BGCT messenger registration falls to pre-1980 levels this year
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___DALLAS--Messenger registration at this year's Baptist General Convention of Texas annual session returned to a level typical of meetings prior to 1980.
___Total registration at the Dallas Convention Center Oct. 29-30 was 3,313 messengers from 865 churches. Another 336 people registered as visitors, bringing total registered attendance to 3,649.
___That is the lowest messenger registration at a BGCT annual session held in a centra
l location since 1979, the year Texas-based conservatives launched an effort to gain control of the Southern B
aptist Convention and the BGCT.
___That effort, which was successful on the national level but unsuccessful on the state level, mushroomed attendance at annual sessions as messengers in record numbers sought to have their voices heard.
___Registration for the BGCT's annual meetings peaked in 1991 in Waco, when 11,159 messengers registered, motivated by a battle for control of Baylor University.
___Prior to 1979, the highest messenger registration on record for a BGCT annual session was 3,824 in Fort Worth in 1952. Typical conventions before 1979 drew anywhere from 2,500 to 3,500 messengers.
___That all changed beginning in 1980, when messenger registration jumped to 4,266 in Houston, an increase of about 1,500 messengers over any convention held the prior eight years.
___Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, messenger registration pushed ever higher, peaking in 1991 but maintaining well above the 6,000 mark nearly every year for a decade.
___Registration at this year's annual session in Dallas was half what it was last year in Corpus Christi. Attendance at last year's meeting was energized in part by consideration of a Seminary Study Committee report that proposed changing the way the BGCT funds SBC seminaries.
___In contrast, this year's convention featured no major disputes or contested recommendations.
___Also, due to what was said to be a fluke in scheduling, the alternative Southern Baptists of Texas Convention annual meeting was held on the same dates as the BGCT annual session this year. That means churches that are dually aligned with the two conventions could not easily attend both meetings.
___Churches from Dallas Baptist Association had the largest representation at this year's BGCT meeting, with 429 messengers from 87 churches. The second-largest number of messengers came from nearby* Tarrant Baptist Association, which includes Arlington and Fort Worth. Tarrant sent 283 messengers from 54 churches.
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