Liz and I arrived home from the Southern Baptist Convention Thursday afternoon. I will share my annual report with the church on Sunday evening. Let me tell you now it was a very successful meeting. Thank you for your prayers for me as I nominated Dr. Johnny Hunt on Tuesday afternoon. God’s favor was on us as we garnered almost 53% of the vote on the first ballot among six candidates. Our good friend from FBC Woodstock, Georgia, is our new Convention president. Pray for him. He has a big task before him. Our Convention needs renewal. Johnny is just the man to point us in the right direction.

Dr. Johnny Hunt and Dr. Ted Traylor

I wish all of you could have witnessed the amazing luncheon Liz put on for over 1,500 ministers’ wives on Tuesday. The room looked fabulous. I expected no less. Scores of ladies walked up to me in the halls and bragged on the event and the leadership Liz gave. One lady said to me, “It was just done with class.” Beth Harris and others from our church family stood alongside Liz to make this event happen. I was just so proud of the whole team.

Southern Baptists are not easily understood by those outside our Convention. We are often called a denomination and I understand that. However, in the true sense of the matter we are a Convention of churches coming together to cooperate in Gospel ministry. Only when we trust one another and cooperate does the Convention work. When we step toward being denominational and look for authority to come down from an office in Nashville or Jacksonville we will get into trouble and strife may come. The baseline for Baptists is the pew of the local church. When the people of a local church decide to cooperate with people from other churches we are then able to join forces and do more together than we can ever do apart. It all takes trust. I trust Johnny Hunt. We do not do everything just like FBC Woodstock but we are on the same team and we can work together. I am proud to be a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. It is now time to go to work. We have a world to touch in Jesus’ name.

As we were preparing to board the plane in Indianapolis, along with many of our Southern Baptist friends, a lady approached me and asked, “Who are all these people who seemingly know each other so well?”  She quickly added that she was on her way home to Moscow and had not flown in three years. She gave me her name in Russian and said it meant “faith.”  I was able then to tell her who we were and share a little about our message. I placed a tract in her hand and she said she would read it. Pray for Faith today to understand the Gospel. That is what Southern Baptists do best. Let’s go to work.

Pastor Ted Traylor

Posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 8:49 am.
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