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Wednesday evening in Atlanta was truly remarkable. Because I’m blogging on the fly, I will limit my posts during the sessions to brief, enumerated observations. Much like the way I have blogged the Southern Baptist Convention in years past, I will offer a summary wrap up at the end of my experience.

1. Racial diversity — Southern Baptists have no idea what it is like to join in a gathering of Baptists where blacks are as numerous as whites. For all our apologizing for slavery and efforts to elect this or that black pastor to some third tier office, we are sickening in our ethnic homogeneity. There is a tremendous sense among most participants that something is right about this meeting.

I’m also fascinated by the immaculate fashion style of the black delegations, especially the women. The white women are — for the most part — dowdy and frumpy shuffling around in various orthopedic shoes. This is in marked contrast to the black women — even the eldest among them — whose high-heels and ornamented headwear are ubiquitous. The hats, in particular, are quite amazing. I feel as if I am attending the only gathering of Baptists in the world where certain seminary first ladies would not be immediately recognizable from a quarter-mile distance.

2. Jimmy Carter — This man is bright, articulate, and winsome. E.V. Hill was often fond of saying that “not many men can ‘call a meeting.’” Jimmy Carter knows how to “call a meeting.” So far, he’s managed to direct the proceedings without speakers taking potshots at the Right Wing. I regret what I fear to be inevitable.

Baptist Press has a reporter on duty at the meeting. I predict that the BP coverage of Carter’s remarks will focus inordinately on the former president’s five second remark about abortion and homosexuality than the thirty-plus minutes of other, more notable stuff.

3. William Shaw — This remarkably gifted preacher offered one of the most coherent and theologically sophisticated sermons I have heard at any Baptist gathering. Southern Baptists are almost void of this kind of preaching. Here is a pastor-theologian who can shout when he wants to, but doesn’t need to in order to be heard. In his message, Shaw gave a strong defense of the right of the unborn. Likewise, he gave a strong exhortation about the right of the living to receive justice.

Justice and peace are not themes with which Southern Baptists are often conversant. When we have “Justice Sundays,” we are more concerned about supporting the powerful than uplifting the poor. When we talk about “peace,” we do so in the context of providing the theological underpinnings to accommodate just war theory to the doctrines of preemptive strike and detainee torture.

4. The age issue — There are a number of young people here, but I have the sense that like all “big meetings,” the Covenant Celebration is primarily attended by those with increasingly gray or bald heads. The challenge for the New Baptist Covenant will be to ignite passion among young theologians, politicians, pastors, ethicists, and laymen for cooperation on this scale.

There are many disaffected, former Southern Baptists roaming the halls. Numerous former SWBTS and Southern Seminary professors are here. Several of them are buoyant because — after years of feeling like a dying breed they have found an oasis of kindred spirit. Again, Jimmy Carter is wise to prohibit sniping about battles earlier fought and personalities earlier confronted. Young Baptists don’t want to hear old war stories from either side.More to come…

Our contributor, Benjamin Cole, is attending the New Baptist Covenant Celebration this week in Atlanta. Come back regularly for thoughts, reflections, and sundry digressions from one of the SBC’s most provocative bloggers.