Unsexy Church

Season 3 Episode 23: SBC and What they Do

• First Baptist Tampa • Season 1 • Episode 23

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The Unsexy Church Podcast

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The Unsexy Church is a weekly podcast exploring the real, everyday life within our church family. Each week, join Pastor Bob (Senior Pastor) and Darren (Worship & Discipleship Pastor) as they sit down to discuss a wide variety of subjects—from deep theological questions to the practical, often "unsexy" work of following Jesus and building a healthy local church.

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VBS Day One And Church Life

Hey gang. Welcome back to the Unsexy Church Podcast, the podcast ministry of First Baptist Church of Tampa, Florida, where our mission is to help you connect to a thriving life in Christ. Good afternoon, everybody. Hey Darren. Hello. It's afternoon. Normally it's morning, but it's afternoon today. It is. Because we had a busy morning. We have. Very busy. Today was our first day of VBS, Vacation Bible School. Yes to VBS. Say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. Yes. To VBS. So, Jordan, did you push record this time? Yes. Okay. Yeah. The red button is on. Just making sure we're just a question. Very good. Yes, it was the first day of vacation Bible school. That's right. Jordan, growing up, did you did you have VBS in France? I would not know. Maybe the French would. I don't know. Where I doubt it. Where did where was it? Belgium? In Belgium. Yes. No, we didn't know. No VBS? Yes, no. Man, you don't know what you're missing out on. Oh no, I I see what I'm missing now. This week. Lots of uh our whole church is decorated. Every room is decorated. We've got kids from all ages running around here learning about Jesus, chanting in the hallways, their their group chants, learning about missions. Um so we're it's it's been and we can speak about Lumi now. We can speak about Lumi. Our little what is he? What is it? What do you call it? Mascot? The mascot. The BBS mascot, Lumi. He is a desk light. Come to life, I guess. Yeah, yeah. He looks really good. He does. Creation of Jordan. He did a good job. He's yeah. We're we're using the life weight theme and material this year. Yep. Which is Illumination Station. So very good. Yep. So we've had I I don't know how many kids we had here, Dave. I didn't get a number yet. I haven't heard the final number yet, but I'm our pre-registration was larger than normal. Yep. So it was exciting. Kids were excited. I don't think we had any incidents, no blood or anything. Not that I heard of. Yeah. No, I think we're in good shape. A couple of ice bags, actually. A couple of ice bags. Yes, we did have young young man get a little over exuberant with his motions and poke himself in the eyes. So that was that's not good. I hope he's doing okay. Self-inflicted. It was. Oh man. Oh goodness. Well, we'll be praying for him. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Got a little bit. I appreciate the enthusiasm though, man. For sure. For sure. That's cool, man.

When Worship Gets Stripped Back

Yeah, we had a good Sunday. Um, Sunday was a little different. Uh we uh kind of, you know, our stage was commandeered by the VBS set, so we didn't have a choir or even a full band. We just kind of had uh the piano and acoustic guitar, and that was just that's kind of cool just to be able to stand up there and hear uh the congregation. Just I can hear the congregation actually every week, but you can really hear them, you know. And we had lots of opportunity for a cappella singing, and our room is just built for that. It really is. It really is. And our folks are good about participating. They're not sitting there listening, they they're really good about participating. But yesterday really emphasized that just with the scaling it back and yeah, and it's cool. And I think it's just a good reminder, you know, especially in church world and in unsexy church world that you there's not a prerequisite of things you have to have um to worship in spirit and truth, right? You don't have to have drums. Do we like having drums? Yes, that could be debatable for some of you out there. Uh you know, you don't have to have an electric guitar or a bass or keys or you fill in the blank, right? Um you just have to have Jesus, you know, and and so that was that was just really a good a good reminder of that for me yesterday, um, just to remember what we're really doing and just kind of get regrounded a little bit, I guess, in my own thinking sometimes. You know, you you put together a team and you think, oh, we don't have a drummer, we don't have a bass player this week. What what are we gonna do? You know, and guess what? We can still worship the Lord, man. Exactly. Yeah. And I think our folks really enjoyed the change of pace, too. Yeah, you you can even even as diverse as we are, you can get in ruts sometimes if you're doing the same things. And so just changing up a little bit and making it different was I I think our folks appreciated it. Yeah, the comments I received were positive. Yeah, I I really enjoyed doing it. I mean, I just I thought it was really cool. I liked

