I didn’t attend the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting when I pastored churches in Kentucky and Indiana. The churches I served were all supporters of our SBC mission work through the Cooperative Program and the annual missions offerings, but attending the convention was just not something we normally did.
My current role as the executive director for the Kentucky Baptist Convention assumes that I do attend the SBC Annual Meeting, and I am glad to do so.
While not every pastor, elder or ministry leader can attend the SBC Annual Meeting, many can and I want to offer some reasons why you may want to consider attending in the future:
1. You will see friends from Kentucky: By God’s providence I was seated next to James Carroll, pastor of Parkway Baptist Church in Bardstown, and his wife, Mikila, on the plane ride to Orlando, where the SBC was being held. We enjoyed catching up and hearing about each other’s work and families. I connected with pastors and leaders from numerous KBC churches during my travel time and at the convention itself. You certainly do not need to travel to the SBC to see Kentucky friends, but many of us are so busy that these meetings are one of the few opportunities each year to reconnect.
2. You can connect with our national leaders: I enjoyed an impromptu meal with one of my favorite authors, Dr. Donald Whitney, at the SBC in Orlando. After arriving at the hotel late Sunday evening, I went looking for a sandwich and saw Dr. Whitney in the hotel deli. When I stopped to say hello to him, he mentioned that his sandwich was more than he could eat (it was a very big sandwich) and he invited me to join him and eat the other half. That meal was a gift from God to me, and I hope for him as well. The SBC allows opportunities for those of us in the ministry trenches to shake hands with, express appreciation for or ask questions of those who lead the entities of our convention.
3. You can meet with ministry colleagues: Some of my favorite people in the SBC are the men who lead other state conventions. There are 41 state conventions in the SBC, and the executive directors in those states are each striving to do the same job in their own unique context. We have much in common and spending time with these men is one of the highlights for me at the SBC each year. There are numerous gatherings at each Annual Meeting that allow pastors and ministry leaders to spend time with like-minded brothers and sisters to share ideas or ministry challenges and be mutually encouraged.
4. You will celebrate our cooperative mission work: One thing that I hear consistently from those who attend the SBC is that being there in person is far different from reading reports about it from home. The SBC Annual Meeting is a missional celebration. From commissioning 63 new international missionaries, to hearing reports from Crossover Orlando, to considering how we can more effectively reach the deaf with the gospel and minister more effectively to people with disabilities, this year’s meeting was filled with Great Commission focus.
My favorite quote of the convention came during a Cooperative Program testimony from the stage when the speaker said the Cooperative Program is “not a budget line, but a missions engine.” I believe that wholeheartedly and love seeing our cooperative mission work championed. If you attend the Annual Meeting, you will have a much greater appreciation for the work we do together.
5. You can participate in convention business: At the end of the day, the SBC is simply a very large business meeting. It is a deliberative body of messengers from cooperating churches that gathers each year to make decisions pertinent to our cooperative work. This year we passed the first vote, the first of two, on an amendment that affirms and attempts to codify in our governing documents our complementarian view of ministry leadership. That vote passed with near 75 percent approval and will be considered for a second vote in 2027 in Indianapolis. We were able to handle this business without acrimony. We also passed resolutions and opted not to appoint several tasks forces to study various issues. My practice at the SBC annual meeting is to arrive early on Tuesday, find a seat near the front and participate in the decision-making process as a messenger from my home church. I am just one voice and one vote in this meeting, but I always believe that my presence matters. Yours does as well.
My prayer for the 2026 annual meeting was that it would be a God-honoring, Great Commission-focused meeting. I believe God answered that prayer.
I hope each Kentucky Baptist church would consider sending its pastor or a church member to the 2027 SBC Annual Meeting in Indianapolis. We are better together and your voice and your vote make a difference for our gospel-advancing work.
I am a Christian by the grace of God, Baptist by conviction and Southern Baptist because I believe we can do more together than any single church can do alone. May God be pleased to continue to use Southern Baptists to advance the gospel together here at home and around the world until Jesus returns or calls us home.
Dr. Todd Gray 