Editor’s note: Please follow us on Twitter @BaptistCourier and Facebook for updates from the 2014 SCBC annual meeting.
Messengers from churches across the South Carolina Baptist Convention are gathering in Columbia today (Nov. 11) and tomorrow at Shandon Baptist Church for the denomination’s 194th annual meeting.
This year’s theme of “LiveIT” is reflective of the convention-wide vision emphasis of “Great Commission Living,” which was adopted at last year’s annual meeting.
In addition to welcoming newly elected interim executive director-treasurer Richard Harris, the messengers will vote on proposed bylaw changes, consider a 2015 operating budget of $28.6 million, and elect a new president. (As the annual meeting was set to begin, The Courier knew of two confirmed nominees for president: Tommy Kelly, pastor of First Baptist Church of Varnville, and Rocky Purvis, pastor of Northside Baptist Church in West Columbia.)
Current SCBC president D.J. Horton said he wants this year’s meeting to reflect a spirit of celebration, noting that “we have a lot of South Carolina Baptists who are winning, doing some great stuff.” Horton, pastor of Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church in Moore, said he hopes this year’s meeting will be the “largest gathering of South Carolina Baptists in recent history.”
Horton has arranged for a dinner-on-the-grounds-style fried chicken supper for messengers, to be held Tuesday afternoon under a large tent. The meal will be catered by Bojangles, which has signed on as a corporate sponsor for the annual meeting.
Charles Billingsley, a former member of the contemporary Christian group NewSong, will lead worship on Tuesday night, backed by a mass choir featuring members from Anderson Mill Road Church, Cherry Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Conway, and Lexington Baptist Church. The Tuesday evening service will also include a time of prayer for South Carolinians heading off to serve as International Mission Board missionaries. The evening service, which takes place on Veterans Day, will also give messengers a chance to honor past and present military personnel.
The meeting opens on Tuesday morning with music by the Singing Churchmen, a men’s chorus made up of worship leaders and ministers of music from across the state. On Tuesday afternoon, Ignite, a praise band from Horton’s church, will lead in worship. Horton said the Tuesday afternoon session will be casual dress and will feature a time of prayer and commissioning for church planters.
The fried chicken meal on Tuesday will be free to the first 400 people who pick up complimentary tickets. (Additional tickets will be available for purchase.) During the meal, a panel led by Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee president Frank Page and South Carolina pastors will present a “candid discussion” about the future of South Carolina Baptists.
During the Wednesday morning session, LifeWay Christian Resources president Thom Rainer will bring the convention sermon, and messengers will elect officers for the coming year. Shandon Baptist Church musicians will lead in worship.
Messengers to this year’s annual meeting will vote on separate recommendations to change the convention’s bylaws. The changes would allow for the election of a president-elect and give clarification to what it means to be a “bona fide” contributor to the convention’s work based on Cooperative Program giving. For detailed information about the annual meeting, visit scbaptist.org/2014-annual-meeting.