Unsexy Church

Season 3 Episode 24: What Really Happened At The Southern Baptist Convention And Why It Matters

• First Baptist Tampa • Season 1 • Episode 24

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The Unsexy Church Podcast

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ABOUT THE PODCAST

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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We want to help every person make a genuine commitment to follow Jesus and then follow through with that commitment in Connecting People to a Thriving Life in Christ. These Thriving disciples should Dig In to the Bible, Grow Up in Christ, and Branch Outinto the community.

Our Mission: To Connect People to a Thriving Life in Christ. What is a thriving life in Christ? Scripture says that Jesus Christ came “that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Our mission in the city of Tampa is to make disciples who follow the pattern of the believer in Psalm 1 and desire God’s glory above all things.

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Welcome Back And Father’s Day

SPEAKER_01

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Unsexy Church Podcast, the podcast ministry of First Baptist Church, Tampa, where our mission is to help you connect to a thriving life in Christ. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Darren. I feel like I'm holding class. Seriously. Good morning, Mr. Salvage. Morning, sir. Heavy on the sir. It's been a couple weeks. We had to take a little hiatus. Uh we've we've it's been a busy June, man.

SPEAKER_00

Every June is busy June.

SPEAKER_01

I can't remember what we talked about last time, really, but uh we have had in June we've had VBS, we've had the SBC, the Southern Baptist Convention. Um, our kids have gone to Centricid camp. I had to take a little uh weekend extra family trip just to deal with some things, and so it's just been crazy. And then this week talking about crazy is worship week, which is crazy. It's super busy, man. Super busy. But yesterday was a good day. Yesterday was what, Jordan? Father's Day. Thank you. I'm glad you didn't say Sunday. Yesterday was Father's Day, man, and uh it was a good day. We had a big day. It was also Sunday, by the way. It was Sunday. He would have been correct. Yes, we had a great day, Sunday. Uh we had a good crowd for Father's Day. We always do um baby dedication, family baby dedication um on Father's Day. What this is the only church I've ever been to that does that on Father's Day. Why do we do that?

SPEAKER_00

Because we're the unsexy church. We're unique. Yeah. No, we we we started doing it years ago, and we we just love the the the symbolism of the the fathers and the mothers, of course, um, taking the leadership of discipling their children. There's a song in there.

SPEAKER_01

The the papas, the papas, the papas, the mamas. Does anybody know where that's from? No. It sounds like fiddler on the roof. It is, that's fiddler on the roof. Very good, Bob. Jordan, you need to brush up on your culture, maybe French. Well, no. Yeah. No. So yeah, the fathers and the mothers, we like sorry. No, that's okay.

SPEAKER_00

It's okay. Yeah. So we we love that imagery uh just coming alongside the parents of the church helping them to disciple their children. So it's it's always a blessing. And yesterday was cool. There was,

How Father’s Day Really Started

SPEAKER_00

I think we did seven parent-child dedications yesterday. And those little babies, yeah. I was I was eating it up, man. They were putting their little heads down on my shoulder. That's pretty cool. Nobody spit up on me.

SPEAKER_01

So that was a good morning. Yeah. It's very cool, man. Do you guys know how Father's Day started?

SPEAKER_00

Well, how deep do you want me to go into those? New Genesis. Genesis, chapter one. I guess it'd be uh not chapter one. Well, Darren, when a man loves a woman. All right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, oh god. How the holiday father's day started. You gotta be more specific. Does anybody know how the holiday father's day started? The greeting card companies? Yeah. Well, that's what you would think. That's the conspiracy for everything. That's I mean, I'm with you there. I'm with you. And uh not uh incidentally, most fathers when this first came out pretty much thought the same thing. Uh which is well crazy. It was established um to complement Mother's Day, because it was after Mother's Day, um, by a woman, Sonora Smart Dodd, whose father, her dad, had raised six kids on a rural farm as a single father. He was a widower, he was a Civil War veteran, and he raised six kids um on his farm. And so she wanted to honor him, and that's kind of how it started nationally. There were some rumblings before that. I think in 1908 in West Virginia, there was a mining accident of some sort where many of the men died, and in the church they kind of had a a sort of Father's Day in memory of those men. Um but then in 1910, this gal came along, wanted to honor her dad, who she loved and and respected, and who it was a widower, like I said, a single dad who who raised six kids on the farm. Um in 1924.

