INDIANAPOLIS (BP) — The resolutions to be presented at the 2024 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting are available in a preliminary form. This marks the earliest release date in recent history.
Committee Chair Kristen Ferguson is thankful for the prayer support the group has received.
“Working from the Word of God as our inerrant authority and the Baptist Faith and Message as our confession, these resolutions represent what we believe to be Southern Baptist resolve on emerging and urgent topics of our day,” she told Baptist Press (BP.)
The resolutions include issues such as evangelism, abortion, reproductive technologies, parenting, religious liberty, war, integrity in leadership and the usage of non-disclosure agreements. The full text of all 10 resolutions can be downloaded here.
This year marked the beginning of a new process to give messengers more time to review resolutions.
“With this being the first time for the new resolutions procedure, I want to commend Kristen Ferguson and the rest of the committee for being flexible and accommodating as we worked through the new timeframe for resolution creation,” said Jonathan Howe, SBC Executive Committee vice president for communications.
“Meeting around a holiday weekend weeks before the annual meeting to pray over, edit and draft resolutions took a great deal of dedication and sacrifice on their part.”
The resolutions window was open April 1 and closed on May 22. The committee met last week in Oklahoma City to work through the submitted resolutions.
“Oklahoma City also proved to be a great location for the committee to meet in a cost-effective manner that didn’t burden those traveling in,” Howe said.
The bylaw change approved by messengers at last year’s annual meeting requires preliminary resolutions be published no later than 10 days prior to the annual meeting with a final report appearing in the daily bulletin on the first day of the meeting. Messengers gather in Indianapolis this year on June 11.
“Our committee was united in prayer and in the crafting of these resolutions, and we submit them to Southern Baptists for discussion, consideration and adoption at our annual meeting,” Ferguson said.
Individual resolutions are available at the links below:
- On Integrity in SBC Leadership
- On Defending Religious Liberty
- On Just War and the Pursuit of Peace
- On Justice and Peace in the Aftermath of the October 7 Attack on Israel
- On the Pro-Life Ethic in a Post-Roe Society
- On the Ethical Realities of Reproductive Technologies and the Dignity of the Human Embryo
- On the God-Given Rights and Responsibilities of Parents
- On the Danger of Abusing Non-Disclosure and Non-Disparagement Agreements
- On Evangelism and the Great Commission
- On Appreciation for Indianapolis
More than two dozen resolutions were submitted to the committee for consideration. Resolutions which were submitted and not brought forward by the committee will be noted in the disposition report published in the Daily Bulletin on June 11.
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Brandon Porter serves as associate vice president for convention news at the SBC Executive Committee.)
