Rumblings and Ramblings

Yes I'm one of the lucky ones.  It is 4:30 and I'm in my office.  Most of you probably are still a long way from home.  Here is what I've been pondering around in my rock pile since last night.

1.  We got 48% of the vote for president in an un-organized grass roots effort.  Even though we blog and read blogs I'm not sure that we can call ourselves organized.  The movement was almost non-existent 18 months ago.  Now we did make a powerful statement at this year's meeting.  The question is how powerful was the statement, and do we have time to salvage the convention we love.

2.  I'm not sure how our churches will respond to a female president.  I'm sorry but the majority of our churches did not vote for Joy Fenner.  How are our churches going to view a female president of the BGCT in relation to what Scripture teaches?  It is going to be devastating if we lose a considerable amount of churches.  I'm afraid that not only we will lose churches, but some of the churches who do stay may become a part of the 1% club.  I do not want to be Joy's shoes right now because I'm afraid that she will receive much of the blame if this happens.  If it does I will be one who will defend her from this undeserved criticism.  I believe that this will lay at the feet of the TBC and our current administration.

3.  Anyone remember what Rick Warren said was one of the problems of the world today.  Was it something about self-centered, self-serving leadership?  Hum, very interesting.

4.  I stuggled with the no confidence vote especially Monday night and Tuesday morning.  You can call me a chicken liver if you wish.  But here was my dilemna.  I have two guys that are on the Ex. Board that I consider friends.  One has been a friend for nearly 10 years, another I'm getting to know well in my new association.  Everytime I thought about voting yes for this motion, I felt like I would be stabbing them in the back.  I know these guys hearts and I know the are fighting for the right thing.  Matter of fact I know for sure that one of them voted for David Lowrie.  I just could not make myself vote against these guys.  I folded under the pressure.

5.  I thought that Daniel Downey's motion on the COO was different than how we presented it on Tuesday morning.  However, he did have valid concerns.  I appreciated his motions even though I did get confused on the parlimentary mess of his second motion concerning the call center, which needs to go.  Daniel is a good guy and I'm excited to be in the same association/area as him.

6.  We must keep the fight going until there is no BGCT.  We must encourage pastors & ministers who are discouraged with this system that together we can right the ship.  We need at least 3000 messengers next year in Ft. Worth and we need to encourage the discouraged to come and be a part of the process.

7. We need to support Joy Fenner but keep a close eye on her actions as well.  I will give her the benefit of the doubt until I see something that I see does not look right.

8.  The next pivitol decison, and we cannot be a part of it, is who will be our new Executive Director.  It has to be someone who will be a consenus builder.  It has to be someone who fix the damage that has incurred over the last administration.  It is pivitol that we pray for this process.

Well I need to get ready for my meeting tonight.  Blessings to all.

I'm sure they are printed somewhere but I can't find them.  One was to recognize Charles Wade.  Keep my hand down on that one.

Wayland Baptist Choid did wonderfully in leading worship.  Dr. Baston brought a great message on being adopted by God.  We are now passiing the torch of the presidency to Mrs. Fenner.

Looking forward to the vote on the call center and the CFO position brought by the pastor of FBC Memphis.  I'm proud that he brought forth these motions.  He has thick skin like Rick.  He officates High School Football up here in the panhandle and preaches at a baptist church.  He has very thick skin!

I believe that Daniel's motion gives us another option of voting our displeasure of the the administration.  Could that send a more proper message than the no confidence vote on the Ex. Board?  Who knows if that motion will even be able to be voted on.

Sorry that key between H and K is not working so I'm using the * instead.  Had a time of prayer for this country.  There is a great need for Christ in that country.  I believe that less than 1% of the population are believers.  We need to continue to pray for that country.

They annoucned that 140 people came to know Christ through the City Reach.  Praise God for that.  I hope that these folks will be able to be discipled.

Rev. Howard Baston will be preaching the annual sermon soon.

I failed to mention earlier that there is a thread beginning at SBC Outpost on the BGCT convention.
http://sbcoutpost.com/2007/10/29/bgct-elects-first-woman-president/#comments

Mission video has begun in the convention hall.

I must be getting old because I have had a hard time hearing yesterday as well as today.  Can I blame it on the accoustics?

Well, I'm connected on the convention floor.  It is 10:10 am.  Didn't read the schedule good enough and thought we would start at 10:00 am  Anyway, I'm located on the backow of the floor next to mic 5.  I'd love to meet some of you guys who blog.  Got to visit a couple of minutes with rick and david yesterday.  I really appreciate these two men as I know a lot of you do.  I guess we will see how long my battery will last. 

Well I will try to blog from the floor this morning.  If it doesn't work out I will blog when I get home tonight.  Busy day ahead  with the convention and a Building and Grounds committee meeting tonight.

History was made in Amarillo today.  We knew it would be historic, but we did not how the story would end.  Now we know.  Mrs. Fenner is the first female president of the BGCT.  I wish her well and will be praying for her.  What I also believe that is historic is that the TBC candidate was almost defeated.  A 60 vote margin was not a mandate.  The power brokers of the convention must realize that there are Texas Baptists that are not happy.  The question is how the "shadow convention" and power brokers respond?

For those of us who are in the opposition (I don't like that term but can't think of a better word this late) how are we going to respond?  I appreciate David's words when he nominated Lee about Mrs. Fenner.  We need to pray for her and then see how she works with the Executive Board.

Anyway, I do have questions about the future.  One thing that concerns me as well as others is the lack of involvement at the convention.  I believe the # of mesengers was close to 300 less that Dallas.  We have to find a way to involve more people. One messenger representing 3 churches is not a good sign.  Ministers we can get to the convention, our churches generally will send us.  But what do we do about our layity?  Right now the only ones who come are those who retired.  We need to have younger representation before we have no one making decisions for the BGCT.

I'm tired and afraid I'm not making sense.  So I will close for tonight.

Forever my blog colors have bothered me.  I thought it was just me.  But I have received some more comments about the color and the inability to read some things.  I hope that what I have done will fix it for now.  I'm still not completely satisfied, but I think it will work for now.  I think drawing plans for a new space craft is easier than figuring out how to configure this blog space.  Till next time.