Report from 2017 Southern Baptist Convention
160th Session
June 13 - 14
Phoenix, Arizona
The theme this year was Pray for Such a Time as This. A total of 5,018 messengers attended the 2017 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona which was lower than the 7,321 attending the 2016 Convention but 164 more than the last Convention in Phoenix in 2011.
Prior to the Convention, a Harvest America event featuring Greg Laurie was conducted at University of Phoenix Stadium. Approximately 38,000 attended the event. Nearly 3,000 professed Christ at the event with another 494 registering professions online. During the Convention week Laurie announced his church was affiliating with the Southern Baptist Convention. He also announced a similar event for next year’s Convention in Dallas.
Also prior to the Convention, H. B. Charles became the first African-American to be elected President of the Southern Baptist Convention Pastor’s Conference.
Dr. Steve Gaines, Cordova, TN, was reelected without opposition as President. Dr. Gaines preached a powerful President’s message on the need for prayer.
Walter Strickland, Wake Forest, NC, was elected as first vice president.
Jose Abella, Miami, FL, was elected second vice president.
John L. Yeats, executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention, was reelected to a 21st term as recording secretary.
Jim Wells, retired team leader for the Missouri Baptist Convention, who has served as registration secretary for the last 15 years was unable to attend due to the final stages of an extended battle with cancer. He was succeeded by Don Currence, who was elected as the new registration secretary. Dr. Wells died a few days after the Convention.
Paige Patterson, President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was elected as the 2018 convention preacher.
Among the highlights of the meeting were periods of prayer throughout the two days. The Convention celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. Dr. Autry served as a member of the Executive Committee 2006-2014.
Statistics released just before the Convention indicated decreases in most categories. Baptisms for 2016 were 280,773, the lowest number since 1946. Southern Baptist lost 77,786 members last year bring the loss over the past decade to one million. The only statistical increase was in the number of churches which grew by 479 to 47,272.
The ebbing evangelism in Baptist life was reflected in President Gaines’ request for authorization to appoint a committee to consider personal soul-winning and public evangelism. A motion was made and affirmed for him to appoint the Soul-Winning Task Force which will bring recommendations to the 2018 Convention. This group, chaired by Paige Patterson, is composed of professors, pastors and one state convention executive.
Nine resolutions were originally recommended for debate including those addressing prayer, gambling, moral leadership, the defunding of Planned Parenthood and the Centennial of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. All 2017 resolutions may be viewed at http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/year/2017 .
After the Resolutions Committee declined to report out a proposed resolution on the alt-right by Dwight McKissic of TX, two unsuccessful attempts were made to bring the resolution to the floor for debate. Later, the Resolutions Committee voluntarily reconvened to reconsider the matter. They then approached the Order of Business Committee with a request to report in an already scheduled business session Wednesday afternoon. This resolution, Resolution 10, generated little discussion and passed with virtually no opposition. Due to the significance of the resolution and the controversy associated with it in the press, it is reproduced in full below:
WHEREAS, Scripture teaches, “From one man [God] has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live” (Acts 17:26); and
WHEREAS, The Psalmist proclaimed, “The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord” (Psalm 24:1); and
WHEREAS, The Apostle Peter said, “God doesn’t show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him” (Acts 10:34–35); and
WHEREAS, Our justification before God is based on faith in Christ Jesus alone and not in our ethnicity (Galatians 3:27–28); and
WHEREAS, Scripture proclaims that Jesus is purchasing by His blood believers “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9); and
WHEREAS, Throughout eternity we will gather with a “multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language” in worship of our risen Savior (Revelation 7:9); and
WHEREAS, The Baptist Faith and Message conveys that all Christians are obligated to make the will of Christ supreme in their own lives and in human society, opposing all forms of racism, selfishness, and vice, and bringing government and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love; and
WHEREAS, We know from our Southern Baptist history the effects of the horrific sins of racism and hatred; and
WHEREAS, In 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention repudiated “historic acts of evil, such as slavery,” committed “to eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry,” and “genuinely repent[ed] of racism of which we have been guilty, whether consciously or unconsciously”; and
WHEREAS, In recent years the Convention has nominated and elected individuals from a variety of ethnicities, including electing our first African-American president in 2012; and
WHEREAS, In recent resolutions the Southern Baptist Convention called on “all Christian men and women to pray and labor for the day when our Lord will set all things right and racial prejudice and injustice will be no more” (2014); expressed continued grief “over the presence of racism and the recent escalation of racial tension in our nation” (2015); and urged fellow Christians to discontinue using the Confederate battle flag, acknowledging that it is “used by some and perceived by many as a symbol of hatred, bigotry, and racism, offending millions of people” (2016); and
WHEREAS, More than 20 percent (nearly eleven thousand) of our cooperating Southern Baptist congregations identify as predominately non-Anglo and for the last three years more than 50 percent of Southern Baptist new church plants have been predominately non-Anglo; and
WHEREAS, B&H Academic recently published Removing the Stain of Racism from the Southern Baptist Convention, highlighting our continuing need to root out vestiges of racism from our own hearts as Southern Baptists; and
WHEREAS, Racism and white supremacy are, sadly, not extinct but present all over the world in various white supremacist movements, sometimes known as “white nationalism” or “alt-right”; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, June 13–14, 2017, decry every form of racism, including alt-right white supremacy, as antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we denounce and repudiate white supremacy and every form of racial and ethnic hatred as a scheme of the devil intended to bring suffering and division to our society; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we acknowledge that we still must make progress in rooting out any remaining forms of intentional or unintentional racism in our midst; and be it finally
RESOLVED, That we earnestly pray, both for those who advocate racist ideologies and those who are thereby deceived, that they may see their error through the light of the Gospel, repent of these hatreds, and come to know the peace and love of Christ through redeemed fellowship in the Kingdom of God, which is established from every nation, tribe, people, and language.
Those with questions about the alt-right may find this article helpful: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-faqs-what-christians-should-know-about-the-alt-right
Ordinarily I am opposed to naming individuals and/or groups in resolutions for three reasons: First, doing so often diminishes the influence on others who may be guilty of the same offenses but are not named; second, confusion and controversy often exist as to the exact identity of the group named; and third questions arise as to why other offenders are not singled out as well. In this case, I make an exception for the following reasons: One, the group was already singled out by their own public remarks as well as widespread media coverage. Two, the alt-right sought to monopolize #SBC17 on Twitter with weeks of racist tirades which were demeaning to all Southern Baptists but particularly hurtful to African-American Southern Baptists. Three, the alt-right has been relentless in their assault on Southern Baptist leadership, often making the most shameful statements about them by name and insulting their family members as well. Fourth and final, failure to call them out by name would have been almost universally interpreted as a capitulation to fear and a racist history. For these reasons and more, I was gratified that a strongly worded resolution was drafted which the Convention could come together on and an unequivocal denunciation was leveled at the alt-right and any and all groups in the white identity movement.
The 2018 SBC will be held June 12-13 in Dallas, TX.
Full coverage of Convention events and actions can be found at http://www.bpnews.net/collections/230/2017-sbc-annual-meeting
Video from the Pastor’s Conference as well as Convention sessions can be found at http://www.sbc.net/
