July 26, 2024
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Southern Baptist pastors won’t be going to Hawaii for an annual meeting after all.
Carolyn Fountain, chairwoman of the SBC’s Events and Strategic Planning Committee, said the panel opted to decline a request to meet in Maui in 2028.
Fountain said the logistics, meaning the cost and length of the trip from the mainland U.S., made holding an annual meeting in Maui prohibitive. She also said the location of the 2028 annual meeting has already been set for Indianapolis and that Hawaii doesn’t have a convention center sufficient to host an SBC annual meeting.
Foundation shared her committee’s decision at a meeting of the SBC Executive Committee in Nashville on Tuesday.
Members of the Executive Comittee did, however, pray for the people of Maui in the wake of the recent wildfires.
A messenger to this year’s annual meeting in New Orleans had proposed Hawaii as an annual meeting site, getting boisterous applause from the thousands people in the convention hall. It was a moment of levity in a sometimes contentious meeting.
