A recent post by Nathan Finn at Between The Times asks why young pastors and leaders are not attending the SBC annual meeting. There is no place for comments on the post so I thought I’d throw some ideas out there and see if we could get a conversation started. So, why are we not attending?
I have gone to the annual meeting the two years and am tentatively planning to go this year as well, but I can echo some of the concerns that Finn brings up in his post. First and foremost I would argue that most of us feel, even when we do show up, that we’re not wanted, that we really don’t have a place at the table. That perception maybe wrong, but I know that it is how a lot of us young guys feel.
Though I have enjoyed networking with people and learning how things work in the SBC during the last two summers, I have to say that other than growing some friendships with students that attended with me, I didn’t get a whole lot out of going. It was interesting, and fun (because I was with fun people) but I am thinking of spending the money set aside for conventions and conferences this year to attend a conference or two where I can learn a thing or two to take back to my church.
I’m going to start a list of reasons why we young guys are not attending, these are just my opinions and conjectures but feel free to add to this in the comments:
- Young SBC leaders do not feel wanted/needed.
- We would rather not spend time arguing over non-essential things.
- There is not much of substance at the convention. (Maybe we need to people teaching “break-out sessions” during parts of the meeting.)
- There are enough business meeting at our churches. Why do I want to spend money to go to another one?
- We want to connect to other young leaders (inside or outside the denomination) and they are not there.