I went to the Pastor’s Conference tonight. It was a great opportunity to see friends. I met with and talked to so many folks. What was really interesting was how many people WEREN’T at the PC. It wasn’t the young folks. All the YSBC’ers that were in town went to the PC that I knew about. It was the older generation that were out in the arena, in the streets, along the Riverwalk. It was a bit mind altering.

Paige Patterson spoke about overcoming trials and did fine. He did say, at the end, that because of Adoniram Judson, that Burma was full of Baptists today. Not Christians, but Baptists. Maybe I’m just sensitive, but it struck me as an odd way to say that. I am not sure that Judson would have said that he was trying to make Baptists as opposed to making Christians, but that’s all speculation anyway. We are both coming from our mutual sensitivities.

I did get a picture of Paige from the back of the room. Here it is:

I was a lot further than this. I have a 80 – 200 zoom lens and this is all the way up. I had no idea how far away I was to be in the back and to the side. There are screens everywhere, so IMAG (image magnification) technology is helping us not to get lost here.

Jerry Vines was next. After all of the hubub about his sermons being distributed across Florida, I was wondering if he would say anything about it or about Calvinists. He didn’t, that I heard. I left toward the end of his sermon. Many others were leaving before his sermon, but the place was packed, despite the enormous size of the room. I wonder how many messengers there will be at this shindig? We’ll find out Tuesday AM.

When I got back to the hotel, I hooked up with a few friends. CB Scott said he was going in search of a meal and I offered to tag along for company. When we got to the hotel restaurant, they sat us next to a table with Jack Graham, Jerry Vines, OS Hawkins, Bill Harrell and their wives. They waved at us when we came in. After a moment, OS Hawkins got up and walked around the room. He stopped and spoke to us and offered some advice on the menu. He’s a consummate gentleman.

After the meal, we turned the corner and Jerry Vines stopped us and spoke to us, introducing himself and asking where we served. CB knew him from the old Resurgence days, but I’d never met him. Again, he was kind and gracious.

After we made it upstairs, we came in on the middle of the prayer meeting in Ben’s suite. The room was filled with pleas for unity, peace and for God’s glory. I couldn’t have agreed more. Moreover, several leaders of the Resurgence were prayed for by name and God’s grace was pleaded for in their lives.

I’m back in my room now and headed for bed.

See you in the morning.

Last year, most observers noted the Cooperative Program’s apparent influence in the election of Frank Page as President. There is no denying that the CP giving of the other two candidates, or the lack thereof, had a tremendous impact on the outcome of the election.

Or did it?

Let me offer this thought to roll around in your mind and decide if, perhaps, it is true. The Cooperative Program represented a multitude of irritants within the bulk of the Convention and, as such, voting for the “CP Candidate” was voting for change from this series of aggravations.

Such a list would include the mega church/executive model of governance within both the SBC and the local church, what seems to have been the taking for granted of the small churches and, of course, the narrowing of parameters of cooperation. All of these were embodied in Frank Page and the Cooperative Program.

It seems that this year, in response to the possible misperception of the CP taking center stage as the primary, if not sole, vindication of a candidate, BOTH 1VP candidates have had CP credentials tauted, though David Rogers’ has been hooked to his nominator, David Dykes. I think this is a mistake in evaluation. I don’t think the CP is everything the way it has been perceived from last year.

Think the CP is so important to us? Consider this: Every year we celebrate new records in CP giving, but since the Resurgence began, have we ever increased the CP at the same rate as inflation? I don’t think we have even once. If we have in any individual year, we have certainly not come close in the near thirty years since the Resurgence began.

This means that, in actual and practical leverage to accomplish ministry and mission objectives, we have declined.

Don’t misunderstand me. I think the CP is vital. I led our church to raise our CP giving from 8% to 10% in addition to maintaining other missions budgeting and increasing the church’s budget by about 1/7th. This means a substantial increase in my church’s CP giving. I say this just to help everyone understand that I am not trying to undermine CP giving – I highly encourage you to increase yours, if you can – but to point out that the CP is not the end all, be all in Convention elections and politics.

In fact, in this 1VP candidacy, I doubt anyone will pay nearly as much attention for one obvious reason: David Rogers is a field missionary. He doesn’t have a CP giving record and has the one reason that all Southern Baptists will excuse most anyone for most anything not immoral – they are missionaries on the field.

I think you will may hear a few CP giving numbers, but they will be from folks trying to get someone elected and mistakenly hearkening to last year’s confluence of events – looking to capture a wave that has already crashed at the seashore.

