2015 SBC Annual Meeting

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- Arkansas pastor Ronnie Floyd was reelected without opposition to a second term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention June 16 during the SBC annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio. Registered messengers totaled 5,277 messengers at the time. Floyd was nominated by North Carolina pastor J.D. Greear, who said, "God's hand has been upon Brother Ronnie. I believe he is the man God has raised up to lead us for another year."

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- Resolutions adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention offer multiple benefits. That was the response of this year's Resolutions Committee chairman and an SBC ethics leader when asked by a reporter shortly after messengers to the 2015 meeting adopted nine resolutions. In unanimous or nearly unanimous votes during the Tuesday afternoon session (June 16), the convention approved measures on such topics as marriage, racial reconciliation, the sanctity of human life, religious persecution and spiritual awakening.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- Philadelphia pastor K. Marshall Williams cried out to God to mold Christians to stand as Christ's ambassadors in these last days, as he closed his remarks with prayer during the National African American Fellowship annual banquet June 15 in Columbus, Ohio. "Lord, break us, that You can make us, that we might be the people of God that You're calling for in these last and evil days," prayed Williams, NAAF president and pastor of Nazarene Baptist Church. ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- Messengers to the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention adopted nine resolutions -- some on culturally divisive issues -- with almost no opposition. All the resolutions offered in the Tuesday afternoon session (June 16) at the SBC's meeting gained passage by unanimous or nearly unanimous votes. The messengers affirmed biblically based stances on such topics as same-sex marriage, racial reconciliation and the sanctity of human life, as well as religious persecution and pornography. Approved resolutions also called for spiritual awakening and celebrated the 90th anniversary of the Cooperative Program.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- The current and 16 former Southern Baptist Convention presidents released a statement on biblical marriage and the national implications of same-sex marriage in a June 17 news conference prior to the concluding sessions of the SBC annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio. SBC President Ronnie Floyd moderated the news conference, attended by eight of the former presidents.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd called for pastoral leadership in the nation's largest Protestant denomination to seize a "Bonhoeffer moment" by refusing to be silent in the face of persecution, to hold on to the Word of God, take heart and be encouraged. "The lostness has never been greater in our dangerous and hopeless world," Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, said in his president's message to the SBC annual meeting June 16 in Columbus, Ohio.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- "What if?" That was the question posed to more than 2,600 attendees of the June 15 Send North America Luncheon at the SBC Pastors' Conference in the Greater Columbus Convention Center, host to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. The event promised a glimpse into the future of missions in the SBC from the presidents of the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board.

GROVE CITY, Ohio (BP) -- Woman's Missionary Union elected Linda Cooper of Bowling Green, Ky., to serve as national WMU president during the second day of their Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting, June 14-15, at First Baptist Church of Grove City, Ohio. Cooper, a member of Forest Park Baptist Church, will replace Debby Akerman, who has served as president for five years. In her final presidential address, Akerman thanked those present at the meeting for the opportunity to serve WMU.

Collegian Daniel Woodman sees students making a difference on the streets of Columbus in advance of the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting. "We don't know how to work hard, they say. We lack real motivation," Woodman writes. "I hear these whispers of doubt all the time about our generation. Yet, I regularly see evidence that contradicts these generalizations."

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- The Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee affirmed a report assessing the progress the convention has made regarding racial diversity at their June 15 meeting in Columbus, Ohio.