The Office of Recording Secretary in the Southern Baptist Convention: Origins, Development, and Present Role
The office of Recording Secretary rarely receives the attention given to the office of president, but it has played an indispensable role in the history of the SBC. In fact, the office of Recording Secretary is one of the main reasons we can trace the history of the Annual Meeting and the work of the Convention. It is their recordings that serve as the official historical record of the Convention. It is one of the few roles that has been a part of the convention since its beginning, and it still has an important place in our convention. This article traces the origin of the role, the development of its duties, and its present place in Convention life.
The office of Recording Secretary began at the first meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Augusta, Georgia, in 1845. Initially the convention elected two secretaries, Jesse Hartwell and James C Crane. They were charged with duties like keeping accurate records, supervising the printing and distribution of minutes, and maintaining official documents. They were instructed to “keep a fair record of their proceedings, and of such other documents as may be committed to them for the purpose. “ Thus the SBC Recording Secretary was an officer of the convention whose scope of work mainly focused on recording the work of the Convention as a whole at it’s annual meeting, and producing reports on its work throughout the year.
The office of Recording Secretary shifted to annual elections after the constitutional revisions in 1867. In the early years of the Convention, long tenures of service were not uncommon for all SBC officers. From 1845 to 1904, PH Mell served as SBC President for 15 total years, Jonathan Harralson as president for 10 years, and JP Boyce as president for 9 years. During that time at least 20 different men served in the office of Recording Secretary, often two at time, and usually referred to as the “Senior” and “Junior” Secretaries. When Lansing Burrows was elected in 1882 he would serve as RS for the next 32 years until 1913.
By the time of Burrows first election, the duties of the RS had expanded to include gathering denominational statistics, and there was much discussion about the way the work was to be carried out. In 1855 there was a lengthy debate about whether the recording secretary should omit failed motions from the official journal record. At least 15(!) men spoke in this debate, and it was finally decided by a vote of 69-78 not to strike out any portions of the proceedings. (Which we only know because his motion failed. )
The growing workload of the secretary led to clerical help and small stipends for supervising the printing and distribution of the annual meeting record. The SBC had explicit trust in the office as they instructed them in 1903 to print ten thousand copies, and even voted to dispense with the reading of the Journals and left the verification of the minutes to the secretaries.
By the early 20th century, the role took on a more institutional approach, as the secretary handled distributing convention publications, and much of the denominational statistical work. Most of that was finally transferred to the Sunday school board in 1919, as it was no small task for one person to be in charge of all of that work. In 1905, the compensation was formally set at $100, and the secretary began serving as an official representative for the convention in legal matters.
After the long service of Lansing Boroughs, a few men filled the gap until Hight C. Moore was elected. He served for over 30 years, recording minutes of 31 sessions and preparing 33 Convention Annuals. Upon retirement the Convention formally acknowledged his “monumental” service.
In 1954, the bylaws officially changed the title from “Secretaries” to “Recording Secretaries” to better reflect the nature of the convention. The function of the office stayed mostly the same for many years, but in 1967 changes were made for the administration of the SBC that placed overall Convention operations, including the annual meeting and the Convention Annual, under the administrative oversight of the Executive Committee. The recording secretary continued to prepare the Annual but now did so with the assistance of the Executive Committee staff. The Convention continued to show plenty of trust in this position, such as in a 1974 amendment, when the RS was granted specific authority to make necessary changes to the Proceedings as printed in the daily Convention Bulletin to ensure “clarity of meaning, accuracy in facts, and consistent form” before they become the official record.
The formalization of its duties in the Convention’s bylaws illustrates that the role is both administrative and structurally significant to the life of the SBC, chief among these responsibilities being the management of the Convention’s reports and records. To this day the entities and committees of the SBC are required to submit their reports and recommendations to the recording secretary by March 1 to ensure that the business of the Convention is compiled and prepared in advance of the annual meeting. From this material, the secretary also facilitates the distribution of recommendations that require Convention action, providing copies to Baptist Press and other interested parties upon request.
The office also carries important responsibilities in maintaining the organizational structure of the Convention. Following each annual meeting, the recording secretary is tasked with notifying all committee members, trustees, and board members of their appointments within thirty days of adjournment. These notifications include not only the appointment itself, but also a full listing of committee membership for the benefit of each chairperson. In addition to these duties, the secretary reviews the Convention Annual, ensuring the accuracy and completeness of the official record of proceedings.
Beyond these defined responsibilities, the recording secretary also serves as an ex-officio member of the Executive Committee, a role that places the office within the broader governance structure of the Convention. This position stands as an exception to the usual qualifications for committee membership, allowing the recording secretary to participate in the work of the Executive Committee by virtue of the office itself. In recent years, however, the nature of this participation has been more clearly defined. In 2023, the Executive Committee adopted internal bylaw changes restricting the recording secretary, along with other ex-officio members, from serving as officers of the board or participating in presidential search committees. Today most of these duties are defined by Bylaws 5 and 22, and by the Business and Financial Plan.
Although the central duties of the office have remained largely stable, messengers to the Convention have proposed changes to its structure and function. In 2019, a motion was introduced to make the recording secretary a non-voting member of the Executive Committee, although this was not adopted. A similar effort in 2022 proposed removing the office entirely from Executive Committee membership, but this too was declined, with the Convention instead opting for the more limited restrictions adopted the following year.
The increasing complexity of Convention operations has also led to a more formalized relationship between the recording secretary and Executive Committee staff. In 2020, guidelines were adopted establishing staff liaisons who work on behalf of the recording secretary in carrying out key responsibilities, including notifying trustees of their appointments and compiling the official record for the Convention Annual. This development reflects a continuation of the long-standing pattern in which the office retains its constitutional responsibilities while relying on structured administrative support to fulfill them.
The office of Recording Secretary has never been the most visible role of the SBC, but it remains essential to it’s work. It’s only because of the faithful work of volunteers in this position in the past that we can know about the history of Baptist work across the world. Without the men who held the position, much of what the Convention has said, decided, argued about, and enacted would be lost.
The systems are more complex today, and in some ways the work is both easier and harder. But the importance of this role has not diminished, and the trust placed in the office remains much the same. The Southern Baptist Convention still depends on the careful and consistent work of the Recording Secretary to ensure that the work it does today is preserved for generations to come.
The methods and structures have changed of course, and as the SBC itself grew in size the work of the Recording Secretary became even more important. Even so, the task of the SBC Recording Secretary is essentially the same as it was in 1845: keep a fair record of the proceedings. Whether by handwritten journals or digital records, the Recording Secretary is one of the guardians of the institutional memory of the Southern Baptist Convention.