If you think the SBC Annual Meeting is important, you will find a way to attend (yes, even in Anaheim). 

Yes, it can be costly. Yes, it can be hard for the average SBC church, which doesn’t have a big travel budget, or really any budget, to send messengers. 

But if you think participating in our Baptist system of governance and exercising stewardship over the money that your church, your members, send to our Cooperative Program and other entities is important, then you will plan, raise, schedule, and overcome any obstacles necessary to be in Orlando this June. 

Because where there is a will, there is a way.

This is a simple principle I realized and internalized in my first year as a senior pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention. I began pastoring a church with an annual budget of less than $90,000. As you would expect, the bulk of our budget was simply what was needed to keep the lights on, pay for a part-time music director, and my salary. To say we ran (and are still running) a tight ship would be an understatement. 

Still, we joyfully set aside a few thousand dollars for the Cooperative Program and did the special Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong offerings. And even though we have a small budget, we still qualified for nine messengers in 2024 and 2025, and we can send six to Orlando this year. 

That’s how the system is supposed to work: Average-sized churches get more of a voice than they realize. Sadly, few avail themselves of exercising it.

But where would we find the money? 

When I first asked myself that, the answer became clear: if I wanted to attend the Annual Meeting, we would find a way to send me.

Location, Location, Location

In a recent video, Willy Rice, a candidate for the office of President of the SBC at the upcoming Annual Meeting, provided a few thoughts on the Executive Committee’s recent recommended future locations for the Annual Meeting. His overarching point was simple: we shouldn’t host the Annual Meeting in cities so far from the majority of Southern Baptists. 

According to recent recommendations from the Executive Committee, the Annual Meeting will only return to the American Southeast once in the next decade. If you add two trips to Texas, that accounts for only 30% of the next decade spent in what we colloquially call the southern United States. 

This is a problem, according to Rice, because, as you might expect, the vast majority of SBC churches are in the southern United States.

Location is important. I would argue we should spend the majority of our Annual Meetings somewhere in the American South. If I were put in charge, I’d keep a rotation of Dallas, Indianapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, and Orlando – with the occasional trip to Anaheim, Salt Lake City, etc. But I am not in charge (and that’s probably best!). There are important considerations the EC must take into account when choosing a location for the Annual Meeting. In 2023, the location was moved from Charlotte to New Orleans because the Queen City didn’t meet the EC’s requirements for hotels and other accommodations.

I have made it clear that I would prefer the Annual Meeting be held in the American South most of the time.

But, brothers, let’s be honest, you can get to the Annual Meeting at any of these other locations. You just have to want it.

The Nashville Bump

Ryan Burge posted a graph on X with the attendance numbers of the recent Annual Meetings. Nashville immediately catches the eye. Over 15,000 Southern Baptists attended the Annual Meeting in Nashville. Some have cynically argued that Nashville is being intentionally avoided because of the huge bump in attendance. Others argue that Nashville is an outlier. 

If you remember, Nashville was the summer of 2021. We were still on the heels of not having held an Annual Meeting in the previous year (due to COVID) and a tumultuous political cycle. Messengers were supercharged, much as they were the previous November, when both Donald Trump and Joe Biden received record numbers of votes in the American Presidential Election.

If we approach the Nashville attendance blip charitably, we can meet somewhere in the middle. It is, most likely, a both-and. Both location and recent events led to a surge in attendance. 

I think this is reflected in the huge dip in attendance in Anaheim the next year. Messenger energy was lower. Although it turned out to be a presidential election year, I’m sure many were not aware that Ed Litton was not running for a second term. And, naturally, many Southern Baptists didn’t feel the same urgency to make the trip to Anaheim. 

As such, the next year, New Orleans jumped. Particularly in light of the debate and vote on the Law Amendment.

All this to say, brothers, I believe the Nashville surge is most explained by both location and urgency. So what might this teach us? 

Location matters, sure. But urgency is just as important. 

Pastors like me need to push and prioritize attendance at the Annual Meeting. Mention it in your prayer meeting, staff meetings, deacon’s meetings, or small group Bible studies. Add it to your announcements. Share information on social media. Help your church members stay up to date on SBC news, issues, and the Annual Meeting. 

Recently, a family member of one of my church members spoke with me about the SBC. She told me she regularly checks in with her pastors about their attendance at the Annual Meeting, how they’re voting, and so on. Praise God! That’s the kind of interest we should cultivate in our members. Even more so in our SBC pastors.

