By Editor Bob Terry
Ten years ago when Alabama Baptists gathered for their annual meeting, tensions ran high between the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions and two of the convention’s fostered entities — Samford University and the University of Mobile (UM).
Samford’s relationship to the convention was up in the air as messengers considered a proposed Covenant of Sacred Trust agreement between the two bodies. A similar covenant proposal had been rejected the previous year.
UM was under suspicion concerning its financial reporting. In an unusual move, the convention’s Audit Committee reported it had serious questions about the university’s financial records.
That was then. This is now. At this year’s annual meeting, harmony and cooperation reigned. Not only are relationships between the colleges and the convention on solid ground, the relationship between the institutions has never been stronger.
That point was clearly demonstrated when Samford President Andrew Westmoreland was introduced to messengers for the first time. Messengers greeted the new president with a standing ovation, and when he finished speaking, messengers joined in a special time of prayer for Westmoreland, as well as the presidents of Judson College and UM.
Westmoreland was introduced to messengers by David Potts, president of Judson, and Mark Foley, president of UM. The two talked about their colleague in ministry, about the three presidents standing in solidarity for the cause of Christian higher education.
Such a scene was almost unimaginable a decade ago. Ten years ago, relationships among the schools were characterized by rancor, not collegiality. And many Alabama Baptists lined up behind their favorite school, causing a dangerous rift in relationships among Alabama Baptists as a whole.
Now the schools provide a source of unity. They stand together. They celebrate each other’s successes. They work together and, in so doing, help all Alabama Baptists work together for the cause of Christ.
This transformation started long before Westmoreland’s election as Samford’s president. Foley has given nine years of reliable leadership at UM. He has guided that institution through perilous times and moved the school to a position of strength and growth. Potts has always been the epitome of grace and strength.
Alabama Baptists will also remember earlier times when the two stood with now retired Samford president Thomas E. Corts, a pillar of integrity, in similar solidarity as demonstrated with Westmoreland.
Time also helped. Time proved some of the fears about Samford’s changed relationship to the convention unfounded.
The university’s leadership never worked harder to be a cooperative member of the Alabama Baptist family than during the past decade. At UM, some of the charges circulating a decade ago were proven baseless. Others necessitated difficult changes, but they were made and the institution moved on.
Unlike in some state conventions, Alabama Baptists decided not to resort to lawsuits against one another or to defund institutions or to break relationships. Alabama Baptists determined to find a way to work together. We did and a decade later, the benefits were clear for all to see.
What a difference a decade makes.
There were other notable differences from a decade ago. Ten years ago, every convention office was contested. In fact, hundreds of new messengers registered during the final convention session just in time to vote for convention officers. This year, each new convention officer was elected without opposition and without a last minute influx of messengers.
That undoubtedly contributed to the decline in registered messengers. Ten years ago, 1,938 people registered as messengers to the annual meeting. This year, registration barely topped 1,100 for the two-day meeting held at Hunter Street Baptist Church, Hoover. The exact number was 1,104.
This year’s 184th annual meeting of the Alabama Baptist State Convention was a time of encouragement from beginning to end. In a way that only the Holy Spirit could plan, each theme interpretation, the convention sermon and the Tuesday evening inspirational message challenged listeners to demonstrate the love of God to people where they are. Over and over again, speakers lamented attempts to make people “look like us, act like us and think like us” before they can be saved.
Alabama-native Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church, Pensacola, Fla., challenged listeners to let their faith in God drive them to care for the poor, to support groups like single moms and to get involved in their communities through working in public schools.
Evangelism and ministry are both built on the bedrock conviction of the personal Lordship of Jesus Christ as outgoing convention President Henry Cox proclaimed in his president’s address.
Messengers were eager to express many of their social concerns through resolutions. Alabama Baptists eagerly lined up to reaffirm a total abstinence position related to alcohol. At the Southern Baptist Convention earlier this year, there was some debate about the biblical support for abstinence. For Alabama Baptist messengers, there was no question.
Other resolutions ranged from opposition to the use of tobacco to a call to strengthen the Alabama Ethics Act, related to the conduct of government officials, to support for refugees in Sudan. Obviously the Christian faith is already driving the concern of many Alabama Baptists about issues of morality and social justice.
It is too early to tell how the just-completed annual meeting will be remembered in history. For me, it will be remembered as a time of encouragement and unity. And as I look back on the growing number of annual meetings in which I have participated, I will always marvel at how this convention demonstrated what a difference a decade can make.
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