SPEAKER_00

Wait, wait. Jordan asked you if you had a fun fact for the day. Yeah. And you said yes, but nobody dies. Oh, yes. I did dude's a widower. Somebody died. There's always somebody died.

SPEAKER_01

Sorry. We're not making light of it, though. No, we're not we're not making light of it. Uh yeah, I'm sorry. Someone, many someone's died. Sorry about that. Yeah. That's true. Um yeah. In 1924, Calvin Coolidge uh signed uh or urged the the government to observe it, though it was not yet federally mandated. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the presidential proclamation establishing the third Sunday in June as Father's Day in 1972. Finally. Oh 1972, 58, I think it's like 58 years after the official Mother's Day was was made, or when it was made official, uh Richard Nixon officially signed the legislation to make Father's Day a national holiday.

SPEAKER_00

Well, there you go. There was early resistance in our lifetimes.

SPEAKER_01

In our lifetimes.

SPEAKER_00

Not Jordan, not all.

SPEAKER_01

There was some early resistance. Um, believe it or not. I mean push back on Father's Day. So this is the most dad thing. Okay, this is the most dad thing. Many men scoffed at the holiday. I'm reading, I'm reading this. Many men scoffed at the holiday, seeing it as an attempt to domesticate manliness with flowers and gifts, or as a blatant commercial gimmick. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

A conspiracy from the greeting card companies, as all holidays are almost. In my almost 30 years of being a father, I've never once received flowers as a gift.

SPEAKER_01

No, and I don't want to receive flowers, nor do I want that. Yeah, yeah. So that's kind of your brief history on Father's Day. Well, there you have it.

SPEAKER_00

It was a good little fun fact where somebody actually did somebody did die.

SPEAKER_01

There's a running theme here. Sorry. Yeah. Well, happy Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to all the fathers belated, but uh, we've got a lot of good fathers in our church, and uh just cool to see them uh each and every Sunday leading their families well, worshiping uh our savior, and uh just being an example to me and and to others. Just happy Father's Day to my dad out there. I know he uh listens to the Unsexy Church podcast.

SPEAKER_00

Happy Father's Day, Mr. Selbak.

SPEAKER_01

He's retired. He didn't have anything else to do.

SPEAKER_00

You never gave him flowers, I'm sure, either. No, no.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know what he would have done without giving him flowers. Oh man, yeah.

Why We Went To The SBC

SPEAKER_01

Hey, but uh anyway, again, it's been a been a busy June here. Uh we've had to take a couple weeks off, but we're we're glad to be be back. And today we're gonna talk about one of the events that kept us a little busy uh in June, which was the Southern Baptist Convention, the annual convention. We kind of gave a I think a pre a preview to it uh last time we were together, and now we'll give you just a brief recap, brief recap.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, very brief. Yeah, I think we don't need to dive in too deeply on this, but just to give folks a follow-up.

SPEAKER_01

I'm sure everyone's gotten all that they need to know off of Twitter and Facebook and Instagram.

SPEAKER_00

And please ignore everything pretty much that you've read on any of those and the national news and everything. Yeah, that's so frustrating.

SPEAKER_01

You've learned all you need to learn.

SPEAKER_00

From people who weren't in the room, from people who are not Southern Baptists, from people who are not, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's the craziest thing. All these hot takes uh are mostly folks who are not even Southern Baptists, right?

SPEAKER_00

And like you said, who who weren't who weren't weren't even in the room and are just or who are critical of Southern Baptists for for maintaining orthodoxy in in doctrine when they've long since abandoned orthodoxy and doctrine. Walked away from it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Uh we'll take the criticism from that. Exactly. But anyway, yeah, unpack it for us.

SPEAKER_01

Uh it's always uh in June. It's a sun. Well, the actual convention is only Tuesday and Wednesday, but the pat the the pastor's conference starts Sunday night. So we left church uh Sunday afternoon after church, drove down to Orlando. It was in Orlando this year, where I think the official messenger number is like 11,692 registered messengers. And we took a few with us.

SPEAKER_00

We did. We we took uh we ended up taking we registered 12. Yep. Um which is the maximum amount any church can can register.

