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Frank I. Williams of the Bronx is optimistic the convention can continue to address racism and promote diversity—if leaders like him commit to being part of the solution.
When pastor Frank I. Williams thinks about diversity in the majority-white Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), he sees signs of encouragement and hope.
Over his ministry career, the New York preacher has watched voices of Black leaders and other leaders of color become more prominent in the denomination. As the new president of the National African American Fellowship of the SBC, Williams is excited about the momentum around young, diverse pastors in the SBC, particularly as a new generation of church planters.
His optimism around these pastors is justified. At this month’s SBC annual meeting in Nashville, SBC Executive Committee president Ronnie Floyd celebrated how majority-Black congregations in the denomination have nearly quadrupled since 1990. In all, by 2018, 22.3 percent of its churches were majority-non-Anglo, he reported.
For more than decade, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination has grappled with declines in membership. Yet during that time, Asian, Hispanic, and African American tallies continued to grow—adding more Black members and majority-Black churches than any other group.
But the 2021 annual meeting, the largest Southern Baptist gathering in 25 years, seemed to reflect a different story about its diversity.
For one thing, though the SBC does not track the race of attendees, the room of nearly 16,000 messengers was overwhelmingly white. And when race did come up for discussion, it was brought up mostly by white leaders, not in the context of diversity fueling growth within the denomination but in the ongoing debate around critical race theory (CRT).
Over the two days of business in Nashville, concerns over critical race theory were mentioned repeatedly in motions from the floor, discussions ...
from Christianity Today Magazine
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