This year’s wave? I suspect that it will be the BFM and our agencies’ ability, or lack thereof, to go beyond its bounds. Look for the BFM to take center stage this year. It now captures everything that is broiling within the convention. If there is a referendum to be had, it is here.

There are several things that you will want to look for throughout the week.

The Pastor’s Conference. I have avoided writing about the PC because I didn’t want to be negative. I’ll more or less keep to that vector throughout the next couple of days. I thought last year’s PC was a good step forward by giving a balance of some of the new trends in worship alongside some of the more traditional trends. It didn’t go completely one way or the other. If YSBC (Young SBC) is going to start coming to these things, hooking in and contributing to the success of the PC and the SBC, we are going to have to accommodate their style of worship. I am convinced that one of the reasons that YSBC stays away in droves is the traditional approach we exclusively take in this area. Last year we opened the door to YSBC and this year, we shut it back again, returning to the same old, same old. Don’t expect a lot from me during the PC. I don’t care to subject myself to something in which I am disappointed and thus be tempted to critique harshly.

Prayer. I am hearing of many more prayer meetings this year and look forward to the movement of God that comes with prayer.

Surprises. I am sure that this year will have it’s fair share of surprises.

1. Will the BGCT show up? How many?
2. Will the Inner Circle run a surprise candidate for President, in an attempt to unseat Frank Page? -I don’t think they are that dumb, but there are some who still think he needs to go ASAP, so they may be waiting to evaluate things from the floor of the Convention. The Convention is a dynamic thing. It grows and changes from year to year and even session to session. If they sense that Page is vulnerable, who knows? He’s not, by the way.
3. Jim Richards vs. David Rogers? Certain Southern Baptists are touting this as the vote of votes. The referendum on “BFM as sole standard cooperation” and “BFM plus additional theological nuances as determined by the BOT” ideologies. The reason they are doing this is clear: They expect to win. If they can paint this vote as THE vote and referendum, and they win, then they can declare victory, gather a head of steam over the next year and “set things right” as they perceive them. The problem with that is twofold: they may not win, though they should, and there are other things that will distract from this election. Remember the alcohol debate that raged last year? There is still fallout from that happening today. I heard some yesterday. We have no idea what all people will say and do that will dominate the conversation over the next six to twelve months. Putting all your eggs in this basket is a tenuous situation. If either of the two problems I have mentioned materialize, there will be difficulty building steam for Indy. Remember that Jim Richards is the “anointed” candidate of the Inner Circle. If he loses, you will see conservative traditionalists begin to distance themselves from from the IC. I’m not saying they will start attending our camp meetings, so don’t misunderstand me. :) Also, I agree wholeheartedly with Marty’s analysis of this issue. Either of his scenarios are plausible and I have tauted them both at various times.
4. Motions. I have heard a tremendous number of potential motions. Many of them will be referred without a debate, but if certain motions get to the floor for debate, the 1VP election will be a footnote. I am sorry, but I can’t tell you more at the moment.
5. Ben Cole will become an even greater lightening rod for controversy. They see Ben as leverage through which they can push back unwelcome changes for various statements and stances that he has taken. This is what the Florida Baptist Witness is doing. Everyone gets their major statements proofed by those who craft words well. Ben, Marty and others have done it for me in the past, and I do it for them and others from time to time. I will tell you David Rogers is not the only one who has sought Ben Cole’s help this year. Others from the “other side” have also sought his wisdom in getting some things done, and he has willingly given it.
6. Resolutions. Which resolutions will come out and which ones will be challenged from the floor? Ben’s gluttony resolution will be merged into another resolution, thus preventing him to call for it to come out of committee and being able to read it in its entirety from the floor, only to have to voted down by the Convention. It will not, however, prevent him from moving to amend it to its original form. Whether or not he will do it is another issue. Tom Ascol’s resolution on integrity in church membership will get to the floor and pass, I predict. This issue so resonated with Southern Baptists throughout the Convention that it picked up a great deal of steam without anyone pushing it. We heard it proclaimed from the dais at the Baptist Identity Conference, much to most of our surprise. Tom was in the audience and, I believe, was greatly encouraged, as was I.
7. Me. The time has finally come to tell you that I have lost quite a bit of weight. For those who haven’t seen me since February, I am a lot skinnier – though by no means svelte. In February, our church’s Minister of Music/Youth and I engaged in a “Biggest Loser” style battle to lose weight. The church bid a certain amount of money per pound lost between the two of us, with the proceeds to go to Annie Armstrong. We weighed in before services every week and announced progress to the church. Talk about accountability! We almost doubled our goal. At this point, I am down 40 lbs. from where I was in February and I am still working on it.

