The 2008 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention will be held June 10-11 in Indianapolis, In. And, once again I will regretfully not be able to attend.

The Southern Baptist Convention is made up of more than 16 million members in more that 40,000 churches.

For many years the selection of the person to serve as President of the Convention has been the element of the meeting which has received the most attention. During the Conservative Resurgence, the election of the President was a bitterly contested race . However, from 1992 to 2005 candidates were pretty much selected in informal caucuses of SBC leaders and only one candidate was nominated in each of these years. That changed in 2006, when three candidates were nominated and this year there are six men who will be nominated to fill the position:

Les Puryear – Pastor of Lewisville Baptist Church in Lewisville, NC

Johnny Hunt – Pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, GA.

Wiley Drake – Pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, CA.

Avery Willis – Former Southern Baptist missionary and retired Senior Vice President of Overseas Operations for the International Mission Board

Frank Cox – Pastor of North Metro Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, GA.

William L. (Bill) Wagner – Former Southern Baptist missionary and seminary professor and currently President of Olivet University International in San Francisco, CA.

May God be glorified in the process as he brings to service that man for which he has prepared this great responsibility.