Yesterday at the SBC Pastors Conference was incredible. We walked through Colossians verse by verse and heard some of the most edifying and Biblical sermons that have ever been preached. If you have time, visit live.sbc.net to watch the archived sermons. 

The pastors conference has never needed “documents or by-laws” because it’s sole purpose is encourage pastors the day before the convention. As a result there are no by-laws, it’s always just operated out of tradition as an event for pastors where the president each year is elected by the pastors who attend. 

But, there is a group called the Conservative Baptist Network that is trying to take over all of the elected spots in the SBC. Yesterday, members of the CBN were encouraging people to attend the pastors conference at the time of the vote the for next years president, and break tradition and vote whether you were a pastor or not.

In addition this group hosted its own event at the same time as the pastors conference first session Sunday night. There has been a Sunday night opening session for as long as I can remember. Then they flooded the conference with people just to vote, and then didn’t come back for the evening session. 

Their candidate (Voddie Baucham) did not win, and he’s a solid brother in Christ… but this isn’t the way that our convention needs to work or be led. After the vote was announced a group of CBN’ers gathered outside the convention center for a rally of sorts in prep for todays proceedings.

I went to one of my favorite moments of the SBC: 9Marks at 9. We sang and discussed the difference between revival and revivalism. It was such an encouraging time of being refreshed and reminded that it is the ordinary means of prayer and preaching that the Lord transforms lives. Revival is a work of the Holy Spirit and we must pursue purity and preach the gospel to be used to experience it in our churches.

As Day One starts… Its early over here and already word is spreading through social media and text messages that the CBN hired a parliamentarian to advise them throughout the SBC meeting this week. Apparently they intend to disrupt the entire agenda of the meetings and change the schedule to add items to the agenda and take away a years worth of planning and prep. This would include taking away some/many of the times of worship, prayer, and preaching. I hope none of this is true, but yesterday it all played out just like I heard it would.

So, I ask you to pray for the SBC meeting today. Pray that we honor Christ with how we do things and treat one another, not just with the outcome of our decisions. And pray for clarity, wisdom, and discernment for everyone attending. The SBC can be a powerful instrument for the gospel in the hands of the Lord, but we must be pure, Biblical, and unified for that to happen.