Well, that’s enough for now. I’ll post more later, as you may have guessed.

An addendum to the last in this series…

If you are going to use your smart phone to live blog, go to the options/preferences and disable the pictures/graphics in your phone’s web browser. This will make everything faster and will format your post site in a way that fits your browser window. Many blogsites have graphics that smart phone browsers can’t assimilate. Eliminating them helps you a great deal. The speed it picks up will also help you.

Also, enable your cookies and log into your site’s administration area, so that your site recognizes you. This will help you to comment in the comment thread from your phone without having to jump through the security hoops everyone else has to navigate.

An alternative to posting through your web browser is by sending email to your website. Blogger and WordPress have options for this. You set up an email address that is specific to these posts. When you send a post to this address, your site picks it up and publishes it as an article. The benefit is that your phone’s email program is probably better for formatting posts than the browser interface. I did this very effectively with blogger last year. I couldn’t get my phone to interface well with blogger, but that was before I knew about turning off the graphics. Commenting was almost impossible then. When I moved to WordPress and my own domain, it wasn’t as easy to do the email option, but the browser interfaced so much better.

There is not a lot to blog about today, so I have a couple of posts set to drop throughout the day. I hope it keeps you interested, entertained and informed.

I arrived mid-afternoon on Saturday, in hopes of getting a little rest and reading a few books before the Convention starts. Pray that all goes well. For my church members, thanks for praying for my safety. Keep on praying.

I stayed at my Mom’s last night and dropped my kids off there for the week. She lives North of Ft. Worth, so I stopped at Southwestern Seminary this morning on my way down. I have missed that place tremendously and have not been able to see it for over a decade, with one brief exception. It is important to me for the same reason this blog is named what it is. It is a monument of a time when God did amazing things in my life. I drove around campus and took a few pictures. I eased by a particular tree that I was looking at out of a window in the dorm when I sensed God impressing something amazing to me about all of creation worshiping Him. I took some pictures around campus and I’ll post a few. I did not take any pictures of the President’s Home, Pecan Manor, so don’t ask. The campus was, as always, immaculate. I really miss that place.

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I’ve been adding a few new categories. You can now go back and look at various “live blogging” events (they are not yet all updated), Greensboro, and soon San Antonio will be a tag. I also added the category, “SBC Primer.” Last year, leading up to Greensboro, I took on the task of explaining how everything works during the convention. I was thinking of revising it this year, but time was not as plentiful. If you click the category, though, all of those posts will come up and you can peruse them. I have had a few questions about how to get things done in the convention, and these posts should help you out, if you have a question.

I’ll be live blogging the convention again this year. Apparently, several news agencies have begun to catch on to this as an opportunity to resource interested readers. I can see why. My hits on Tuesday of the Convention last year were in the 6,000 range – and I am but a lowly blogger. Despite their hard work, I’ll keep at it as well. Hope you enjoy my steady diet of posts. I have 41 relating to Greensboro, but some of those were both before and after. I still think I posted at least 20 last year. This is this year’s first.

Again, I ask that you pray for God to be glorified, us to be both obedient and unified and for the Gospel to be proclaimed to the lost by our cooperative efforts.

So you think I am the only one who thinks Texas will matter next year?

Here’s what Phillips Lynn says:

Greensboro is Behind Us, Now What?

OK. Everybody now. Tell us what you think about Texas.

(As always, mind your manners.)

The Inner Circle has never lost in Texas. It is their strong tower, so to speak. However, I know a couple of SBT pastors who’s sympathies do not run to the Inner Circle. These are not bloggers, either. I wonder how many others like them are there? I am led to believe that many in the BGCT, though able, are not willing to send messengers, having had enough fighting for the SBC, so the question will be, “Where will the SBT sympathies lie?”

Ronnie Floyd’s statement about Sutton splitting the “strong, conservative vote” is telling. What he really means – AND I AGREE WITH HIM – is that the vote of those who follow the Inner Circle (knowingly or unwittingly) was split. That is true.

Again, he is wrong to assume that all Sutton votes would have gone to him had Sutton not been in the race. That still doesn’t matter, though, because Page beat them both combined.

The question now is, “What will be the make up of the convention in San Antonio?”

Before I left, Marty, his lovely wife, Sonya and I ate at the Lone Star Steakhouse. As we were waiting, I took a picture of this:

Somehow, I thought it significant.

By the way, this is an anti-littering campaign slogan that the state of Texas came up with when I was a child. It seems to have taken on a life of its own.