The SBC Started In 1845

it. All right, I got a fun fact for you, gentlemen. Fun fact. Fun fact. Uh, we are next week, um perhaps begins the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting right here in our home state of Florida. Over in Orlando. In Orlando. We're gonna be making the trek there next Sunday, spend a few days there. And uh so today's fun fact is I think Bob probably knows this, but I don't I wonder if Jordan knows this. When was the very first SBC uh annual meeting? I have no clue. Man, you should have been listening earlier. He was he gave you he gave you a little hint. I did. For those of you out there, he's thinking. Jordan has his thinking face on. I can smell it. May 8th. May 8th. What year do you think, Jordan? Literally, Bob said it earlier. He didn't? I didn't. Did you say 1980? I did not know. 1980? I don't know. Some would say that's when the real that's when they really kind of got it. It starts with a one. Oh, okay. And then an eight. Eight. So you're off by you know a few years. 1890. 1845. 1845. Listen to this language. We don't use language like this anymore. I just think it's it's interesting. I've got to put on my uh readers. Here it goes. Its stated intent was to be, quotation starts, for the purpose of carrying into effect the benevolent intention of our con of our constituents by organizing a plan for eliciting, combining, and directing the energies of the denomination for the propagation of the gospel. Wow. Stated intent. Right. So we know what that means. We got together to combine resources, basically. To to send the gospel to the ends of the earth, to fulfill the great commission. Better together than we can abolish. There we go. Better together, man. That's just a a better, uh easier way to say it. 1845. 1845, May 8th. So here we go again.

People Of The Book And Autonomy

So why are we Southern Baptists? Because we are definitely a Southern Baptist church, right? Yeah, we are a Southern Baptist church. We're proud to be. Would not deny that. No. You know, we I I don't mind telling anyone that we're a Southern Baptist church. Um some of the governing documents, I think, I think for for me, I guess you know, where you say why why are we Southern Baptists? And I'm just gonna say for for me and and what we some of the things we cover in our first steps class, um we Southern Baptists have have historically and generally been people of the book. We are people what is what we'd say, people of the book or people of the Bible. We hold in high regard the the word of God. We try to let the word of God rule and reign in us and direct everything that we do. Um and so for me that's the primary that's the primary thing. If there was something else out there that did that better somehow, some way, sure, doctrinally, theologically, I would I'd run to it. But uh if there was a denomination that stuck closer to God's revealed word, right? I I think we would we would be inclined that way. But right Southern Baptists have traditionally been the group that has unapologetically said the Bible is the inerrant, infallible word of God. It is our authority in life, and everything comes from that. Exactly. And so I can I can work with that. I can I can live with that, right? Now we've debated it with amongst ourselves over the years, but and it's one thing to say that and another thing to live it out, right? We've had hiccups and bumps along the way. We're we're uh you know a denomin, and we're not technically we don't know if we want to talk about this, we're not technically a denomination, right? Uh, but I mean we we're a group we've we've we've stumbled a few times in in different areas, but it seems to be that at the end of the day, or maybe the end of the decade, we get it right. Sure. You know, we we've we get we get the word of God into the people of God. And so um it it's a dynamic, interesting organization structure. And if you're not familiar with it, it's and I think we've talked about this on the podcast at some point, right? So um it's it's not a top-down organization, it's a bottom-up organization. So each local church is completely autonomous. Uh in the Southern Baptist Convention, there's not an organization or a group or a committee that tells the local church what to do or what to believe or how they've used their money or what pastor's gonna be, or uh the the each local church owner. They don't own the property, each local church owns their own property. So that's different from other denominations. But then when you kind and voluntarily cooperate together to accomplish things, right, you have to structure yourself in such a way that you can do that without a top-down hierarchical kind of structure. So it makes it interesting. Some challenges sometimes. It does, but it's it's it's worthwhile and I think we've got a good system in place. Yeah. So Bob, why why are we even why are we even talking about the SBC today? Well, because it is part of who we are. It's not the defining you know, definition, defining definition. That's not the definition of who we are, but it we're not apologetic about it because we believe we can accomplish more. Yeah. So we we cooperate with Southern Baptists because they're a people of the book. We are a people of the book, but because of the mission of taking the gospel around the world, and we can cooperate with Southern

