As Pastor Clint Pressley, president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), looked out on a crowd of nearly 10,000 during the denomination’s annual meeting, he smiled and said, “ Let me begin today by saying: It is really good to be a Southern Baptist.”
“ I have never wanted to be anything other than a Southern Baptist,” Pressley added, going on to recount how he became a Southern Baptist at the age of 16, when his family began attending Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, the church that he now pastors.
Pressley’s presidential address to the SBC centered on the biblical text of Hebrews 10:23-24, which also served as the theme for the annual meeting.
In the address, Pressley celebrated the centennial anniversary of the Baptist Faith & Message (BFM), which is the denomination’s statement of faith, as well as of the Cooperative Program, the funding program for the denomination’s missions and ministry.
“Thank God, we still have a gospel,” said Pressley. “ So many historic denominations in America do not have a gospel anymore. Thank God that the Southern Baptist Convention still has a gospel.”
Pressley went on to celebrate the fact that the SBC has seen recent upticks in baptisms, church attendance, church plants, and missionaries in the leadership pipeline.
“ I want us to spend some time celebrating that which makes us strong and unique and useful to the larger kingdom of God,” said Pressley. “Look, I think we can do that without downplaying, or ignoring, or sidestepping some of the serious issues that we have to address.”
“We have faced a lot,” he added. “We still have some things we need to face. But do you know that you can be happy and convictional at the same time? And I wanna simply do what I can do to remind us that it is good to be a Southern Baptist.”
“So without being too dramatic—as the Lord knows, we don’t need any more drama than what we got,” Pressley went on to say. “So without being too dramatic, I think it is fair to say that Southern Baptists have found ourselves in a bit of a storm for the last little bit.”
He continued, “And it might be good for us to take a breath. And be reminded [that] we’ve gathered together for the celebration of 100 years that we are holding fast to two things that make us and define us as Southern Baptists.”
RELATED: At the Start of This Year’s SBC Annual Meeting, Pastor Willy Rice Motions To Abolish the ERLC
For the last several years, the SBC has been plagued by conflict, scandal, and financial hardship, as it has been forced to reckon with its decades-long failure to adequately respond to allegations of clergy sex abuse.
, looked out on a crowd of nearly 10,000 during the denomination’s annual meeting, he smiled and said, “ Let me begin today by saying: It is really good to be a Southern Baptist.”){kind=link}