LovingLoud :: The 2009 Annual Meeting

Well, the first day of our business session is in the books and I thought I would share a few observations about the week so far. I haven't read anyone else's blog today, so it will be interesting, once I've published this, to see what others are thinking. My guess is that there will be those who are discouraged by many of the resolutions that attempted to call out other people by name. As a result it could be tempting to think of this as an unfortunate convention. Do not count me among the discouraged. To the contrary, I have found this to be the best convention I have ever attended. First and foremost, we have been blessed by passionate, Gospel centered, Bible driven preaching. There has been more preaching of this type than I've heard before. On top of that, we had the privilege on Monday night of hearing one of the greatest messages I've ever heard by Dr. David Platt. Beyond that, their has been a tremendous sense of harmony, in spite of what has been said at some microphones. Always remember that the microphones don't always represent the spirit of the convention - the more accurate barometer of the convention would be the voting itself. In that vein, the Great Commission Resurgence was soundly affirmed tonight - and an attempt to divert attention away with a motion to amend the original motion was soundly defeated. So, our convention has begun the process of evaluating our processes and entities and will hopefully lead to a more effective attempt to take the Gospel to the world and help us more faithfully proclaim the glory of God. This is vitally important to local Southern Baptist churches as we use this process to engage in much of what we do in missions.

Further there has been a strong registration of messengers. As of this evening there were almost 9,000 messengers registered which is significantly higher than last night. Beyond that, Jim Wells, our convention's registration secretary, shared with me that the number of younger messengers appears to be higher than we've seen in quite sometime. I've been significantly impressed with the number of younger Southern Baptists hear this year. I would guess that they have become excited about the GCR concept and have come to support it.

Finally, the encouragement that we receive from mentors and faithful Southern Baptists who have served for years has been priceless. Our convention is filled with so many faithful pastors, missionaries and church leaders who continue to encourage me. I am incredibly grateful for their examples.

So, overall while I have seen some things that bother me (and it wouldn't be an SBC if I hadn't), this convention has been a wonderful convention. I'm thrilled with what God has done and am excited about the ways that God has spoken to me personally. This week has been one of the most spiritually encouraging times I've had in quite some time.