SPEAKER_01

And that's based on like cooperative giving and church size. Size, yes.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, giving to the cooperative program and size of the church. Most churches sent two or less. I think 2,000 churches sent two or less, a little bit more than that. A total of 4,000 churches, just over 4,000 churches were represented. Yeah. And I think only 53 churches, I think, maybe sent about 12 messengers. So um we we it was it was neat to be able to take more of our church members. Normally it's in you know a place where we can't have this many people travel with us. So it was it was really neat to have them there. And yeah, we ended up um some that registered weren't able to go because of some issues with uh health with their parents, and so I think we ended up with 11 us, yeah, 11 of us actually there. And um, so it was it was a it was a good time.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. I think one of the one of the the coolest things when you take someone um who hasn't been before, um you know, as we mentioned, their their uh idea of the SBC is what you see on Twitter or whatever it is. And there's someone I can't remember who said it, but said SBC on Twitter is much different than SBC in the room. Absolutely. And it's a lot better in the room. Absolutely. And I think you saw in our I saw in our messengers um just a change uh in attitude and and uh maybe just uh a revealing to them what the SBC really is. And that that was cool to see. Um I think uh came, you know, kind of looking, not looking for a fight, but but ready to watch it. Yeah, ready ready to watch the the fight. And when you get there, you see it's really not that way.

SPEAKER_00

Well the what's presented in social media is that we are drifting one way or the other, that we're drifting either more liberal or we're drifting to the right even more. And that's just not the reality of who we are as Southern Baptists. We are just we are who we are, we have been who we are for quite a while, yeah, long time. We don't apologize for it because we believe it's based in scripture.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

Um, and so to be in the room and see that there is a consensus with that many people from that many churches coming together for a great mission. We don't agree on everything, no, but we're not drifting one way or another. Right. And so to be in the room and to see it, I think was was refreshing for some folks, eye-opening for some folks as well.

SPEAKER_01

And I think to be able to hear the motives, or I mean it's hard to you can't really tell a motive, but just to to to perceive maybe what the motives are behind certain arguments one way or the or the other, and to and to see people passionately uh speak to an to an to an issue that is important to them, right? I think was uh eye-opening for a a lot of our a lot of our folks. And to they're just they're not just some way liberal whatever, you know, trying to pull us away from the scripture. They're not just some ultra-right fundamentalist trying to, you know, rule our lives or whatever. It just like you said, it's just really it's really cool to kind of see that all these guys are just like us, you know, a lot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And and it's it's it's genuinely interesting to see how we'd conduct business amongst ourselves. Yeah. Between the messengers and the guests, there were 15,000 people in the room, give or take, you know, discussing issues, voting on issues, and to see that take place is is quite interesting for the, you know, especially it takes a while to understand what's going on, but once you kind of get the rhythm of what's going on, it's it's quite interesting.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but it's like like a huge church business meeting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It can be frustrating. It can be very frustrating. Um, but I don't know another way to a better way to do it.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know how you gotta have order and you gotta have some rules,

Twitter Hot Takes Versus Reality

SPEAKER_01

or or you would we'd still be there talking about stuff for sure.

SPEAKER_00

I think the two things, I don't know where you're headed as usual. We don't talk a whole lot before we walk in here and start doing these. Um but two issues that we that that we really looked at was the election of a president, right? Which uh was was was good, uh, and then this discussion about moving something from our doctrinal statement into our constitution to give our credentials committee um what they'd been asking for. Right. So those were the two issues, and I'm sure that's probably where you're headed.

SPEAKER_01

I definitely, yeah, I definitely have those on there. So some

Truth And Unity Amendment Explained

SPEAKER_01

of the things we just kind of start hitting the highlights, and I think probably the biggest one is the truth and unity amendment. That's the one that's making all of the headlines and all that. Consternation. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00

