c. 1999 Religion News Service

ATLANTA _ Delegates to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention elected Paige Patterson, an architect of the denomination’s conservative resurgence, to a second one-year term Tuesday (June 15).

In his presidential address, Patterson called for a renewed emphasis on evangelism, urging the 15.7 million-member denomination to focus on the country’s urban centers beyond its Southern suburban and rural strongholds and aim for a higher annual rate of baptisms.”In the staging areas of Southern Baptist life _ cities like Atlanta, Orlando and Dallas _ Southern Baptist churches are as omnipresent as were mosquitoes in my southeast Texas home,”Patterson told the messengers, as delegates are known.”But however we may boast of the number of our churches and members, we now discover ourselves … at the crossroads of a new era of ecclesiastical adventure.”The great metropolises of our own nation have burgeoned into some of the world’s most demanding mission assignments.” Tuesday was the start of the denomination’s two-day annual meeting.

During the first sessions, about 11,000 delegates considered _ but did not immediately act on _ proposals criticizing President Clinton, a fellow Southern Baptist, for last week declaring June”Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.””The president is proclaiming a sinful lifestyle, not only as moral and acceptable but that we ought to have pride in it,”said Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, Calif. He introduced a motion saying the denominational president should voice his”strongest disapproval”and ask Clinton to rescind the proclamation.

Another motion calling on Clinton’s home church in Little Rock, Ark., to discipline him or lose its fellowship with the denomination was ruled out of order.

Twenty years after the start of the conservative resurgence, conservative Baptist leaders say they must move from fighting for control of the denomination to enhancing its evangelistic efforts. Earlier this year, the denomination learned it had a drop in membership of 1 percent, the first decrease since 1926.

Patterson said a number of factors were involved in the decline, including the disappearance of small rural churches and the fact that a number of churches have left the denomination over ideological and theological differences.”I don’t think anyone knows exactly why it has happened,”he said.”I suspect it’s more of hiccup than a drop.” Patterson, who also is president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., called for the evangelism and baptism of 1 million people _ 500,000 in this country and 500,000 abroad _ between October 1999 and September 2000. Last year the denomination had 407,000 baptisms.

He urged his fellow Baptists to reach out to the inner cities, evangelizing the”common man”as well as homeless, broken families and those with drug and sexual addictions.”It will require of us an intensification of prayer, giving, personal involvement and sacrifice,”he said.

Although Southern Baptists were founded as a”rural and agrarian people,”they now need to have a more urban focus, Patterson said.”Southern Baptists, will you pray? Southern Baptists, will you go?”Patterson asked.”Will you get your church to take a city? … Will you wet your pillows and discolor the varnish on your church pews until God gives us the souls of our cities?” The messengers voiced support for work to reduce alcohol and substance abuse. Many of those in attendance signed commitment cards pledging”a lifestyle free from substance abuse.””More Southern Baptists are social drinkers now than was the case 25 years ago,”said Richard Land, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.”The vast majority of Southern Baptists disagree with that position.” The convention _ known for its controversial statements in recent years about a boycott of the Walt Disney Co. for its gay-friendly business policies and an affirmation of wives submitting to their husbands _ this year heard instead proposals on a range of issues affecting Baptist life. Delegates rose to ask for improved training for deaf seminarians, more materials for blind Sunday school students and activities for teen-agers during the annual meeting.

One delegate asked the convention to consider changing its name from the Southern Baptist Convention to the International Baptist Convention. The delegate said the current name was geographically limiting and a deterrent to minority membership.

However, in its report to the convention, the SBC executive committee said it has found”no compelling rationale”for a name change.

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