“You Can Just Do Things”…Like Attend the Annual Meeting!

Modern-day air travel is amazing. We get into air-locked tubes with wings on them, stewardesses bring us Biscoff cookies and Diet Coke, and we can arrive on the other side of the country in less than seven hours. 

Just imagine, for a moment, telling James Petigru Boyce that you can travel to Orlando, Florida, from just about anywhere in the Southeast in less time than it would have taken him to travel by train, from Charleston, SC, to the first-ever SBC Annual Meeting in Augusta, GA. 

And then, imagine telling him you weren’t planning to attend because it was just too much. 

Our Baptist forefathers considered the Annual Meeting a stewardship from God far more than the average Southern Baptist in 2026. Dr. Boyce would, I believe, channel the spirit of the online age and tell you, “You can just do things.”

If you make it a priority, I promise you, you can find the money to send at least one messenger to the Annual Meeting. 

Let’s return to Indianapolis in June of 2024. I was a new pastor and a new dad. Again, my church had a budget of less than $90,000 that year. I didn’t think the Annual Meeting was something I should worry about. But then I got a bug in me to make it a priority. I began to devise a plan: drive the eight hours to Indy early Tuesday morning, attend the Tuesday meeting, sleep in my car Tuesday night, and return after Wednesday’s proceedings. 

But my church was gracious. We found $400 to buy flights for me, and I crashed with friends who had already booked an Airbnb. Because, brother pastor, you can just do things.

The next year, Dallas 2025, we had grown as a church, and our budget was beginning to increase. We even had a little extra money, so I asked the church to give me $1,000 to book flights and a hotel room for the Annual Meeting. My flights and hotel ended up being around $600. A couple of months later, one of my church members asked if he could attend the Annual Meeting. I already had a room with two beds booked, and I had wiggle room with my initial $1,000 request. So I booked his flights. The church covered our meals. 

All told, the two of us cost our church right around $1,000. Talk about a worthwhile investment!

Many of you are in a similar boat. You are, like me, the only full-time employee of your church. Maybe, like me, you don’t even have a secretary! Perhaps, like my church, your budget is less than $100,000. 

My challenge to you is this: Do you care enough to attend? If you care enough, you will attend.

Yes, Even Anaheim

Let’s pretend, for a moment, that the Annual Meeting was all the way out in Anaheim, CA, this year. Would I attend? I would certainly try! Like many of you, my church is behind on finances right now. We don’t have quite as much lying around as we did even last year. 

If I were looking to get to Anaheim, I could find flights to and from Charlotte for around $800 and a hotel within walking distance for about $450 for two nights. Does my church have $1,200 to help me get to the Annual Meeting? Probably. Certainly, if I had known the Annual Meeting was in Anaheim this year when we made our budget, I would have accounted for the higher expense. It also means we may not be able to fund the expenses of other messengers who would like to attend. That’s just what life is like in a normal church. 

However, the Annual Meeting is in Orlando this year. That’s about an eight-hour drive from my church in South Carolina. I plan to drive and bring other messengers with me. We’ll save on flights and be able to bring more folks with us. 

So, I return to my original point: I’d prefer that the Annual Meeting be held in the American South most of the time, but if you want to attend, you will find a way.

Finding Out Who Really Wants to be a Faithful Southern Baptist

Once upon a time, I was a basketball coach for a local public school. One thing I learned from my days as a player is that you can easily weed out the guys who won’t be good for your team on day one of tryouts. This is really important because, on day one, I had 68 seventh-grade boys show up to try out for a team I could only keep 13 players on. I needed to have a pretty good idea, as quickly as possible, who to keep my eye on. 

So, day one of tryouts was entirely cardio. I had them run laps, suicides, relays, around the school, up and down the hallways, and then some. On day one, you learn who wants to be on the school’s basketball team and who loves the game of basketball. You keep your eye on the latter, because they are the ones who want it for the right reasons.

Similarly, the Annual Meeting location shows us who prioritizes attending it for business and stewardship, not just for a vacation, and who does not. 

Locations far from most Southern Baptists are not ideal, but they also help us ensure that the Annual Meeting remains a priority in our minds and practice. Brothers, I am all for asking the Executive Committee to reconsider the future locations proposal they have put forward.

But let’s not kid ourselves: you can attend the Annual Meeting if it is a priority. 

And Orlando…Orlando is easy. If you care enough to be there, you will be. You just have to want it.