Why The Annual Meeting Matters

Baptists to do that, to get that done. Yeah, and as you mentioned, the the annual convention is coming up in Orlando. We meet annually. Uh, messengers, representatives from uh local churches go and gather together. Some 47,000 Southern Baptist churches. Um, some of them send messengers to the association or to the uh convention this year. There should be about 20,000 or so. 20,000. 20,000 meeting together uh to conduct the business of the Southern Baptist Convention. Um now the convention technically only exists two days out of the year, right? The two days where we meet together to gather together. The rest of the time we are run by an executive committee and entities that oversee the mission and the and the ministries of the convention. So this two-day period of time is us electing officers. It is hearing reports from our entities, right? It is talking about resolutions and different things that are coming up as a as a convention of people. And so that's why we're talking about this today, is because you and I has kind of been on our radar, but it's next week, it's it's and it's a pretty big one this year here in Orlando. Coming up, it could be it's gonna be well attended. Um, like you said, there's gonna be 20,000 people there, which is a pretty large crowd for the SBC. Um hard to find a place. Uh, you know, there's not very many places in the United States that you where you can hold and do all the things you need to do, because it's not just one big group meeting, right? There's several different uh entities holding breakouts and their own meetings and lunches and dinners, and there's a big um expo uh area where people are setting up booths uh with uh resources to help you um again accomplish the mission of the of the SBC. So uh let's just kind of talk about the meeting a little bit. We're gonna Sunday through Wednesday morning, right? Yeah, Wednesday morning. Actually Wednesday afternoon this year. Yeah, it goes to about four in the afternoon. That's right. It goes, it does go longer. Yeah. Wow. All right. So and that's where it it's really broken up into two sections. So Sunday night, all day Monday is what's known as the pastors' conference, okay. Yep, which is a time where pastors and their families and staff, it's really open to whoever, but that's really the target. We we go and it's really kind of a just a time of spiritual renewal, revival for us, right? Where we hear good preaching and teaching. And many there's usually a theme. There is there's a theme or a book uh of the Bible that they're expositing for us. Um so there's not a lot of business conducted in those that first day and a half. That's really just a time for the pastors to get away and just kind of be fed for a while and just kind of relax and enjoy and worship. And it's one of my favorite parts every year. I think Shane and Shane are leading uh the worship this year. I you know, they've kind of become a staple at SBC in one way or the other. They they show up so now, man. They're either at the pastors' conference or at the actual meeting itself, and sometimes both. And so I bet we see some of that this year. Yeah. And they're doing some things different at the pastors' conference this year. There's the general sessions where everybody's involved, and then there's some breakout section sessions for the different ministries. So worship ministry, discipleship ministry, and then the various age group ministry, student ministry. So uh that's a that's optional. You can go do those, you can stay in the main section session. So uh yeah, I'm looking forward to yeah. There's some good preachers coming this year. There always are, but there's there's some there's some good folks coming this year. This year that's Monday or sorry, Sunday night. Um, so we'll leave here you know sometime in the afternoon, get there Sunday night for that. And then go along the parking lot that is I-4 and get over to Orlando. Yeah. Usually we play a game um when we when we're on the way to SBC. Uh the the game is usually you're in the airport and we're trying to pick out who the SBC pastors are. Pick the pastors. That's it's fairly easy. They are they are kind of easy to spot in the crowd. Yeah, even if I mean obviously we know a lot of them here. We we know a lot of them in the Tampa Bay area, so we'll see them in the airport, and you're a lot of times we're on the plane with them. But even if you have a layover somewhere, uh you you can tell. There's a stereotype. There's a uniform. There is I would say that there's a uniform. It's uh you at the minimum uniform is a blue plaid sport coat. That's the new one. Yeah. You've got to have a blue and you can tell who's up and coming in the SBC. Or wants to be. Or wants to be up and coming SBC by the by the uh the quality of their or the even the uniqueness of their blue plaid SBC sport coat. I mean, it's almost like I I believe the technical term is window pane. Window pane. Yes. It's almost like the uh gold jacket. Ooh, wow. Or the green jacket for Augusta. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice. So I don't know. But we digress. Yeah. Sorry. Not gonna be able to play that game. We're not gonna be able to play that game today or uh next week because we'll we'll be in the car. Um but uh driving to Orlando, we'll get there Sunday night, we'll uh start the pastor's conference Monday uh morning or Monday all day, really. Monday morning and evening will also be the pastor's conference. Um the convention itself starts Tuesday. Tuesday runs all day Tuesday and then all day Wednesday. Yep. Um and I'm excited we've got several of our church members who aren't normally able to attend because it's usually in Anaheim or Indianapolis or somewhere else. It's so close by that we we're allowed to take 12 messengers from our church based on our size and our giving. Um we're not taking 12, but we're taking a good contingent over. And so I'm excited that some of our folks are gonna come over and and and get to experience it and see what's going on. So that all happens on Tuesday, and that's where we uh get the reports from the entities where we vote