So um, so that is, I mean, just do you want to kind of explain what that is a little bit or do you want to sure for the last several years, um the conversation has been about um churches in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention, reminding everybody that every church is a local autonomous church. There is no hierarchical structure within the Southern Baptist Convention. We all voluntarily cooperate together based on a set of doctrine and based on a mission. Um and so uh from time to time there are churches that that join us who agree with our doctrinal statements, but over time shift their policies, shift their ecclesiology, how they do church. They shift maybe even their doctrine. Um and they're welcome to do that. They're an autonomous local church. Yeah. We're not gonna tell them they can't do it, but you've said that we agree with who you are as Southern Baptists. And if you don't agree with our doctrinal statement anymore, then you're no longer in friendly cooperation. And we cooperate together to do mission, to take the gospel around the world through international missions and North American missions, some 6,000 missionaries. Uh, we cooperate for theological education and several other things. So uh it's important that we know who we're cooperating with and that we are on the same page with it. And so one issue has been over can females serve as the senior pastor, the lead pastor, the primary teacher uh in a church. And we have traditionally, historically, doctrinally held as Southern Baptists that the Bible teaches that the role of senior pastor or pastor, elder, overseer is restricted to men. That we understand that through uh scripture. Yeah, and that's been our pursuit. It has not changed. First Timothy two, eight through three, seven-ish somewhere. Titus as well. Titus That is our understanding of that text. And it has not changed. And it didn't change this year.

SPEAKER_02

No.

SPEAKER_00

So the the question has been It's always been who we are. It always has been. Well, it it has always been who we have claimed to be. Claim to be. We haven't always practiced it, like we yes, and but we back in the late 70s, 80s, through a uh a resurgence where we returned back to the infallibility and inerrancy of scripture. Right. That was the big issue back then, yeah, which spurned into so many different things. We now stand on the inerrancy and infallibility of scripture. We hold that that's what it believes, we haven't changed.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Um so we have that in our doctrinal statement, the Baths Face and Faith and Message, but our credentials committee, which is tasked with seeing these churches that may have an an issue with doctrine or practice or whatever, um, they've asked for more clarity in that area. And so over the last several conventions, there's been a push to move that statement from our doctrinal statement into our constitution. So we had some amendments to our constitution that in order to change our constitution, it has to be passed by a supermajority two-thirds at two consecutive conventions. Right. Well, a couple years ago we had it pass it at one to move it from the doctrinal statement to the to the uh constitution, but it did not get the two-thirds at the next convention. Right. And so Albert Moeller, president at Southern Seminary, brought the the Truth and Unity Amendment with language to move it from our doctrinal statement to our Constitution. We didn't change what we believe. No, didn't change our practices, hasn't changed our message, hasn't changed our message, which by the way, isn't that women are inferior. No, it isn't that women don't have a place in ministry. We recognize women have a place in ministry. Many of us would not be in churches today and in a relationship with Christ without the women in our lives. It just simply says that the role of the teaching pastor, the senior pastor, is reserved, as restricted by scripture, to men. Yeah. They can serve in other capacities. We have a wonderful young lady that serves on our ministerial staff. Yeah. She's not a pastor, she's not ordained, but she is a minister that serves alongside of us. Right. It's not telling churches that they can't have a children's minister that's a female. It's not doing that. No. It's all we're doing is moving from our doctrinal statement to our constitution. So that we had very little discussion over it. Right.

SPEAKER_01

Because we we've been discussing this now for years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Three or four, five years.

SPEAKER_01

At least. At least. Because this is the third amendment attempt. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And the feeling in the room, again, you gotta be in the room. The feeling in the room is we're done with this. We're done discussing this. We're you're we're dragging things up that we've already settled. Right. Uh, and so that with with very little debate, the the the the um room voted to shut down conversation after a very short period of time because they were ready to vote.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and that was interesting to me. Okay, I'll I'll just say I, you know, I and I felt that way too. All right. I yes, we've talked about this, we've talked about it a lot. I just it just doesn't set well with me when someone calls the question after having spoken to it. Yeah, real quick, you know, and I'm just like, I mean, come on.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, there were there was only like three people that addressed it, and then the third person that addressed the amendment called for the vote, which means they called the question. They called the question, which is which means that's in debate. In debate. Now you have to vote on that exactly in debate and you can you can deny that and continue debate. Yeah, you can ask for extended debate. Yeah, but the room is overwhelmingly overwhelmingly the room said let's we've been discussing this for six years. We're done. Yeah, we're done. Let's vote. Um and that amendment passed 7525. Yeah, right. Uh and I th and I can't read the minds of the 25% who didn't, but I doubt seriously that the vast majority of those had a doctrinal issue with it. It's a procedural issue. Exactly. We and that was my position starting off. Early on, that was my position. We don't need to move it.

