Stronger Together

Earlier this month, my wife, Ashley, and I attended the Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando, Florida.

Stronger Together

"Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

(Ephesians 4:3)

Earlier this month, my wife, Ashley, and I attended the Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando, Florida. In our 40 years of marriage, I think we have attended over 30 of these meetings. We always come away encouraged and grateful to God for all the ways He continues to use the SBC.

Is the SBC perfect? No. Are any Christian denominations perfect? No. There are no perfect people; therefore, there cannot be perfect organizations, churches, companies, etc. because all of these groups are composed of imperfect people.

I came away from the meeting in Orlando very optimistic with the direction of the SBC. We had two solid candidates who ran for president, with Pastor Willie Rice of Florida winning the nomination. I read some posts on social media and wondered, "Did they go to the same convention that I did?!" The primary item that garnered most of the attention was the Truth and Unity Amendment that Dr. Al Mohler proposed to the messengers, and it reads: "A cooperating church does not act to affirm, appoint or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation." This proposed amendment to the Constitution of the SBC was passed by a 75% vote of approval by the messengers.

I know this was an important decision by the SBC, and I voted for the amendment as well. But I am glad that has been settled. Now we can turn our main focus to reaching a lost world for Christ, which is where the SBC does its greatest work. We have 47,000 local congregations in the SBC, and each one is encouraged to give a tithe of their operating budget to the SBC Cooperative Program. We currently have 3,500 missionaries serving in many countries around the world, 6,000 missionaries serving in North America, and 25,000 seminary students receiving an excellent theological education. Our Disaster Relief ministry continues to be in the top 3-4 in all the USA. There are many other things I could write about, but as you can tell, I am grateful for our convention of churches.

I am especially grateful for the local church I am serving as lead pastor: Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. Ashley and I love the people in our church and the clear mission God has given us to plant more campuses so we can reach more people. Soon, we will change our name to Waypoint Church with two campuses: one in Austin and the other in Liberty Hill, Texas.

The greatest blessing about being a part of the SBC is we can do so much more for the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus together than we ever could by ourselves.