SBC Entities And What They Do

on various things, and so it'll be it'll be interesting this year. So when you say reports from the entities, like what who are we gonna hear from? All right, so entities are just the groups that are carrying out the missions, mission and ministries of the of the convention. So that's the North American Mission Board, International Mission Board, Guidestone, which does um financial planning, retirement monies for ministers and families. Mission dignity, mission dignity, those kind of things. Uh Lifeway, which is our our printed resources, our digital resources. It used to be called the Sunday School Board. It did back in the year. Back in those years that we were talking about earlier with Jordan. Yeah. Back in the day. Uh then there's the ERLC, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which is supposed to be our voice that speaks to issues in Washington, D.C., to our government. Um I say it's supposed to because in the past we've had some issues with leadership. So we got a new leader now, and so we're looking forward to hearing his report. Yep. Uh, and then we have six seminaries, and those seminaries all give reports. Uh they're all all of these entities give written reports, and then the leaders, the uh leaderhead, the heads of those entities give reports as well. Uh so we have Gateway Seminary, Midwestern Seminary, New Orleans Seminary, Southern, Southeastern, and Southwestern. So there's six seminaries, and so they all give reports. This is what's going on, this is what we're doing, these are the things. So that'll that'll be we'll hear from each one of those. They'll they'll we'll hear several sermons also in the middle of all that. There's a a convention sermon, there's the uh president's message, you know, and and several other there'll be times of of worship um spread out through there where we can stand and sing. Um and then there'll be times where um there's actual business being conducted. We'll hear these re reports, but before we even get to the business, like usually the way that

