(Editor’s note: This was published in our June magazine prior to the SBC 2025 in Dallas.)
On June 9–11, 2025, cooperating Southern Baptists from across the states will gather in Dallas, Texas, in our 180th year of Convention organization, to celebrate our missional unity and give direction to our forward work. The “sacred task” of worldwide gospel propagation has been the great object of our cooperation since the first moments of our constitutional convention in 1845. Annually since, we have gathered to renew our commitment to that same task and to one another.
“The opportunities before us are bewildering in their number and magnitude,” B.D. Gray, corresponding secretary of the Home Mission Board, concluded his comments to the SBC annual meeting in its 80th year. “Let us quit ourselves like men and gird ourselves afresh for the great task before us!” The opportunities before Southern Baptists today are, as they were in 1925, “bewildering.” Today, the world lies open before us. We have never possessed more resources, more intelligence, more technology, or more access than right now. Great opportunity must be met by great commitment and great sacrifice. Will we rise to the opportunity of our generation?
Not every SCBaptist will be able to attend the SBC’s annual meeting. If 500 SCBaptist messengers attend, that will account for less than one-tenth of 1 percent of SCBaptists. I would love for every SCBaptist to attend the SBC as a messenger from his or her church. But those who cannot attend entrust the work of dutiful representation into the ballots of the few who can.
If you are not able to attend the SBC this June, here are a few suggestions for how you can stay engaged in a healthy way, as a cooperating Southern Baptist in South Carolina:
1. PRAY
Either we believe that God is sovereign, able, and willing to multiply His favor through our cooperative efforts, or we don’t. If we do, then every SCBaptist must own the responsibility to pray through the course of the meeting that He will. If we don’t, then let’s all pack up and go home. Our mechanisms, budgets, systems, and structures are good, but on their own they will produce nothing of eternal value. What we need is a powerful movement of God in our generation that effects global gospel saturation. Pray throughout the course of the annual meeting that God would be so pleased.
2. WATCH
While remote voting is not possible within our SBC governance, every SCBaptist can watch the annual meeting live here: https://sbcannualmeeting.net/live/. Don’t get caught up in the social media commentary from streaming sites. But watch, pray, and evaluate for yourself. If you are bold enough, instead of assuming the worst, ask God to show you the value of our SBC gospel partnership and trust what He impresses upon your heart. If you are only able to watch one portion of the meeting, I suggest tuning in at 10:08 a.m. Tuesday, June 10, for the International Mission Board’s sending celebration.
3. LISTEN
As an invested and involved Southern Baptist, you do not have to settle for secondhand accounts, sound-bite posts, and opinionated hot-takes on Convention happenings. Don’t just hear what others are saying about the SBC. Listen to what SBC leaders and officers say. Listen for understanding (Prov. 18:2, 13, 17), assume the best (1 Cor. 13:7), and strive toward peace (Eph. 4:3).
4. COOPERATE
No matter the secondary disagreements, the primary mission is unchanged: The gospel of Jesus Christ must extend to our neighbors and the nations. Our organized SBC/SCBaptist Great Commission cooperation is a gift from God toward that end. Fourteen million Southern Baptists will never agree on all things. But we can agree — we do agree — on the main thing: Keep cooperating so that we make the most of our day together, even through various frustrations and reformations.
I am thankful to be an SCBaptist in this generation. Let’s lead the way in our state and our nation, toward faithful, sacrificial, joyful cooperation. And together, let’s get the gospel to our neighbors and the nations.