SPEAKER_01

And I think that's the right position, honestly. I I think in in the perfect world, I think that's the sure that's our our statement of faith ought to be enough for our doctrine, right?

SPEAKER_00

But in practice, it apparently it hadn't been. Exactly. Uh not for our credentials committee. And so if that's going to be what they need, so we can move beyond these tertiary issues and get back to the the mission, then that was the feeling in the room.

SPEAKER_01

And maybe, and maybe even like just to help folks who still have, well, we are drifting left kind of thing, right? I mean, you just need to understand every time that a church has been brought to the convention to to vote whether they should stay in cooperation or not, because of the because of the fact that they do have a teaching pastor who's who's they've ordained a female as a teaching pastor, overwhelmingly. I mean, over ninety percent is to is to allow them to leave. Right. Because so it's not it's not that we disagree about this doctrine. It's that we I mean, we voted out, I mean, I hate to use that term, but we recognize a departing of the largest SBC church, I think, probably in the nation anyway, uh, a few years ago. Over over 90 percent voted to let them leave. Right. Uh, because we understand the word, we understand the doctrine. It's just a difference in how do we proceed or procedural.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And it's not us telling them we don't believe you're genuine. Christ followers. It's not us telling them we think you are horrible people. It's just if we are going to send missionaries, plant churches together, we've got to agree on what the Bible says about this.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I think this is interesting because that's what a lot of it's a lot of the 25%ers, if you know whatever, they they maybe agree on the or disagree. They they agree on doctrine. Right. They just maybe disagree about the procedure. Or they disagree about the nature of cooperation. Like I can still cooperate with a saddleback or whoever for the propagation of the of the gospel. And we there that's those are honest disagreements. Right.

SPEAKER_00

And some might have been concerned about some of the language to think, okay, this can be more restrictive than it's intended to be. Or it can be some are saying it was more loose. Exactly. It's just broad, which is typically what you need is something along. But yeah, so there is not an issue. We don't dislove dislike women. We've that women have a wonderful place in ministry. They are gifted, they are talented, they are um equal in the eyes of God. Yeah. But that role is restricted according to scripture. And that's all that this is. And it's just us standing up and saying this is what we believe.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I I even so you know, man, I just think about, you know, you know, the because there are those who are arguing, but the mission, can't we just forget about the doctrine and just focus on the mission, you know, kind of kind of thing. And I my answer to that is no, yeah, flatly. But I think of Paul, right? Where we get a lot of this from, you know, Paul wrote first Timothy, the instructions that we get this from. So he's the the the man in when he writing he's writing to the Corinthian church, he says, I'll become all things to all people that I may save some, is also the man that gave us the instruction. I say it's the man, it's it's inspired man by the Holy Spirit. Exactly. It's also the one where we get this instruction about ordaining men. Right. Um and that this the greatest missionary that we've ever known, other than Jesus himself. Sure. Um doctrine mattered. Doctrine matters the one who warns us over and over and over again about drifting from the word and about allowing false teachers in. It's it's not an either or, it's a both and right. It's a both and absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. No, doctrine

Scripture Authority And Church Roles

SPEAKER_00

matters when it comes to mission. Without the doctrine, what what's the point of the mission? Yeah. So uh the argument that I've heard some make for female pastors, um, they point to people in scripture where where females are used. We're not denying that, right? Um, Priscilla was used mightily by God. Not as a pastor, not as a pastor. All the women that are used, they're used in mighty ways in scripture, but they're not in that role. Yeah, I hear uh Deborah used a lot.

SPEAKER_01

What would you what would you say? I mean, I've got my own thoughts, but what would you say? So what about Deborah?

SPEAKER_00

I mean, you know, what about Yeah. I mean, you're talking about a a judge in the old testament, you know. Yeah. So let's let's pick out all right. I'm gonna be You started this.

SPEAKER_01

I did. So let's let's pick out the the woman who's in the book where it bookends with the statement of everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Right. And and just because it's mentioned in scripture doesn't mean it's prescribed. Exactly. So it's descriptive, it's descriptive, not prescriptive. She's in a civil, uh, more of a civil um position, not a church position, you know, and so she's not the teaching pastor, she's not a right, she she's the judge, you know, which is the deliverer in a time where Israel has drifted far, far. I would just go back and say, okay, we're in the old testament. Who were the priests? The Levites. The Levites. Yeah. The male Levites. Right. And again, I I think it's just we see it all through scripture. It doesn't mean that women do not have a place. It doesn't mean that women are not valued, it does not mean women are not gifted, it does not mean that women do not have dig dignity, it's just roles, it's different roles.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. Some will point to Galatians 3. There's neither male nor female, slave nor free man.

