Biennial Meetings Objection #1: What about Reporting?

Of the Executive Committee's four objections to adopting to a biennial meeting schedule, there is really only one that sounds insurmountable.

The Executive Committee writes, "The SBC Bylaws and Business and Financial Plan require the publication and presentation of annual ministry, financial, and budgetary reports." (emphasis added).

In this objection, our governing documents seem to be given an authority over the Convention that is inviolable. The implication of the statement seems to be that the documents simply cannot be changed. One wonders how a convention that used to meet Triennially ever came to have an annual meeting schedule.

We are Baptists, and the messengers to the Convention may amend their documents - period. The Convention has amended her governing documents in times past, and we may do so again if we determine this is the wise and prudent thing to do.

To be sure, the governing documents, as currently written, require the publication of reports, and they most certainly should. However, a biennial meeting schedule does not have to significantly change this requirement.

To accomodate a biennial meeting schedule, we could either 1) eliminate annual reports altogether (a bad idea) or 2) amend our governing documents to allow for reports that are made to churches, pastors, state conventions, and denominational leaders in the "off years" rather than directly to the Convention proper (not a bad idea at all).

The Executive Committee already receives reports from agency leaders on a regular basis; budget allocations are already made on a biennial basis, and agencies would continue to report as they currently do to the Executive Committee.

The only difference: in the off-years, agencies would report all of the same information to the Executive Committee, and those reports would be made available electronically and disseminated as widely as possible among those who associate with the SBC. The reports that would otherwise be given by agency heads on the floor of a convention could still be made to the Executive Committee and delivered, recorded, and made available to all SBC churches.

Arguably, more Baptists could hear from our agencies in the off years than in the years of the Convention!

In short, the reporting objection is a non-objection. If we can change the frequency of our meetings, we can also change the frequency and/or acceptable means of delivering reports.

To see how the amendments I proposed would allow for a biennial meeting while preserving a form of annual reporting in the "off years," you may read the amendments in their entirety here.