FROM THE SBC PRESIDENT
The Call to Anaheim BY ED LITTON
F
ellow Southern Baptists, I am so excited about the upcoming annual meeting in Anaheim, California. It has been more than forty years since Southern Baptists have convened in the Golden State. Many who will attend our meeting in June were not yet born when Bailey Smith was elected president of our Convention in Los Angeles back in 1981. And certainly since that time much has changed both in the state of California and within our own family of churches. Today, California has more cultural diversity than any other state, and its population stands at roughly forty million people. To put that in perspective, one out of nine Americans call California home. More than a staggering statistic, that is a tremendous mission field. I’m excited for Southern Baptists to gather this year in California because I am convinced that our churches and pastors can learn from our brothers and sisters there. I believe we will benefit greatly by seeing and hearing from those doing ministry in a state where the contrast between the church and the world is so apparent. Christians in California have no choice but to engage the lostness all around them because they are confronted by it every day. But rather than seeing this as a burden, our faithful partners in the Gospel there see it as an opportunity. In a state where millions of people reject the Gospel or have yet to even hear it, myriad believers in California are committed to doing whatever it takes to reach their neighbors and communities for Christ. This brings me to a second reason I’m grateful our gathering is being held in Anaheim. As the
majority of our churches are still anchored in the South, I believe it is important for our Convention to visit the West Coast to see examples of those who’ve learned to innovate and adapt for ministry in a secularized environment. Assuming the current trends hold, many of the obstacles our brothers and sisters in California have faced in the recent past and into the present will be challenges churches in the South and elsewhere will face in the days ahead. I am confident Southern Baptists will leave our annual meeting inspired by the dynamic, thriving ministries there as we seek to highlight them throughout the program. The strength of these ministries—from local churches and associations to our state convention partners to Send Network and Send Relief to Gateway Seminary and California Baptist University, to name a few—gives me great hope not only about the future of ministry in California but across the whole of the United States. This year our annual meeting theme will be “Jesus: The Center of It All.” There is much business that awaits us in June. It is my prayer that Jesus will be the focus of our gathering, because He belongs at the center of everything. If our convention of churches is serious about fulfilling the Great Commission, we must place Jesus at the center of all that we are and all that we do. As we gather this year in Anaheim, I pray that Jesus will be at the center. Thank you, Southern Baptists, for the privilege of serving as your president. I look forward to seeing you in Anaheim.
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