The Sending Service That Reorients Us

they open up the um convention is kind of cool. There's some preliminary things that happen. Um, but then like what really kind of gets it kicked off is the it's usually a like a combined uh IMB, NAMB, International Mission Board, uh, North American Mission Board Combined Sending Uh Service. What is that? What's a sending service for those who don't know? That's a that's a highlight for the whole week. Yeah, it is where individuals who have given their lives to go uh onto the mission field and take the gospel um where we commission them as an or as an organization. Yeah. So they've already gone through their training, they've gone and and been processed, and now they're about to go out and be deployed to various parts of the world. And so they come forward, they just briefly share a testimony, um, and we get to see them visually, and then we pray over all of them. But some of them are going to areas of the world where their faces cannot be seen because it's you know, they have to go and and become teachers or something else in order to share the gospel. Yeah. But if they're going to areas of the world where it is not legal to do so. They can't share exactly where they're going. Exactly. And and that's that's a pretty good contingent. It really I would say mm probably over half of each year. Yeah. Um I I don't know the exact number, but I would I would estimate that. It's just a great way, I think, to start the convention. It just reminds us w what we're doing. What we're doing. Right? We're we're pooling our resources together because we're better together to to use those words. And no matter what else we talk about, whatever business, this is the business of the Southern Rapids Convention, taking the gospel around the world. And there are people who are writing blank checks with their lives and saying, God, wherever you send me, I'm gonna go. Yeah, and it it's encouraging, it's challenging to me every time we see it. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And then, like you said, you know, so though all those things are happening. Um, and then there'll be business that's conducted. Um like we'll vote on budgets, uh, we'll vote on officers, um, which is an interesting race this year. Um the main officer, excuse me. The main officer uh we'll vote on is the president of the president of the SBC. And we have a Florida native running for president of the SBC. And then the other guy is he from North Carolina or South Carolina, Taylor, South Carolina. That's right. Josh. Yeah, so it it's interesting. Our our again, our our government policy, our polity in the Southern Baptist Convention, we're actually run by what's known as the executive committee. So the other 363 days when we're not meeting as a convention, there's an executive committee of people from the messengers of the churches who make that up, who who carry on the business of the of the um convention, and there's a president of that. Yep. Is that or director? Executive director, yeah. So or president of the executive committee, something like that. Yeah, president of the executive committee. So that's a different role than what you've just brought up. Right. There's also a president of the Southern Baptist Convention who presides over the meeting every year, who appoints some of our committee, um, our committee on nominations, if I'm remembering right. Correct. Yeah. Um, and and and serves sometimes as the voice. He's not the sole voice. He recognizes he doesn't speak for 47,000 churches, but but he's he's a voice for the convention to speak into issues. And so uh we'll be electing a president that can serve one year and be elected two years uh in a row. Uh and so it's time for a new new president to be elected. Clint Presley's our per our current president, and this is his second he's at the end of his second term, so he's from North Carolina. Yes. But now we have Josh Powell from Taylor, South Carolina, and Willie Rice from Uh Calvary just across the road. Not very far from us at all. And both good men. But I don't think we can go wrong, honestly, with either man. Yeah. So good both good conservative strong churches. Strong churches. They're sharing the gospel, preaching the gospel. And so yeah, I think I think you're right there. I think um I think both both those guys are good guys, and it's not going to be bad either way. So praise God for that. Absolutely. There's been times in the past where honestly, there's this guy I did not want to win that election, you know. And this I think I can honestly say this time, man, I'm gl I'm I'm good either way. Yeah. I have a preference, but I'm not going to be destroyed if it doesn't happen. Right, exactly. And I don't I think both the candidates would probably say the same thing. Sure. They're they're in it to do God's will, but if the other is elected, then they're going to continue to sport and do what they continue to do what God's called them to do. Yeah. So we do business. Uh the EC, the executive committee will give reports, they'll they'll present a budget, those kind of things. We'll elect president, vice president, treasurer, some other positions that I'm in. First vice president. Yeah, second and third vice president. Yeah. All of those. Trent and I always threaten to nominate Bob to be the third vice president or something. Yeah. We're trying, you know, if I see, I'll I know is I'll know it's the year when you wear your window pane. My window pane jacket. If that one goes with plaid jacket. That one will not be my suitcase this year. Man, but we're ready. We've got your back. When you're ready, we're ready. It's gonna be a while. So