SPEAKER_01

When it comes to salvation, that's exactly right.

SPEAKER_00

The context of that is salvation. Coming to the cross for salvation, there is no no this this declination there. But yeah, when it comes to this office in the church, according to scripture, as we understand it, according to scripture, yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_01

And for me, it just comes down to it's uh, and I have to remind myself of this all the time because my feelings in my heart will want to um sway me sometimes. And I have to just uh take those captive to the word of God. I I literally will sometimes I've done this in my core group even. I'll take my Bible and I'll raise it above my head in the sense that I have to submit my thoughts, my life, my heart to the revelation of God. I can't make the revelation of God fit my feelings or my culture. And so and it comes down to this is an old tactic from Satan from the beginning. Did God really say? Yeah. And that's what you just gotta come to grips with. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

We either submit to the authority of scripture or we don't, right? Right. And if we claim we submit to it, then we've got to follow it even if we don't agree with it, yeah. Like it. Yeah. But if it's God's word, then we trust it. Exactly. And it's not just on this issue. We have to be consistent with every anything. We have to be consistent, right?

SPEAKER_01

But whether it's the sanctity of life, whether it's the homosexuality, or any kind of sexual mor morality, immorality, right? Sure. It w anything in our life, we take it and we submit that to scripture and let scripture have the last word on it.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So that was that was the biggest issue. Um and I I really what do we talk about it for 15 minutes? Maybe which in the convention because we talk about it for six years. Yeah. I was pleasantly surprised. And the and the convention is they're not in lockstep, but but the vast majority of people are this is who we are. Yeah. And so nothing changed in our convention this last year.

SPEAKER_01

We're complementarian by conviction. Are there egalitarians in the room? Yeah. And there are egalitarians that we love and we know are as far as we can know, are saved, right? And so it's not a salvific issue, right? Um, but it is a doctrinal issue.

SPEAKER_00

So this uh next year's convention's in Indianapolis, I believe. Yep. Um, and so this amendment will have to pass again by by two thirds of maturity.

SPEAKER_01

Because we've made it I say we've made it. This amendment has made it this far before and then failed to get it the second time.

SPEAKER_00

And unless there's a huge misinformation campaign, which is possible, which is going on even now. Well, and I don't see a scenario where it won't pass again next year.

SPEAKER_01

I think it does. I think it does. But but it got killed last time because of the uh the executive director of the executive committee. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, uh basically from a procedural standpoint, from a legal standpoint. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

And and and I think one of the things that scared everyone is he said that um this will have legal ramifications, but there's been quite a bit of research, and basically there's probably a zero percent chance.

SPEAKER_00

And and he did not he did not hold that stand, he did not make that stand this year. He did not make any of those statements that I'm aware of.

SPEAKER_01

No, not that I'm aware of. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And and our new president who we elected, Willie Rice, um, a friend of ours over at Calvary, Clearwater, uh good man. Yeah, uh, I I think he's gonna lead well. And I think he will lead us well

New SBC President And Next Year

SPEAKER_00

to to to put aside the distractors, to, to keep us focused, that this is a procedural issue, this is a orthodox issue, and uh let's move forward with the mission.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, and that was a that was probably the second biggest issue of the of the SBC, um, the election of a new president. Right. Clint Presley from Hickory Grove, North Carolina had uh served two years. You can serve two consecutive terms and then you're then you're finished. One year terms. Yeah, one year terms, yeah. So he had done that, led, led very well. I thought I thought he was a good for lack of a better term, like he's a he was like a cooling saucer. Almost you know what I mean. Like, you know, what I mean is like you you you would pour your hot coffee into a cooling saucer and let it cool so you could drink it. That's what a saucer was originally for. And I thought he was good after a few years of turmoil and big issues and stuff like that. He was just a good peacemaker. I think so. I think that's a good way to look at that. Solid conservative guy, let us let us well. Didn't I I'll just say, and I and he would say this too, like I've heard them say this on a few interviews. My goal was not to embarrass us.

