist Convention. When the convention came to Indianapolis one year, a friend invited my dad and me to drive over and experience it with him. Though I was a Sunday School […]
Tuesday Briefing: SBC wrap-up, local county declares ‘abortion sanctuary,’ 4 in 10 LGBT identify as Christian
SBC WRAP-UP: Greear, Pence, #MeToo draw SBC’s focus At an annual meeting that saw what chief parliamentarian Barry McCarty called an “extra heavy volume of business” on its opening day, the Southern Baptist Convention elected J.D. Greear as convention president and heard an address by Vice President Mike Pence. Local county condemns abortion, declares ‘unborn […]
Pence speaks to large convention crowd
Despite debate surrounding Vice President Mike Pence’s address at the Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas, the convention hall was packed Wednesday morning when he took the stage. Pence called the SBC “one of the greatest forces for good anywhere in America.” After a few more words of praise for Southern Baptists, he shared his brief […]
Greear gets more than he bargained for
Dallas | J.D. Greear says his election does not indicate a generational shift in the Southern Baptist Convention. But the photos of Greear, 45, with his opponent Ken Hemphill and outgoing SBC President Steven Gaines, both in their 60s, might attest otherwise. “What I don’t think this [election] represents is a passing of the baton […]