If every church eligible to send a messenger to the annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia had sent its maximum number to the meeting in Roanoke last month, attendance would have soared to 10,668.
That bit of information is among several findings in a study of messengers at the Roanoke meeting undertaken by Kirby Knight, web and teaching resource coordinator for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.
Some 36 percent, or 453, of the 1,255 churches eligible to send messengers to the BGAV were represented last month.
A total of 1,655 people registered for the November meeting, including 116 visitors who registered on-site. Of the total, 839 were messengers who pre-registered by phone, mail or email and 501 were messengers who registered on-site. Another 199 messengers pre-registered but did not check in, leaving 1,456 who actually attended the meeting.
The majority-766-of those attending were laypeople. Ministers made up 525 of the total and associational workers, 49. Visitors and press totaled 116.
Staff report