For one thing, I am wonderfully encouraged by the appointment of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force.  It's a small step, but it is a step in the right direction---and that's significant for an organization that's often said to be as difficult to turn as an aircraft carrier.  Some people have already wondered if that was just a flash in the pan, a result of lots of young people being at the convention because it was held in Louisville.  Maybe, but I don't think so.  The motion to create the task force passed with some 95%, and I'm guessing that a large number of young people will show up in Orlando next year, too, to see what recommendations the task force brings back.  It really could be ground-changing, and lots of people to whom I talk are seeing this as a very good reason to stay involved and interested.  They'll see it through for another year; expect to see lots and lots of young people in Orlando eager to see how the task force recommends that we step into the future.

It's really wonderful, I think, how quickly Danny Akin has become a leader in the SBC.  He has always been one of my favorite guys in the leadership of the convention (there are others, too, of course), and I'm glad to have another SBC leader that I am not just willing, but positively excited, to line up behind for the coming years.  I'm also extremely thankful for the leadership of Johnny Hunt.  There has been a noticeable change over the last couple of years in his response to Reformed Baptists, and I am grateful to be led by a man who has the humility and theological acumen to be able to look at a position with which he disagrees, come to the conclusion that it is not a denial of the gospel (even if he still thinks it's wrong), and reach out to those people for the purpose of pressing on with the Great Commission.  Thank you for that, President Hunt.  I wish I could have found you to shake your hand.

Speaking of that, the atmosphere at the convention regarding Reformed theology seems to have noticeably shifted, too.  It wasn't so long ago that people were wondering if Calvinists were going to be forced out of the convention---or, less dramatically, just trickle away as they realized how overtly hostile the atmosphere was becoming.  That fear seems, for the moment, to be off the table.  As far as I know, there were only two moments when anti-Reformed sentiment came up.  One was when a certain messenger opposed the Great Commission Resurgence motion by trying to tie it to Calvinism---a move that was quickly undercut by Frank Page's comments.  The other was Morris Chapman's perplexing, ill-conceived, and ill-informed (that's the charitable reading) diatribe against Calvinists.  The only encouraging thing about that was that it was so widely and openly dismissed as perplexing, ill-conceived, and (at best) ill-informed---even by other SBC entity heads.

There was, of course, also the presence of 9Marks.  I'm biased, of course, but it seemed to me that we showed up at our first SBC (can you believe that??) and made quite a splash.  Several times I overheard people talking about the 9Marks-at-9 events, and every time I turned around I saw someone flipping through one of the books we were handing out at our booth.  For those of you who have donated money to the work of 9Marks, THANK YOU!  This is what your contributions make possible:  With the 9Marks-at-9 events, I think we may have created a semi-permanent forum where like-minded Christians can come together at the SBC to debrief about things with less, well, varnish, than we normally see from the platform.  Not only so, but we handed out at the Southern Baptist Convention over 10,000 books valued at over $100,000.  That's the largest single giveaway 9Marks has ever done, and as one who grew up in, loves, and prays often for the SBC, I can't think of a better place for that huge giveaway to have happened.  May the Lord bring great fruit from it!