This week in Christian history: Largest SBC meeting, AME Church founder ordained

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, June 11, 2023

The largest SBC annual meeting – June 11-13, 1985

More than 45,000 messengers gathered for the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting held in Dallas, Texas from June 11-13, 1985. | Copyright Baptist Press

This week marks the closing of the largest Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in the denomination's history, which occurred at the Dallas Convention Center in Texas.

More than 45,519 registered messengers attended the meeting, reportedly making it one of the largest (if not the largest) deliberative bodies ever organized.

The Conservative Resurgence, a movement that had begun in the 1970s within the convention to remove liberal and modernist theology from the SBC, was a major focal point of the gathering.

Notable pastor and theological conservative Charles Stanley was reelected president of the SBC with 55.3% of the vote, defeating moderate opponent Winfred Moore, who got 44.7%.

"The 1985 annual meeting was a watershed moment in the conservative revolution in the convention," said Gregory Wills, professor of church history at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in a 2015 interview with Baptist Press.

"Southern Baptist moderates mobilized all their resources to stop the conservative advance at the Dallas meeting. Their bid to regain the presidency failed."