Day two of SBC22 brought a full day of Pastor’s Conference preaching, an important Executive Committee meeting, the ever-popular NAMB Send luncheon, and the opening of the exhibit hall.
Surprise of the day? The song may say, “It never rains in southern California,” but it’s not all sunshine and roasting heat. The morning started cool and foggy with a mist in the air. Inside the convention center, smiling Illinois faces started showing up. Some traveled with pastor friends. Another with his wife, kids in tow, had grand vacation plans scheduled after the convention. At least one made the trip to California solo on his motorcycle.
The Pastor’s Conference began with the preaching of Matthew Mueller, a young church planter from Peoria, Arizona and ended with Al Jackson, the Pastor Emeritus at Lakeview Baptist Church in Auburn, Alabama. One has been a pastor for less than two years. The other pastored the same church for 52 years. Both proclaimed the same, timeless Word of God from Colossians.
Each preacher throughout the day encouraged the weary to stay faithful, challenged proclaimers of the Word to be those who live by that same Word, and begged all believers present to be people or prayer.
Over in the exhibit hall it was all hustle, bustle, and conversation. The crowd steadily increased throughout the day. Bags, books, pens, t-shirts, and opportunities to grow personally or help your church abound. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary appeared to have the hot “swag” item of the day – an updated state-specific “For the Church” t-shirt. Whether you came from Montana, Mississippi, or Maryland your contact information was all that was needed to take one home.
The Executive Committee met next door at the Anaheim Marriott. The most noteworthy of their actions was the election of new officers. It felt like a changing of the guard, with the chairperson, vice-chairperson, and recording secretary votes all ending in favor of younger candidates. Former IBSA president and Executive Committee member Adron Robinson, Senior Pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church, Country Club Hills, nominated David Sons, who became the newly elected vice-chairperson. Robinson was also elected as chairperson of the SBC Relations sub-committee.
While lunchtime found some sitting at picnic tables near the row of food trucks just beyond the main entrance, thousands gathered inside for the Send Luncheon. Pre-registration was full weeks ago. With a blue NAMB wristband serving as a ticket for entrance, attendees munched on box-lunches at their seats focused on a program featuring a mix of encouragement and comic relief.
Christian comedian Tim Hawkins brought the laughs for the first portion. Touching stories of Send Relief at work among next generation students and migrant workers brought the tears for the second half of the program.
But a large part of every Southern Baptist Convention is about the importance of voting from the floor. Many messengers came to Anaheim for the primary purpose of voting for their preferred candidate for SBC president, as well as to cast votes on the Sexual Abuse Task Force’s recommended course of action for the convention. Today, another anticipated vote was about to happen – the vote for 2023 Pastor’s Conference president.
The nominees were Daniel Dickard, pastor of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church, Columbia, South Carolina, and Voddie Baucham, Dean of Theology at African Christian University in Zambia. Despite Baucham being a well-known preacher in SBC circles and having previously preached at the conference, there was a bit of controversy at his announced nomination. Baucham is not currently serving as pastor or active member of a Southern Baptist Church. However, the Pastor’s Conference has no organizing documents or by-laws, so the nomination proceeded.
A standup vote from the floor for the two candidates during the afternoon session was too close to call. For the first time in recollection, the vote to attain the right to be the volunteer who plans and carries out this two-day annual preaching conference went to a ballot election.
This caused some brief commotion in the hall since the ballots were found in the back of the conference program, and some pastors present did not have a program with them. Only pastors are allowed to vote for Pastor’s Conference president, so some non-pastors in the crowd could be seen giving away programs to pastors, while others were directed to the back of the cavernous room where extra programs were stacked on tables. The vote ensued, ballots were collected in buckets, and the conference went on while tellers processed the results.
Finally, five hours after the initial vote, after the last preacher of the day had finished and the last hymns of the day were sung, the day ended with announcement of the winner. In a 50.85% to 44.85% count (4.3% vote disallowed as ineligible or incomplete), Daniel Dickard became the 2023 Pastor’s Conference president.
A light applause could be heard from the room as the results were announced. The crowd had now thinned to a fraction of the thousands present for the afternoon vote. So ended day two, a reminder of the complicated nature of the SBC and of what day three holds.