Indy part 2
I promised that I wouldn’t be live blogging, nor blogging much at the convention, and that has held true. This convention has proved to be the busiest yet for me. I have been swamped with meetings. There are a number of people I’ve wanted to spend time with but simply haven’t been able to due to time constraints. Nevertheless, I have thoroughly enjoyed this annual meeting.
The voting today was interesting, particularly in relation to the presidential election. Although the candidate that I favored, Avery Willis, did not win, I am encouraged to see that Dr. Johnny Hunt was elected particularly because Dr. Hunt has affirmed that he is opposed to the guideline changes at the IMB. It will be good to see a president continue to help oppose those extra-biblical policies. I also think this election, at least in part, reminded us of the power of the nomination speech. Ted Traylor, in my opinion, was far beyond the rest of the nominators in terms of quality and passion regarding his nomination speech. It was reflected, at least in part, by the vote total, in my opinion.
This day also had it’s goofy moments, as all conventions do. The strangest one, I think, for me anyway was hearing the Gaither Vocal Band sing that they were somewhere between Jesus and John Wayne. Hmmmmmm?
This convention has been good for me to be reminded of some of the tremendous statesmen that we are blessed with. Men like David Dockery, Jeff Iorg, Jerry Rankin and Danny Akin, among so many others, gives me great encouragement about our denomination. Spending time with younger guys as well has encouraged me. Guys like Nathan Finn, Doug Baker and Ed Stetzer (who’s not really as young as the rest of us but who thinks he is:-) ) and so many others prove that our convention has incredibly gifted people coming up to take the mantel of leadership in our convention and I am excited to see it. Guys like these are phenomenally intelligent, but are even more so passionate about Christ. They give me great excitement about SBC life to come.
Tomorrow should be a good day as we see what happens when the Resolution Committee reports out there resolutions as well as the IMB report which will be given tomorrow night.
I also should add that I have been contacted today via phone, email and text message by so many of you wanting updates on the convention and I’m sorry I haven’t replied to most of you yet. I just simply don’t have time. Hopefully I will have some more time in the next few days. Additionally it has come to my attention that this site is not showing up correctly in some internet browsers. I apologize for that. I don’t have time right now to fix what’s wrong, but I’ll attempt to work on that once I get back home. Please bear with me until then.
Howdy! My name is Micah Fries and I am a husband, daddy and pastor who loves to discuss life, theology, culture and variety of other issues.
7 responses to "Indy part 2"
That song was a “special” moment for our group, you can’t serve two masters - it’s either Jesus or John Wayne.
Micah,
I saw you in at least one of the webcast shots, during the “resolutions” time. You looked so astute!
Rick
Did they happen to mention WHERE between Jesus and John Wayne they happened to fall? I would think that’s a pretty significant piece of information…
“oppose those extra-biblical policies”
From our previous discussion, you don’t oppose any SBC agency creating policies that are extra-biblical, but you oppose these particular policies that are rather arbitrary. Isn’t that right? So your adjective is a little misleading.
Micah,
Did it not concern you that when Dr. Ted Traylor nominated Dr. Hunt for President that he said Woodstock had given over 3 million dollars through the Cooperative Program last year? As you well know, I love and appreciate Bro. Johnny. I am well aware of how involved Woodstock is in taking the gospel to the world. However, it concerns me that Traylor’s comments seemed to be a smoke screen to hide the fact that Woodstock gave approximately 2% DIRECTLY to the Cooperative Program last year. I believe if that fact had been known by those in attendance you may have had another situation like that in 2006 when Dr. Floyd was defeated by Dr. Page, due largely to his church’s lack of support of the CP.
What if every church in the convention chose to give 2% directly to CP and then to direct the rest of their giving to the causes they deemed most important? Obviously, some of our agencies would have more than enough financial support while others would cease to exist.
I believe Dr. Hunt will do a great job leading our convention. I just wish people had not been mislead by the way Dr. Traylor presented the facts about Woodstock’s giving.
Steve-
To be very honest, I don’t remember hearing Traylor say that so it didn’t concern me at the time. Daniel mentioned it to me but I’ll have to go back and watch the archives to hear it. I’m guessing that since I didn’t plan on voting for him, I wasn’t listening closely enough.
That being said, the low CP percentage was one of the most significant reasons I didn’t vote for him in the first place. That’s an important issue for me. However, when you look at our presidents during the Conservative Resurgence CP giving has never been a big issue. In fact, I believe we’ve only had 2 or 3 presidents since ‘79 that led churches to give more than 5%. I believe it was Dr. Adrian Rogers who offered that famous quote that “Percentages don’t feed missionaries, dollars feed missionaries” as he justified his church’s low CP giving. I disagree with him but I don’t know if it would have been enough for Hunt to have lost the election had it been more clearly stated.
To further elaborate, however, I agree with you that if Traylor stated it that way it was disingenuous and bordered on being dishonest. I also think that we must lead our churches to be stronger CP givers. I’m proud of our church as we give over 12% of our giving to CP and then also give another 10-12% to additional missions efforts. I am convinced that we need more leaders who lead those kind of churches.
Finally, however, I will affirm the fact that though I disagree with Hunt in this area I do think he will make a good president.
Steve Garnett
However, it concerns me that Traylor’s comments seemed to be a smoke screen to hide the fact that Woodstock gave approximately 2% DIRECTLY to the Cooperative Program last year.
I have not gone back and listened to Dr. Traylor’s comments yet but I do not believe that he stated the way you did. If I remember right He said that FBCW gave over 3.3 million to SBC releated missions through the CP, at the direct request of IMB and the NAMB and the state convention of Ga.
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