By Greg Warner
• A statue of Billy Graham will be placed in Nashville next year as part of the SBC's tribute to the famed Southern Baptist evangelist, who is expected to end his preaching career soon. The SBC presented a commendation to Graham's grandson June 22 and unveiled a smaller model of the statue, which will be completed next year by Terrell O'Brien, a sculptor and bivocational pastor in Wyoming. It depicts Graham standing before a towering cross, dressed in a three-piece suit, with a Bible in one hand and his arms outstretched. Graham preached to 210 million people, “more than any person in the history of the world,” during his 56-year career, according to a video tribute.
• Southern Baptists broke all of their evangelism records during “CrossOver Nashville,” a weekend witnessing event that preceded the convention. More than 10,000 volunteers reportedly participated in the event, knocking on more than 40,000 doors and recording more than 2,500 conversions. Messengers to the SBC meeting also witnessed eight baptisms-reportedly the first conducted during an SBC meeting. Welch explained why the demonstration was important: “You have to realize, 10,000 [of the SBC's 43,000] churches haven't seen a baptism in a year.”
• The official SBC denominational calendar was amended to delete references to “Baptist World Alliance Day” for the next five years. Last year, the SBC withdrew from the BWA, comprised of 211 Baptist conventions worldwide, over charges of liberalism.
• Messengers turned back an attempt to redirect money from missions to political action. “We are fighting for the soul of America” on issues like abortion, gay marriage and stem-cell research, said Missouri pastor Rodney Albert, who made the proposal to add almost $1 million to the budget of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission from the SBC's two mission boards. But Jim Wideman, executive director of the Baptist Convention of New England, countered: “Our purpose is not to save the culture of America. Our purpose is to save the world. If our culture goes down, it won't be because we didn't spend more money for lobbying. If our culture is saved, it will be because we spend more money for evangelism.” Messengers approved the Cooperative Program budget of $189.9 million as originally proposed.
• “In an instant, 250,000 lives were swept into eternity without Christ,” said International Mission Board president Jerry Rankin of the tsunami that devastated eight Asian countries Dec. 26. “This tragedy reminds us of the urgency of the task of getting the gospel to all people,” said Rankin, adding that more than 607,000 new believers were “swept into kingdom” through the work of IMB missionaries worldwide in 2004.
• Adrian Rogers, the only recent three-term SBC president, confirmed he is under treatment for colon cancer. Rogers, who retired this spring after 32 years as pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in suburban Memphis, Tenn., was honored with a resolution that called him the “prince of preachers.”
• Also honored and retiring was former SBC president Jimmy Draper, president of LifeWay Christian Resources for 14 years. Draper later warned messengers: “In spite of the struggle for 25 years to recover biblical faithfulness, we are still witnessing a stagnation in evangelism. Our passion for souls has cooled.” Of the SBC's rise in history, Draper said: “God passed by the great magisterial denominations of this land and he put his hand upon a group of people considered by the elitist of society to be under-classed, backward, ignorant and prejudiced. God took a group of people huddled around little churches in the south and on the frontier and elevated them into the greatest denomination in the strongest country in the world.” But he added, too many SBC churches are plagued by chaos, division, power struggles, “bitterness, resentment and cynicism.”
• As the final gavel fell on the 148th annual SBC meeting, so did red, white and blue balloons released from the ceiling of the Gaylord Entertainment Center, as president Bobby Welch led messengers in a chant of commitment to convert and baptize 1 million people in the coming year. “Everyone Can, and I'm It,” messengers yelled repeatedly at Welch's prompting. “We're going out there and we're going to attack the gates of hell for the sake of souls,” he said.
Associated Baptist Press
Greg Warner is executive editor of ABP.