SPEAKER_00

Pretty good goal.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and that's a good goal, right? And and I think that was a good that was a good goal for these past two years, really. And he and he did a good job of that. I think he did.

SPEAKER_00

And we had two good choices this year. Yeah. Two solid pastors, two solid men, two solid churchmen who love the SBC, who are conservative. We honestly, I don't think we could have gone wrong. No, they both supported they both supported the truth and and unity amendment. They they were generous to generous to one another in their comments. They weren't it was not negative in any way.

SPEAKER_01

I think it's what made it hard is because they were both so much alike. Sure. You know, um, that made it hard to make a decision. I think it was more um more uh of an execution question. How are we gonna execute goals? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so Willie Willie um won that vote. Um, and I think he will have the support of our our convention moving forward as he as he leads us in next year's convention meeting and just being a voice for us. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01

There were people saying that Josh Powell, the Willie's opponent, was uh was more liberal than the and I don't see it. No way. No, first of all, no way. And and he's just and they almost painted him as like someone with no spine. You're like he was not I mean, you're talking about a man who got arrested on the mission field for sharing the gospel. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

You know, and you don't lead a church of his size doing the things his church is doing without a spine, exactly without a backbone. You just don't.

SPEAKER_01

Uh yeah sorry, he don't he was so so just to put all that to bed and to rest.

Missions First And SBC Updates

SPEAKER_01

He he's a strong man. He's a good he's a good guy.

SPEAKER_00

Um I know we're probably running out of time. Jordan hasn't given us the signal yet, but we gotta we've got to be bumping up on it. I I would say uh again, one of the highlights uh aside from all the business was we we got to send out 60 some odd missionaries to the mission field through a commissioning service. Um and while that takes some time to go through as they walk up and they introduce themselves and we hear their story and where they're going, uh some that they can reveal their faces, some that they can't. That's just a highlight. That's so cool. It's just because it it reminds us this is why we go through the arguments about who we are, right? So that we can work together to do this, to send these people out to unreach people groups.

SPEAKER_01

That's always usually the first part of the convention, you know, near near the beginning. I think it's like you said, it's a great reminder and a great way to start out. This is who we are, this is what we do.

SPEAKER_00

Which is when I'm if I'm ever asked why are we part of the SBC, that's the answer. That's why because we can reach more people together than we can separately, because God has called us to take the gospel to unreach people, to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and we can do more of that together than we can individually.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So I think we commissioned, not counting any uh NAM missionaries, just I just IMB over 60, nothing. 30 of them-ish came from Southeastern Seminar. Southeastern Seminary, which is where you're a trustee. Yep. If the people don't know that. Right.

SPEAKER_00

Um Well, and and Southeastern um they are a great commission school. That is what they're known for. Uh every classroom, a great commission classroom, and um they are focused on theology and doctrine, but to the point of sending people out. And they so almost half of the folks that went out to the international mission field came through had a close connection or came through Southeastern Seminary.

SPEAKER_01

And one thing that was kind of cool, I mean, cool and bittersweet in the sense that uh we there's Southeastern's getting ready to go through a pretty major change that we saw at the convention this year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Transitioning. Uh Danny Aiken's been the president there and over twenty years. Yeah, right. Twenty-two years, I think. Um and he's retiring new as a trustee. I knew he had been planning that for a little while now, and that is taking effect. But we are also blessed that we are uh have brought in a new new president, uh Scott Pace, who was the provost, who is a professor there. He's been there for a while, he knows the culture. Godly man. I I I know both Danny and Scott personally and uh and vouch for their characters, and so he's gonna do a great job. So it it was a blessing. Uh I enjoyed when Danny was given his final report to the convention floor that they gave him a standing ovation. Because sometimes convention presidents or excuse me, um seminary presidents aren't the most popular guys.

SPEAKER_02

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00

Um, but he has just proven himself over years. And and so it was it was, like you say, bittersweet to see that um sending off for him, but then the reception of Scott is the next president, and and Scott's gonna do a great job at Southeastern.

