[1]SALT LAKE CITY (BP)–Georgia and North Carolina, with 800 Southern Baptist Convention messengers each, contributed the largest number of the 8,586 registrants at the June 9-11 SBC annual meeting at Salt Lake City’s Salt Palace Convention Center.
Other leading states were Tennessee, 725; Oklahoma,700; Texas, 580; and Alabama, 540, according to unofficial figures compiled by SBC registration secretary Lee Porter.
As of 4 p.m. June 10, 8,555 people had registered as official messengers from their churches to the 141rst session of the 153-year-old SBC.
The number of messengers decreased by nearly 4,000 messengers from last year’s convention total of 12,420.
Five churches in Oklahoma sent their full contingent of 10 messengers each. From Alabama, Tennessee and Texas, four churches each sent 10 messengers. Texas had six churches send at least eight or more messengers.
On the other end of the spectrum, no messengers were registered from North Dakota, Rhode Island or Vermont. One messenger each hailed from Delaware and New Hampshire; two each from Connecticut and Maine; three each from Minnesota and Puerto Rico.
Unofficial tallies of state-by-state registration numbers are: Alabama, 540 messengers; Alaska, 15; Arizona, 95; Arkansas, 200; California, 300; Colorado, 100; Connecticut, 2; Delaware, 1;
District of Columbia, 6; Florida, 400; Georgia, 800; Hawaii, 5; Iowa, 15; Idaho, 105; Illinois, 220; Indiana, 120; Kansas, 57; Kentucky, 400; Louisiana, 275; Massachusetts, 6; Maryland, 80; Maine, 2;
Michigan, 35; Minnesota, 3; Missouri, 330; Mississippi, 500; Montana, 36; North Carolina, 800; Nebraska, 9; Nevada, 71; New Hampshire, 1; New Jersey, 17; New Mexico, 72; New York, 15; Ohio, 100;
Oklahoma, 700; Oregon, 20; Pennsylvania, 20; Puerto Rico, 3; South Carolina, 450; South Dakota, 3; Tennessee, 725; Texas, 580; Utah, 190; Virginia, 380; Washington, 35; Wisconsin, 5; West Virginia, 32; Wyoming, 50.