Man, the annual meeting of the SBC is so boring. I mean, I know there are some important things we do for our convention, but please.
If you want some info on the meetings today, go to Baptist Press. Good pastor's conference stuff by David Phillips. Some helpful blogging by Bryan Gotcher.
I don't really want to try to report much on today's meetings. I wasn't even that involved in the normal meetings since we had some other good things to do. Let me give you a rundown of the day.
This morning as the annual kicked off, Ricky Skaggs was singing some song and then blowing a shofar (ram's horn). Next, SBC President Bobby Welch started
getting the crowd involved. He said "Who is going to witness, win and baptize one million people in the next year?" Then the crowd would respond "Everyone can!" Ugh. The next step was sadly funny. Bobby would lead the chant, the crowd would respond, and then Ricky would blow the shofar (whooo WHOOOOOO whoooo WHOOOOOO!). I almost popped a hernia laughing. Sheesh. I just don't get this big pep rally mentality. And can I just say that the SBC choir shouldn't wear anything brighter than angel's clothing? Get up and sing and leave the prom dresses at home.
Marty, Joe and I met some Lifeway guys for a coffee in the late morning. Really good guys with vision for the future. They have been very encouraging about our websites and desire to see change in the SBC.
For lunch we met with David Price who we first met on the websites, and who is a recent SBTS grad. We ate at Big River Brewery again. Fantastic chicken Dijon sandwich. While there we noticed we were sitting next to Tim Sweatman, uber-poster at the Lifeway Younger Leaders discussion board. David put a pic of us on his site while we were checking our sites at Lifeway's Wi-fi area. The guy with the blue shirt in the pic on the left is Craig. He works with Lifeway at MyBibleStudy.com. He is a fan of my site and willing to be helpful to an extreme. Thanks for everything Craig!
A writer for the NC Biblical Recorder sent me, Joe, and Marty a list of questions for some article. It took some time to answer, but I think it will be helpful. They've written this, this and this about things we are doing and saying. The third article took a statement I made about Jerry Vines a bit out of context, but there are some good things there (Steve DeVane corrected it. Thanks Steve).
In the afternoon I heard this from Bobby Welch, a paraphrase: If every church in this convention would have TWO revivals this year it would change everything. When the symbolic leader of the convention says that, you know you are in trouble. If he actually meant real revivals, we would only need one. If he means revival meetings, I've been at enough to know this is nothing close to what our convention needs. We need a missional revolution Bobby.
Dinner was at the Wildhorse Saloon with Marty and Joe. A famous, fun place for
good food, line-dancing, and live music. That's a hot pretzel sandwich with ham, cheese, and some sort of mustard sauce. Highly recommended from our server, Lindsay, who is moving back home to California next month. Man, that sandwich was really good. The potato salad was fantastic. Don't miss this place in Nashville. You may even meet the pink cowgirl.
The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission report was something I could have predicted, but the video presentation which was much better than I hoped. It's the most compassionate thing I've seen on homosexuality from the convention. In the video a former homosexual said that homosexuals don't need a finger pointing at them, but a hand to hold. Another said that homosexuals need someone to say "I will walk toward Jesus with you." Great line, and the heart of incarnational, missional living.
A few last comments. The convention is the "sole member" of the NOBTS corporation. I have never felt competent to decide on a position. Ultimately I trust those who have said it wouldn't be good for the seminary because of how laws in the state work, but I have to go on the word of others and the literature I've seen. Doesn't matter much now. (see Dee's take, thanks for the link Alex)
It was a good but exhausting day. As many good conversationalists have left (Chris Seay, Darrin Patrick, Daniel Montgomery, and now Marty Duren), we are left with boring business. Let's hope Joe and I can think of some way to shake things up tomorrow.