The Hallmark of the Phoenix Convention

As expected, the 2011 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting in Phoenix was the least attended national convention in more than 65 years. Only 4,821 messengers registered from the more than 43,000 cooperating SBC churches. One has to go back to 1944 to find such a low total.

Alabama registered 244 messengers, which equals 28 percent of the number who attended the 2010 annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

But it is not the size (or lack of it) that will be remembered about this year’s annual meeting. Rather the hallmark of this meeting will be its spirit of cooperation and the actions that supported that spirit.

Missing from this year’s meeting was the “trash talk” of past conventions through which various personalities tried to advance agendas by blaming others for perceived SBC problems. Neither speakers nor messengers threw verbal rocks at each other in Phoenix.

Past actions resulted in a situation described by SBC Executive Committee President Frank Page when he said, “I have discovered that there is little trust in our convention now — little trust in our entities, little trust in our Executive Committee, little trust in our state conventions, little trust anywhere.”

Page led in signing an Affirmation of Unity and Cooperation (see story, page 4). The affirmation is an attempt to lift up the values of mutual respect and cooperation among Southern Baptists. Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions Executive Director Rick Lance was among state convention executive directors publically endorsing the affirmation.

Perhaps the clearest demonstration of a new sense of cooperation among Southern Baptists occurred at the news conference following Bryant Wright’s re-election as SBC president. Wright invited the new presidents of the three major SBC entities to join him — Page; Tom Elliff, International Mission Board; and Kevin Ezell, North American Mission Board (NAMB).

Wright pointed out that all three were attending their first annual meeting as leader of their respective entity. All four men pledged to work together in unity, mutual respect and cooperation with one another and Southern Baptists.

That may seem like a little thing but it is not. Those who follow the workings of Southern Baptists closely know that unhealthy tensions have characterized relationships among SBC entities in past years as well as the SBC and state conventions recently. Insiders also know that some SBC boards of trustees have been impaired by internal tensions that went beyond healthy disagreements.

Leaving Phoenix, one could be cautiously optimistic that the values of unity, mutual respect and cooperation are once again ascending in Southern Baptist life.

Ezell illustrated that point in his report (see story, page 7) when he pointed to the partnership NAMB has with state conventions. Explaining the number of NAMB missionaries, he said more than two-thirds of the 5,100 missionaries are jointly funded with state conventions. In many cases, NAMB pays only insurance, meaning state conventions pay most of the expenses for these missionaries. NAMB provides total support for only 38 national missionaries, Ezell said. That reality is not what most people believe.

Obviously NAMB cannot do its ministry assignments without the partnership with state conventions.

Ezell emphasized the importance of a continuing partnership with state conventions by calling for joint efforts in church planting and evangelistic ministry in every state convention. He also continued efforts to correct false information reported two years ago by saying again that 80 percent of NAMB’s budget goes to underserved areas of the United States and Canada, a percentage he hopes to increase through organizational changes.

The call for unity, mutual respect and cooperation went beyond entity relationships and SBC/state convention relationships, however. The call also included participation of ethnics in convention life. The SBC has been called the most ethnically diverse Protestant denomination in the nation for more than 20 years. But participation of ethnics on boards and committees has been limited. In Phoenix, messengers approved a plan that provides annual accountability to see if entities are seeking participation and input from ethnics.

Over the years, Southern Baptists have adopted many resolutions calling for participation by ethnics, but this is the first time any system of accountability has been put in place.

Some ethnic Baptist groups have their own conventions — Hispanic, Korean, Chinese, Russian, etc. Some of these groups cooperate with the SBC, but they have primarily a collegial relationship. It will be interesting to see how open ethnic Baptist leaders are to participation in and support of the SBC.

Messengers put action behind their invitation for ethnic participation in SBC life by electing Fred Luter first vice president. Luter, senior pastor of the 7,000-member Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, New Orleans, is the first black to serve as first vice president. He previously served as second vice president and preached the convention sermon in 2001.

It should be remembered that Southern Baptists first elected a black as a convention officer in 1974 when Charles King of Kentucky was elected second vice president. In the 1990s, Gary Frost of Ohio was elected second vice president after serving as a SBC Executive Committee officer. And Eric Redmond of Maryland served as second vice president 2007–08.

Luter is the first to serve as first vice president and already is being promoted as a candidate for president when Southern Baptists meet in his hometown in 2012. If he is elected, however, Luter will not be the first ethnic SBC president. That honor goes to immediate past President Johnny Hunt, who is Native American.

Revelation 5:9 describes believers from every “tribe, tongue, people and nation” worshiping God through faith in Jesus Christ. That is part of the reason Southern Baptists are serious about taking the gospel to the 3,800 people groups who have yet to be engaged (see story, page 5).

As we take the gospel to others, it seems evident that Southern Baptists are reaffirming that we want to do this ministry together and we want our fellowship on earth to reflect the glory of God in heaven — service and praise from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

That is the hallmark of the Phoenix convention.