Resolutions Versus Motions Explained

but no, all those folks do do great work. Um and then we have another way of doing business, two other ways. Um so folks from the convention can raise resolutions or motions or amendments. Right. So two totally different things. Resolutions is just a statement speaking into a particular issue. Yeah. Uh may it be a cultural issue, a societal issue, it may be a theological issue. And it is really just a statement about what that particular group of people in that convention feel about an issue. So if there's a resolution this year, which there are like 10 or 11 years, there's eleven, I think, that have been that have been pre-submitted. It basically is these if they're voted on and approved, that means this is the opinion of this particular body of messengers at this particular time. Right. And they're not binding. They're not binding. They hold no authority. Right. They're just they're just statements of opinion. Yeah. And they can sometimes they're important because they speak into things that are going on, and this is what we feel as a group of churches, a collective of about particular issues. Yeah. But they they're gonna range in uh from a a a resolution to thanking the city of Orlando for hosting us. There's always that one, right? Thanking the host city. Right, especially because they're not they don't they like you said, they hold no authority, they're they're not binding, they're a statement of of uh opinion. There's been some interesting ones in the past that people the danger is is that people skim over them. Right. And then and you might vote for something you may not have wanted to. Yeah, you know, and that's happened in the past, you know, hindsight looking back, we didn't really understand that kind of thing, and we wish we wouldn't have done that resolution kind of thing. And honestly, they're hard to read because there's like 18 sets of whereas, whereas, whereas, whereas this is taking place, and whereas this is taking place, be it resolved that we will, and there's like 10 more resolves. And so they're hard to read sometimes. No, for sure. For sure. But those are those are resolutions, um, non-binding opinions. The other is motions um to amend things like our our governing documents, our constitution, our bylaws, our um Baptist faith and messages. Here's a crazy thing. Like we were there. I know this is it's harder to do that. I know what you're about to say. Yeah, it's harder to amend our constitution than it is to amend our statement of faith. Yeah. That's crazy. Yes. We need to fix that. I'm gonna make a motion. No, I don't know. I make a motion we fix that. But literally, uh, to amend the Constitution, you have to have a supermajority approval of it two years. Two years in a row, right? Baptist faith and message just one one majority vote, and that's it. In one convention. Yeah, yes. And that had to be a supermajority, one majority vote. That just happened. It happened in New Orleans, what New Orleans, like two years ago? Two years ago. Yeah, yeah. And I don't think people in the room realized what they were doing. We just amended our statement of faith in what felt like the drop of a hair. In about a 15-minute conversation, yeah. Which is scary. It is, yeah. So it's a really interesting way to do business because with 20,000 people in a room, they put up open mics and you walk up to a mic and you push a button and they recognize whichever whoever gets on the mic first. And anybody that's there, it's a registered messenger, can bring a motion. Yeah. Now they can be ruled out of order or they're not complying with our documents or whatever. But if it does, they can bring a motion. It gets sent to a committee to re-review it, and then it brings back to the floor usually the next day. Yep. And then we have like a five-minute discussion on it and we

Constitution Amendment And Friendly Cooperation

vote. Yep. And it can it's crazy. I don't know a better way to do it, but it it it can be interesting sometimes. So for sure. Um, so we'll I like just to I we we're running out of time, but um one amendment, and you mentioned this in our members' meeting, like that's that's the only really amendment that I've heard about that's going to be brought up. I mean, I'm sure there are others. I just haven't got the traction that that this one has. But Al Moller, who's a president of the uh Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, is bringing an amendment uh to amend our constitution, not our statement of faith, but our constitution. Um basically, I'm just trying to be succinct, um basically say that that the office and function of pastor, elder, bishop is reserved for men as qualified by scripture. Right. And so that's which is essentially what our doc Baptist faith and message says. It is what it says. So he's trying to move, and this is it's not the first time this has been done. So Dr. Muller's trying to move that from our doctrinal statement to our constitution because there's a question within our convention, not about the theology. The theology is pretty well settled within our convention. It is about the apparatus by which we determine whether a church is in um friendly cooperation or not. Are they saying are they doing what they claim that they believe and and following along? Yeah, even our language about that is interesting um because we would say, like, we're not kicking people out. You know, that's what are you gonna kick those guys out? You know, well, no, we we we we take the stance of this is who we are, right? This is who you said you were, this is what you joined, but now you are not operating the way you said you would. You have left us, and we're recognizing that. Exactly. Yeah, and again, it it goes back to our structure. We recognize each church is a local autonomous church, they can do whatever they want to do. They can do what they want, right? But to cooperate together, we have to agree on a set certain set of things, our doctrine being the primary thing. Right. And either you agree with it or you don't. And if you said you did and now you're not, then you've chosen to not cooperate with us. Exactly. And that's happened a little more frequently in the last several years. I don't know. So it it has or at least been a spotlight. Yeah, I think it's it's been it's been spotlighted in the last few like I think finally people are like saying, Oh, we need to we need to recognize that they're leaving us, right? Basically. Exactly. Acknowledge that. And so we we have a credentials committee, which by the way, isn't that old. The credentials committee's 30 years old, maybe. Yes, maybe um, maybe 20 years old. Um but that that body is supposed to be the one where where these questions are brought to. Right. And there was a church brought to them uh a year ago or so that was clearly not following what we understood to be Baptist faith the message, and yet they weren't deemed as not in friendly cooperation. And so the question is what didn't that committee have that they needed in order to make that decision? And so the idea is to move it, move from it our doctrinal statement to our constitution. Right. I still have issues with that, but I understand the thought process. I think if we don't do it, we're gonna be doing this again next year, exactly in the year after that, and the year after that, the year after that. And that you know, and there's a there's a uh a school of thought or or a point trying to be made out there is the credentials committee has everything that they need, they're just afraid to do it. Right. You know, and I'm not and that's probably too maybe too harsh. I don't mean that. And we don't have any intersider information, right? Yeah, exactly. But uh there's a guy out there making trying to say, you know, the credentials committee is trying to be a policy committee when really what they are is an implementation committee. Absolutely, yeah. Right? They don't they don't get to make policy, they just have to implement, and so we just I think we're just trying to be clear on what that policy is for them. And and defer this is at least the second time that somebody has brought an amendment up like this. The first time it passed the first year. Third time. It is the third time, yeah. You're right. Uh and it passed one year but didn't follow up with the supermajority the next year. It gets close, it gets like 60%, but you gotta have that 66. And yet when when churches are brought to the floor, which is also a brand new phenomenon which in within our convention, uh, where the the churches that are present vote on whether they're in friendly cooperation or not, that is overwhelmingly. On this, on this issue 90% plus are agreeing. Yeah. So it's not again, that's why I say it's not a theological issue, it's a it's a function issue. How do we how do we carry this out? Exactly. So it'll be interesting. That'll be interesting this year. Yeah, yeah. All right. I know we are way over time. There's probably 50 other things. Some of the cool things though that do happen. Like