SPEAKER_01

That's amazing. We saw a couple other new positions, a new president at the ERLC, which is probably a good direction to the presentation. I think it's really good, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And then a new president for Lifeway, which uh he he um was a pastor at uh the cross church in Springdale, Arkansas, which is pretty big church, and then led a I think he also led a revitalization at First Baptist Church, San Francisco. Oh wow. How would you like to go and revitalize FBC San Francisco, man? Seriously. I mean, crazy. That's that's tough work, man. So excited to see.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, both of those I think are gonna be um good for those entities, um getting us on track, back on track.

SPEAKER_01

I think we also saw that 51% of uh cooperative program funds are

Resolutions And Honoring Unsung Pastors

SPEAKER_01

now gonna go to missions to I and B. That's an increase. That's that's awesome. Um I'm trying to think what else. Uh there were several resolutions. I have to put my glasses on here. Um sanctity of life. The thing that was different about that is it really addressed uh assisted suicide, which is a growing a growing issue that we're gonna have to come to grips with and talk about. Um even uh our neighbor to the north is just opening the floodgates wide open on that. Uh there's a there was an immigration and dignity of human life and rule of law resolution. And again, resolutions are not binding. They uh they just these are the opinion, this is the opinion of the messengers here at this convention at this time.

SPEAKER_00

Just making statements and typically social issues.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. Uh there's a resolution on antisemitism, a resolution regarding political violence and speech. Um, these are just I think the the ones that kind of caught my eye. Um what it means, a resolution about what it looks like to be the physically gathered body in a digital age, which uh is I think very interesting, right? Um as we send out things over the exactly as we as we as you listen to this podcast, but not in not replacing Sunday morning. Right, right. Um the uh office the uh resolution regarding the office and uh function of pastor, overseer, uh, elder in the church. Um another resolution I thought was interesting was the finishing well resolution um in the day where so many people are not finishing well. Um that and then another one I thought this was pretty cool, a uh an appreciation for the bivocational pastor, volunteer pastor, who that's who what pastors most of our churches.

SPEAKER_00

So I don't I I have so much respect for those guys. I don't know how they yeah, how they do what they do.

SPEAKER_01

I was bivocational as a worship pastor, and that's hard. I cannot imagine being the senior pastor by vocational. And and you can't say part-time. No, because there's no such thing. There's no such thing. There's no such thing. No such thing.

SPEAKER_00

And most of them are out there doing it, they don't have staffs, staff around them to do that. That's it's them.

SPEAKER_01

It's yeah, they're doing the hospital visits, the family ministry, the teaching.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, writing two, three messages a week on top of a full-time job and and loving their family and taking care of the church. Yeah. They're the they're the heroes. Yeah. And it's a larger percentage of our pastors than most people think. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's crazy. It's a lot. Yep. Um, I saw a lot of people at this convention that I just I don't know, it's probably because it's in Orlando, you know, you get to get to come to a cool a cool place. But I saw guys that I've played in bands with and and other, you know, been in ministry with in the past and stuff. So it's pretty cool. That's the one thing I like about the convention. You see people you don't get to normally see.

SPEAKER_00

It one one of the things was interesting, and I know again, we're gonna close it up here, but um, of the messengers, Florida had the largest contingency there, which is not a surprise. We're in Florida. Sure. But Tampa had the third largest contingency of any city in the United States represented. So that's wow. That that just speaks to the the kingdom-mindedness and the the gospel presence we have here in the association of Tampa Bay.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So that's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01

Let's

Closing And Listener Next Steps

SPEAKER_01

keep on keeping on. That's right. Anything else you'd want to add? Anything we missed? Um, there's tons of stuff we could talk about.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah, we could we could keep going. But uh I think it just uh if anybody wants to talk to me about this more, you know, feel free to reach out. We'd love to discuss it more with you.

SPEAKER_01

If you're an SBC nerd, you can you can watch it. Yeah, we we I like talking about it. Yeah, you can talk about it, but you can watch everything.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you can go back and watch it all. Some of the sermons at the pastor's conference, I would encourage you to go listen to it.

SPEAKER_01

Phenomenal watch them phenomenal. Yeah, yeah. Got to hear Herb Revis. I love him. Herb Revis, man, HB Charles. I mean, just so many good ones. Absolutely. All right. Well, that's wraps that should wrap us up for today. I'm giving Jordan the cue over here to start the music, man. Start the music. Hey, be sure that you write us, that you rate us, and you tell your friends about us. God bless you guys, and remember, stay unsexy.

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Bob Block

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Darren Selvidge

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