Since my denominational annual meeting just ended, I thought I would stay up late and share what has happened the last few days. Or, perhaps more accurately, share my experiences along the way.

Let me say it was a good convention and I left encouraged. Here is a day-by-day report.

Friday

On Friday, I was one of the keynote speakers and also did two breakout sessions for the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists.

Good people. I believe that the church has been gifted with Evangelists and many people have forgotten their role in the church. It was good to be with these faithful servants.

Sunday

I preached at my church which is the headquarters of the Southern Baptist Convention. Actually, every church is the "SBC headquarters," even though sometimes people forget.

Monday

First, the Pastors Conference was a clear call for unity and cooperation. All of the speakers called for such.

Baptist Press provided a helpful report on the Pastors Conference here.

Here was the info about my message from our communications people:

Preaching from Ephesians 4:1-6, Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, urged Southern Baptists to share a love-driven unity. "God has already made us one ... we just have to live it out," he said. The decline in membership and baptisms in the SBC is "not a matter of debate; it's a matter of math," he noted, and Southern Baptists should set aside "tertiary" issues to join hands in ministry. "You cannot bury your head in the sand and have your heart in the mission."

Stetzer encouraged his fellow pastors to "walk worthy, display right attitudes, and live in the unity God has already created." Walking worthy, he said, means we have to walk in who we already are in Christ. "God is not honored when there are divisions and factions among us."

He said Southern Baptists often are guilty of wrong attitudes that undermine the work of the Gospel. If Southern Baptists followed the biblical mandate to consider others more important than ourselves, "we would not be engaged in debates" about worship styles, methodologies and other issues. "God is using all kinds of churches for His glory and honor and we cannot and must not look down our noses at each other," he said. "Angry preaching gets the 'amen' ... but the amen corner is getting older and smaller every day."

Southern Baptists can't create unity, but they can live it, he said. Lifting his Bible, Stetzer said, "I've read the end of the book. It doesn't mention Southern Baptists ... but it mentions people from every tribe, tongue and nation.... I want us as a family of churches to be a part of that great ingathering."

Citing past disagreements over a variety of non-essential issues, Stetzer closed with a call to repentance and renewed commitment to cooperate with others who share a common statement of faith. "Southern Baptists, has the pain of staying the same grown greater than the pain of changing?" Not change for change's sake, he said, but for the sake of the Gospel.

I will share with the videos here at the blog when they are available.

On Monday night, I spoke to the newspaper editors of the SBC state papers. I shared with them new data and analysis that I prepared at their request. That data has now been reported in many places but you can find that information here.

Tuesday

Here were my predictions. You be the judge. ;-)

First, I do believe it will be a good convention. That is not to say that foolish things won't happen. They will. You can't get that many people together (even when we're trying to unite around the gospel) and not have a little drama. Someone will want to use the SBC to make their point, embarrass someone, or hurt a brother in the name of Christ. And, the media will be the media and it will make the national news. But, all in all, it will be a convention focused on the gospel, the Great Commission and Christian love. All the noise will not distract from the focus that Johnny Hunt, the pastors conference, and the overwhelming majority of Southern Baptists believe: we need to end the sniping and unite around the gospel.

Second, the Great Commission Resurgence resolution will pass and Southern Baptists will be on record affirming methodological diversity (article 5). If only we will listen to that call...

Third, many people who love Jesus will be challenged that they are not reaching many for Him. (That is why I am SBC.)

Fourth, the location in Louisville will help with attendance and it will be a little better than usual.

Also, on Tuesday, Danny Akin, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, Daniel Montgomery, David Platt, and I talked about the future of the SBC with the Baptist 21 panel. I will post that video later, but there is a summary here.

After that, my friends over at the SBC Executive Committee released a new resource. We had a "tweet up" sponsored by SBCEC and talked honestly about convention issues-- even taking questions from the gathered crowd at the Executive Committee booth.

The resources are based on a message series I did at my church earlier this year. I hope they can help you and your church people be better financial stewards with God's money. You can get them free following the instructions here.

Tuesday night, I start my "co-facilitation" of NAMB's task force to help refocus on the Great Commission. Please be praying for our group as we seek to encourage our churches to think of North America as a mission field and discern how best to engage it.

Wednesday

Wednesday was a day for meetings and interviews. I won't bore you with the details of my meetings, but there were many excellent SBC agency reports and I even attended a few!

I also had a great lunch with my friends and fellow faculty members at the Southeastern Seminary luncheon.

Conclusion

The big news was that the Great Commission Resurgence resolution was overwhelmingly approved and the Task Force was named.

But, as always, the highlights were the mission board reports and I hope you were able to be a part of such events. I will post those videos when they are available.

I will be out of pocket tomorrow speaking to the Church of God, Cleveland, TN annual Camp Meeting and won't be around in the comments, but feel free to share your thoughts and feedback.