Expo Highlights Streaming Options And Closing

I mentioned the Expo Center. I I love walking through those booths. And then that's just kind of where you can you can see things that are available out there. Matter of fact, that's where I found the company that did our LED screens. Uh so that was that's kind of cool. But there's any any kind of tool or apparatus or resource or anything you can think of, it's being represented there in the expo booth. So it's just kind of cool to walk through that. And then I see a lot of people, that's kind of where you can sometimes catch up with people, maybe that you've known from other other places or whatever. And it's just fun to fun to play catch up with them a little bit. There's all kinds of meetings and lunches that are going on uh outside the convention. You know, they aren't officially part of the convention like that they are, but they aren't, I guess. They're you've got you know the nine marks at at night meetings, uh, you got the the Baptist uh uh the Baptist review that's gonna have a presidential panel, you know. Uh the Baptist 21 will have a a panel discussion. Sure. All kinds of stuff. Most of the seminaries have things going on. Exactly. They've got lunches going on and fellowships and dessert fellowships and all kinds of stuff going on. And just a it's a good time to to catch up with folks and and just kind of talk about what's going on and what the Lord's doing in their church and in their life and what what he's doing in our life. So pretty cool. Anything else that you would want to add that maybe I've didn't bring up or I don't know, I don't think so. I mean, we could talk forever, I think, about most of this, but it's it's really just a celebration of God using Southern Baptists to take the gospel around the world. Yeah, we don't do everything perfectly, but we we strive to, and this is us trying to get together to do that. So uh it's a good week. It's cool. One thing is I think and I think you can still do this. You're usually somewhere you can uh uh watch this thing. Yeah, I'm pretty well, I'm pretty sure they stream it. SBC.net, I would imagine. You can watch it live. Um there used to I used to have an app. I've got a Roku TV, so there's an app on my Roku TV. I think it was a Georgia Baptist state convention that would show it live. But there's numerous ways where you can watch it live if you're interested in that kind of thing or having trouble going to sleep at night and want to watch the business portion or something. I don't know. No, but uh it it if you if you're interested, you can you can check it out and you you can find places. If you have any other questions, I'm sure you could ask Pastor Bob or myself, and we'd we'd love to talk to you more about it. Well, we are glad that you joined us today. Hopefully you have a great week in the Lord. Hey, remember, if you uh are listening, you want an unsexy take on a topic or have a question, send those in to us. Give us a review, five stars, write a rating, we'll read it. And as always, stay unsexy.

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Bob Block

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Darren Selvidge

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