SBC annual meeting to surprise conventiongoers

This year’s Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting promises to offer a new twist to the traditional routine, said SBC President Bobby Welch. From an anticipated record number involved in Crossover to baptism services during the convention sessions to a special segment honoring the life and work of Billy Graham, the annual meeting has kept convention planners busier than ever before.
   
Welch, a Fort Payne native, arrived in Nashville the end of February to begin an intensive two-month push toward the June meeting. He and his wife, Maudellen, temporarily relocated to the convention city in order to focus efforts strategically on the area.
   
“We moved to middle Tennessee because this is the place of action in June,” said Welch, who has served as pastor of the 4,100-member First Baptist Church, Daytona Beach, Fla., for 30 years.
   
Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, said jokingly that Welch has worn out the staff. “We’re tired,” Chapman quipped. “Employees are dropping like flies.”
   
But all joking aside, Chapman described Welch as “a highly creative movie director” and the annual meeting as “a gigantic film being made on location,” Chapman said. “Only he and the Lord know everything that will happen at the annual meeting.
   
“I don’t want to miss it,” he said. “Whenever he engages in a process, something’s bound to happen that’s unusual and extraordinary.”
   
As Welch nears the final quarter of his term as president, his goal is to fill the 23,000-seat Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville for the culmination of Crossover events June 18 and during the annual meeting June 22–23.
   
Already noted for his unique approach to the presidency — beginning his year with a bus tour across the nation and into Canada as well as visiting Hawaii and Alaska, all in 25 travel days — Welch said he is doing the same thing now in Tennessee. 
   
By focusing on an 80-mile radius around Nashville, he said, “I want to do what I have done all across the nation. It is intense. I’m speaking two or three times a day. 
   
“I want to move middle Tennessee people toward the convention,” said Welch, who has spent nearly every waking minute since elected campaigning for the “Everyone Can Kingdom Challenge! Witness, Win, and Baptize … One Million!”
   
Pushing the goal of baptizing 1 million people between Oct. 1, 2005, and Oct. 1, 2006, Welch plans to launch the challenge during the final session of the annual meeting.
   
And by bringing more people to the convention, Welch hopes to increase the chances of reaching the goal. “We are urging churches and associations (across the nation) to be a part of this.”
   
Welch sets high goals, possibly even unobtainable goals, but he believes by setting the goals high Southern Baptists will achieve more than they would have otherwise. And, on the flip side, he realizes the results will be very telling of the health of the convention. “This effort is going to expose us,” he said.
   
“If we do not have a significant increase in baptisms after this effort, it will signal we have some extraordinary problems,” Welch said. “We will have problems that should shake this convention.
   
“We cannot say that somebody needs to do something, because we will have wholeheartedly put forth a strong effort.”
   
But even with the risk of facing heartbreak, Welch chooses to remain always optimistic, consistent with his personality and pattern in the ministry.
   
“If we baptize 1 million or at the very least have a significant increase, we will know that we have broken the code,” he said. “We will know where to go … and that is to stay focused on the main thing, which is the Great Commission.”
   
Once the answer is revealed, Welch predicts the leadership of the convention at that time will be called to task. “What will they do? Are they committed?” he asked. “This is a very telling time, and it deserves the very best effort.”
   
And the very best effort is what Welch wants to give. 
   
Chapman described Welch as “an untiring soldier of the cross … a bold and visionary leader.”
   
“He has a strong conviction that God’s plan for winning the world is through the local church,” Chapman said. “He is willing to go the extra mile in any task he accepts for the sake of the Kingdom.”
   
Welch, founder of the FAITH Sunday School Evangelism Strategy, believes Crossover — specifically Saturday’s event — will make or break the Everyone Can goal.
   
“Dr. Welch … practices what he preaches, and he is praying that Crossover will be the greatest one-day evangelistic effort in the history of the convention,” Chapman said. “Hopefully thousands will arrive in time to participate in Crossover.”
   
So far, 3,600 have signed up for Crossover events June 18, Welch noted, and 5,000 have agreed to go door-to-door witnessing.
   
This could be a record-breaking year, he added. 
   
When the volunteers arrive that morning, they will gather in the Gaylord Entertainment Center for a kick-off rally. During the afternoon, the volunteers will participate in visitation efforts headed up by an area church. That evening, everyone will return to the entertainment center for a time of celebration, testimonies and praise and worship.
   
“Video clips from the rally and celebration will be shown during the convention meeting,” Welch said, emphasizing his commitment to the Crossover efforts.
   
Welch also has shaken up the normal routine of SBC annual meeting sessions by adding a new element — baptisms.
   
Martin King, spokesperson for the North American Mission Board, said the baptisms are being scheduled during the opening of each session and that NAMB officials are helping organize the effort.
   
King said Nashville-area churches participating in Crossover will be the ones holding the baptisms. “It is certainly possible that people who accept Christ at Crossover could be among this group,” he added.
   
King and Welch both recognize the confusion a baptism service at the annual meeting could cause, but both explained the convention is not baptizing. The churches will be baptizing the people into their local congregations, King said. It is just the location that is changing. 
   
Another new aspect this year will be a mass choir that will sing during the final session June 23. Gadsden native Larry Black, interim minister of music for First Baptist Church, Daytona Beach, Fla., will lead the choir that Welch hopes will have 2,000 members. 
   
Black said there are currently 915 choir members from across the country confirmed.
   
As far as the speakers go, Welch has invited a bivocational pastor, a divorced mother of two and a young pastor to speak. He said the last speaker will be the only well known speaker — Jimmy Draper, president of LifeWay Christian Resources.
   
Many also will be interested in the segment honoring the life and work of Billy Graham, said Welch, who declined to reveal whether Graham himself would be present.
   
And while the unusual agenda planned by Welch may draw the most attention, it is Welch’s own address that Chapman does not want to miss. “Because of Dr. Welch’s love for our Lord and our convention and his burden for souls in the coming century, I belive God will give him a message that will stir the hearts of all who hear him on that day,” Chapman said. “God has something unimaginable in store for Southern Baptists.”