Scenes from Baptist convention

The Rev. Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, exhorted members to stand united against same-sex marriage during the denomination’s annual meeting this week in Columbus, Ohio. Floyd is senior pastor of the multi-campus Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas.
The Rev. Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, exhorted members to stand united against same-sex marriage during the denomination’s annual meeting this week in Columbus, Ohio. Floyd is senior pastor of the multi-campus Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Southern Baptists denounced gay marriage and passed resolutions on racial reconciliation and the sanctity of human life during their annual meeting Tuesday and Wednesday. The rainy two-day meeting of the nation's largest Protestant denomination, which featured a mix of business and worship, also included these odds and ends:

• While 5,407 Baptist messengers (the denomination's name for delegates) voted on business and heard annual reports, hundreds of college-age Baptists in blue T-shirts marked "Send North America" worked in neighborhoods around Columbus in "community restoration programs," said Doug Adams of Fredericksburg, Va. His team of 18- to 24-year-olds helped turn a grassy lot in the Linden neighborhood into a community garden. Instead of coming to town with a list of service projects, organizers asked people in Columbus what they wanted. "We added manpower to their desires," he said.

• Many entering the Greater Columbus Convention Center had to pass street preacher Alan Hoyle of North Carolina, who was dressed a bit like an Old Testament prophet with his burlap robe, rope belt, long graying beard, ram's horn and straw cowboy hat with a Marine Corps pin. Hoyle -- who has been arrested in Washington for carrying an unlicensed gun outside the Capitol and in North Carolina for stalking a family member -- said he was there because the 15.5 million-member denomination isn't doing enough to condemn homosexuality. At least one Baptist attendee gave him a high-five. Others called the police on him, he said.

• There was something of a prophet inside, too: Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and cultural commentator on The Briefing, his daily podcast. In a morning news conference, answering a question about steady declines in membership and baptism, he hinted at the meeting's theme and tag line -- "Great Awakening: Clear Agreement, Visible Union, Extraordinary Prayer" -- in saying, "I don't think this is anything that is going to be resolved with denominational branding or a new slogan."

A report released this month by LifeWay Christian Resources showed that the Southern Baptist Convention lost more than 200,000 members in 2014, the largest one-year decline since 1881. The report also showed baptisms declined for the third-consecutive year, with a decrease of 1.6 percent. Last year 305,301 people were baptized, the lowest total since 1947.

• In a Tuesday news conference, Southern Baptist leaders were asked why the word "reconciliation" was chosen over "justice" in a resolution to increase racial and ethnic diversity and to mend relations with minority communities. "Reconciliation includes mercy. It includes justice," said Russell Moore, president of the denomination's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. "As Christians, we believe that justice alone is hell."

• David Platt, the young, new president of the church's International Mission Board, gave an emotional -- at times teary -- report on worldwide missions efforts, including success stories and unfilled needs. Southern Baptists take seriously the Bible's call to go into all the world teaching people about Jesus, and the ceremony to commission new missionaries at past annual meetings has been sometimes celebratory, with flags and banners representing destinations. This time, the room was darkened and Platt asked messengers to get on their knees and pray for the people going forth.

• In Tuesday's business meeting, when messengers were able to make motions, Leroy Cole of Andalusia, Ala., moved that shuttle service be provided to take messengers from their hotels to the downtown convention center, saying public transportation was not safe and bad weather created difficulties for those waiting for buses.

Next year's annual meeting will be June 14-15 in St. Louis.

NAN Religion on 06/20/2015

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