June 12th, 2025
by Dr. Spencer Plumlee
by Dr. Spencer Plumlee
The Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) was in Dallas this past week. Churches who cooperate with the SBC are allowed to send messengers who are authorized to vote in the business of the convention during this meeting. This business includes hearing reports from our entities (e.g. International Mission Board, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary), voting on leadership (President, Vice-President, Etc) and voting on resolutions (position statements that address specific, cultural topics).
As I mentioned in my sermon this past Sunday, this is not always something I enjoy going to because of some of the drama and ministerial bragging. But these challenges are vastly overshadowed by how much I do love our denomination. Let me give just a few reasons why I love the SBC.
Why do I love the SBC?
Confessionally Conservative. Our family of churches has been very clear about things like our commitment to the sanctity of life, marriage as a covenant between a man and woman, the inerrancy of the Bible and the exclusivity of Christ for salvation. I’m so thankful that I can walk into a room of Southern Baptist pastors and not wonder what they believe about the Bible or gender. I’m equally thankful that I can look at all of our seminaries as places I would joyfully send students for theological training.
This confessional conservatism was not won without great cost. During the 1980’s the SBC went through a huge fight over the theological direction of our family of churches. A splinter group broke off in 1991 called the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). As of 2025, many of the churches in the CBF are supportive of gay marriage. This is the direction the SBC would have headed had not some brave, godly leaders stepped in. All that to say, I’m thankful not just for where we are now but also for those who’ve gone before us.
Missionally Passionate. Our family of churches has a deep passion to get the gospel to the world. Church planting in North America through North American Mission Board (NAMB) and international church planting through the International Mission Board (IMB) are for many the primary reason we even have an SBC. To be sure, these two entities aren’t all the SBC is doing, but a significant portion of our resources go to these two entities because of our passion to see people come to Christ and plant churches.
This past week our family of churches commissioned 58 missionaries to go to other countries to share Jesus and plant churches. All of these precious people came before our messengers and shared about their call to missions. But over half of these men and women did so from behind a screen with different names. Why? Because so many of them are going to countries that do not want them there. For security reasons, they stand behind a screen that obscures their faces so they will not in any way be compromised when they go into these countries. We had a sweet time of prayer after hearing from each of these missionaries.
Relationally Warm. Online, people can be jerks. The “coward behind a keyboard” is a real phenomenon. On the other hand, when you get most Southern Baptists in conversation in a smaller environment, they are delightful. Every year at the SBC Annual Meeting, I meet random SBC people in line to get coffee, walking around the convention hall and riding in elevators. I’ve always been struck by how encouraging just brief, random encounters are with these folks. Making these kinds of connections with thousands of Southern Baptists is for me a foretaste of heaven.
I remember taking my family to the SBC one year and watching Seth’s reaction to hearing 10,000 people worship. He’d never seen that many believers in one place at one time all singing, and the impact was visible on his face. Getting to be with all these believers is such a privilege, and it’s one of the main reasons I love the SBC.
Educationally Robust. I owe a great debt of gratitude to the seminary professors and administrators who poured into my life during my time at Southwestern. The training I’ve received has been second to none. I hope you as a church feel the benefit of that in my preaching week in and week out! To be clear, if there’s anything you like about my preaching and leadership, know that much of it came from Southwestern Seminary.
But my experience is not unique: tens of thousands of ministry leaders have been trained by our schools. These leaders are serving in all kinds of capacities: pastoring, serving as children’s and youth ministers, planting churches in the pacific northwest or in East Asia, just to name a few. Our educational institutions literally have trained an army of kingdom workers for the gospel.
For all these reasons and a lot more, I love the SBC! Next week I’ll talk more about what transpired at the SBC this past week so you have a better sense about both the substance of our meeting in Dallas and the overall direction of our family of churches.
As I mentioned in my sermon this past Sunday, this is not always something I enjoy going to because of some of the drama and ministerial bragging. But these challenges are vastly overshadowed by how much I do love our denomination. Let me give just a few reasons why I love the SBC.
Why do I love the SBC?
Confessionally Conservative. Our family of churches has been very clear about things like our commitment to the sanctity of life, marriage as a covenant between a man and woman, the inerrancy of the Bible and the exclusivity of Christ for salvation. I’m so thankful that I can walk into a room of Southern Baptist pastors and not wonder what they believe about the Bible or gender. I’m equally thankful that I can look at all of our seminaries as places I would joyfully send students for theological training.
This confessional conservatism was not won without great cost. During the 1980’s the SBC went through a huge fight over the theological direction of our family of churches. A splinter group broke off in 1991 called the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). As of 2025, many of the churches in the CBF are supportive of gay marriage. This is the direction the SBC would have headed had not some brave, godly leaders stepped in. All that to say, I’m thankful not just for where we are now but also for those who’ve gone before us.
Missionally Passionate. Our family of churches has a deep passion to get the gospel to the world. Church planting in North America through North American Mission Board (NAMB) and international church planting through the International Mission Board (IMB) are for many the primary reason we even have an SBC. To be sure, these two entities aren’t all the SBC is doing, but a significant portion of our resources go to these two entities because of our passion to see people come to Christ and plant churches.
This past week our family of churches commissioned 58 missionaries to go to other countries to share Jesus and plant churches. All of these precious people came before our messengers and shared about their call to missions. But over half of these men and women did so from behind a screen with different names. Why? Because so many of them are going to countries that do not want them there. For security reasons, they stand behind a screen that obscures their faces so they will not in any way be compromised when they go into these countries. We had a sweet time of prayer after hearing from each of these missionaries.
Relationally Warm. Online, people can be jerks. The “coward behind a keyboard” is a real phenomenon. On the other hand, when you get most Southern Baptists in conversation in a smaller environment, they are delightful. Every year at the SBC Annual Meeting, I meet random SBC people in line to get coffee, walking around the convention hall and riding in elevators. I’ve always been struck by how encouraging just brief, random encounters are with these folks. Making these kinds of connections with thousands of Southern Baptists is for me a foretaste of heaven.
I remember taking my family to the SBC one year and watching Seth’s reaction to hearing 10,000 people worship. He’d never seen that many believers in one place at one time all singing, and the impact was visible on his face. Getting to be with all these believers is such a privilege, and it’s one of the main reasons I love the SBC.
Educationally Robust. I owe a great debt of gratitude to the seminary professors and administrators who poured into my life during my time at Southwestern. The training I’ve received has been second to none. I hope you as a church feel the benefit of that in my preaching week in and week out! To be clear, if there’s anything you like about my preaching and leadership, know that much of it came from Southwestern Seminary.
But my experience is not unique: tens of thousands of ministry leaders have been trained by our schools. These leaders are serving in all kinds of capacities: pastoring, serving as children’s and youth ministers, planting churches in the pacific northwest or in East Asia, just to name a few. Our educational institutions literally have trained an army of kingdom workers for the gospel.
For all these reasons and a lot more, I love the SBC! Next week I’ll talk more about what transpired at the SBC this past week so you have a better sense about both the substance of our meeting in Dallas and the overall direction of our family of churches.
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