Dennis Kim would be a good choice for SBC President

I think that Korean pastor Dennis Manpoong Kim would be a good choice for SBC president this year. He would have my vote were I present. Kim's Silver Spring, Maryland church, Global Mission Church, has a predominantly Korean membership, according to a Baptist Press report.

It may surprise many that the Southern Baptist Convention is made up of a considerable number of non-Anglo congregations. A few years ago our North American Mission Board stated that fully 20% are non-Anglo, or as conversely put, ethnic congregations, and that the percentage of such congregations has grown considerably in recent years.

Source: SBC Ethnic Congregations up 66% since 1998

There are three announced SBC presidential candidates. Jared Moore is a young, small church pastor and seminary student known mainly for his blogging. He is the current SBC 2nd Vice President, having been voted to such office with 451 votes in a quorum-lacking session last year. Great guy. Good pastor. Lacks seasoning, a broad knowledge of the SBC and its history and work. Has some positions that he has not thought very deeply about.

Ronnie Floyd is one of the SBC's most prominent megachurch pastors. He lost to Frank Page in 2006 primarily, in my view, because of his almost non-existent Cooperative Program support. His church has since moved to an acceptable, though below average percentage. He is to be nominated by Al Mohler perhaps because (a) Mohler is the SBC's most prominent leader, and (b) Mohler is the SBC's most prominent Calvinist and Floyd is no Calvinist, thereby making a meld of the SBC's two primary theological tribes.   Although he is a stellar, high-powered, and successful pastor, I'm ready to move away from the megachurch/megapastor model for SBC leadership. Floyd would have to be the heavy favorite. If elected, he will do a good job and will have my support.

In some ways one might identify the future growth of the SBC with the growth of non-Anglo congregations such as that of Dennis Kim. I think it would be a very forward looking move for the SBC to elect the pastor of one such congregation as president. Frankly, I cannot think of a better, more visible and positive manner by which we could signal our view of the future of the SBC.

SBC annual meeting attendance, elections, and resolutions

I am a statistics junkie, an interest that goes back to my baseball days and batting averages, slugging percentages, etc. So SBC stats are interesting to me, if not to many others.

Registration was 5,013, the lowest number for an annual meeting held in one of the Bible Belt southern states since World War II. The attendance was lower in 2011 but the meeting was in Phoenix.

One has to conclude that these meetings just aren't what they used to be and, absent a raging controversy that is a lot hotter than the Calvinist/Traditionalist one, we will likely not see numbers above ten thousand again.

Many have proposed alternatives such as regional meetings in addition to the main convention location. While this is doable, I'm not optimistic that there is any will to change. If SBC pastors and others do not see a lot of value in attending the annual meeting when it is in a location proximate to where the greatest concentration of SBC churches are located, I doubt they will see much value in several such locations.

One result of lower registration is seen in election results. For two consecutive years the office of 2nd Vice President was won (a) by a reasonably well known blogger, (b) by a Calvinist blogger, and (c)  at a time when most messengers were not present and voting.

Here are the figures:

2012 SBC Annual Meeting, New Orleans   

      Total registration, 7,484
           
      First  ballot for 2VP:
                  Dave Miller,    673
                  Eric Hankins, 572
                  Brad Akins,    370

      Second ballot:
                  Dave Miller,    1,202
                  Eric Hankins,    798

Miller was elected at a time when about 27% of messengers were present and voting.

2013 SBC Annual Meeting, Houston   
      
       Total registration, 5,103

       2VP ballot:
              Jared Moore, 451
              Don Cass,       223

Moore was elected at a time when about 13% of messengers were present and voting.

I doubt that there has been a convention officer elected with fewer votes in a century. Some enterprising researcher can look that up.

One might conclude that bloggers are now in a position to pull a significant number of votes, especially at times when most messengers are drinking coffee and browsing the bookstore and exhibit hall.

With so few in attendance, and with the resolutions being presented on Wednesday when many messengers have already left, there is the potential for some mischief in resolutions. Issues of national interest like the Boy Scout controversy and clergy sexual abuse usually generate some mainstream media interest. A goofball amendment supported by just a few hundred of the millions of Southern Baptists could embarrass us. Thankfully, no such goofball was foisted on the convention this year.

On resolutions, we might consider taking the course of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship which does not do resolutions, but this would deprive many SBCers of a fun time where they get to have their moment of fame at a mic. I hardly think the SBC would be harmed by eschewing resolutions and our Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission can speak for us and should on important matters. I don't see any change in the resolution process, however.

Next year the convention is in Baltimore, a non-traditional location though still south of the Mason-Dixon Line. There will be a contested presidential election (Eric Hankins? Ronnie Floyd? J. D. Greear, David Platt or of one of the other young turks? Blogger?) which should ensure attendance greater than this year.

I'm saving my pennies and planning to make the trek.

Aside from the oppressive Houston humility, er humidity, the SBC should be a good one

While I doubt anyone would confuse the humidity at an SBC meeting in Houston with humility, the former obvious from one's first morning breath, the latter always in short supply amongst our struttin', backslappin', gregarious brethren, I am optimistic that the annual meeting will be good.

Here are a few things I read in the tea leaves from afar, no benefactor having offered to pay my expenses to attend the meeting (second consecutive year this has happened).

Elections

• Fred Luter will be reelected as president and will deliver a stem-winding, corn-shucking, rip-roaring sermon.
• Bart Barber will be elected 1st VP. He is a sensible, reasonable, quality pastor.
• Jared Moore, whom I know from SBC Voices, will not be elected 2nd VP but will continue to grow in knowledge and grace as he ages and works toward an advanced degree. He is a serious minded young man. Try again.

 The Calvinist Report

• It will pass easily but there is really nothing controversial in it and it requires no action.
• Various SBC luminaries will offer comments filled with sweetness and light.
• An outlier messenger or two may get to a mic and ask a dumb question, but that's the SBC.

 Peter Lumpkins' resolution on Sex Abuse (look for my article later today on the subject)

• Will be buried in the resolution committee and not reported out to the floor with the reason offered that the SBC has addressed the issue in previous resolutions.
• An attempt to put it on the floor for a vote will fail.
• The SBC will have missed a good opportunity to get ahead of a scandal that will embarrass some of our prominent leaders.

 The statistical report

• There will be hand-wringing, weeping, and gnashing of teeth over the sharply lower baptism total for 2012. 
• God will be blamed for this in that He hasn't sent revival.
• Pastors will be blamed for this for not witnessing.
• Jerry Drace, president of the SBC Evangelists group, will blame pastors for not using vocational evangelists.
• No one but Kevin Ezell will be able to say they are doing something that might change the downward trend.

 Boy Scouts

• Boy Scouts will be beaten up.
• The near defunct and moribund SBC Boy Scout alternative, Royal Ambassadors, will be touted. 

People-watching

• Look for the mega pastors and mega wannabees to be wearing suits or at least dress shirts with cufflinks. See how they strut (you could strut like that with some practice, get a full length mirror).
• Observe carefully how many of the Reverends are embarrassingly rotund. Follow one to lunch and find out why.
• Be sure and not miss the miscellaneous business sessions because that is where you will be entertained by a few oddball messengers offering oddball motions. Hey, it's their right.
• Lament the lack of tonsorial enhancement, toupees. Thirty years ago there were no shaved heads and hundreds of toupees. Now, scarcely a toupee to be spotted and shiny pates everywhere. 

I regret not being able to attend but, Lord willing, I will make Baltimore next year.

Have fun, after all, you are on an expense account.