I called Joel Rainey today just to check on him. I really like Joel; he’s been an influence on me theologically as well as practically. So we’re chatting away, and he said to me that congrats were in order! I had no clue what he was talking about. He told me that he was told by one of our state convention staffers that I was elected 1st VP of our General Mission Board.Now, let me explain that for you non-SBC’ers out there. We have the national convention. But the SBC is really made of local associations who make up state conventions who make up the SBC nationally. In my state convention, the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware, the majority of the decisions are made by the General Mission Board. We meet three times a year and are presented with things our state staff need to do and we discuss them and vote on them. Most of the decisions are made this way, though some decisions do have to be voted on by the convention at its annual meeting. So I was told today that I was elected 1st VP of the board that makes approves/makes most of the decisions of our state convention.

Now, you know if you read this blog much, a couple of things. First, I don’t talk about the SBC very much. You know, I went out with a girl one time who ordered a steak extra rare. They brought it, she looked at it and said, “It’s too done”. The thing was still mooing. Extra, extra rare is how much I talk about the SBC any more. Now I USED to, but I gave up on the national version of SBC for the most part about a year ago. The second thing you know is that I do not like politics. And I for sure couldn’t tell you Roberts Rules of order any better than I could a menu at a Orthodox Jewish pork BBQ joint. That is, to say, that I ain’t got a clue.

Now, our GMB had a meeting this past Tuesday. I had another meeting scheduled (I forgot about the GMB meeting) and didn’t make the 90 mile one way trip there. So I’m talking to Joel today, and I hear this story. I wasn’t even there! So I contacted the state staffer and he confirmed it and was shocked that I wasn’t at the meeting where I was voted on. I told him, no one asked me if I would serve and I still haven’t heard from anyone at the state about the vote. I was, and am clueless about the job and what it entails, or even who nominated me.

I don’t mind serving, because we have THE best state convention in the whole SBC, and yes, we are mavericks. We, unlike some state conventions, are more worried about the kingdom and the gospel than whether a church partners with a group whose leader happens to drink a glass of wine or two. However, in a stroke of irony, one of our seminaries does participate with a group whom the SBC on multiple occasions has deemed heretical. Isn’t that odd?

BTW…I’m happy to serve. I just wish someone would have asked.