Executive Director Todd Unzicker released the following statement after the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention voted to relocate the 2023 SBC annual meeting from Charlotte, N.C., to New Orleans, La.

Todd Unzicker, executive director-treasurer of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, released the following statement today (Thursday, April 28, 2022) after the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) voted during a special called meeting to relocate the 2023 SBC annual meeting from Charlotte, N.C., to New Orleans, La.

“N.C. Baptists have been excited to host and welcome our brothers and sisters from across the country to Charlotte next year. We had already been working with national and associational leaders to roll out the red carpet and make next year’s convention the best one ever. We were thrilled for the opportunity to show how God is moving in our state. However, we understand the challenges presented by the ever-growing number of attendees that led to today’s vote by the SBC Executive Committee to change the location of the 2023 meeting.

“As many of you know, I have had the privilege of working directly with our national leaders in the planning and logistics of recent SBC annual meetings. I understand the unique challenges presented by an event that large, along with the auxiliary meetings and operations.

“We have been in frequent conversations with our national leaders over the past several weeks to try to find a workable solution that would enable our state to host next year’s meeting. I can assure N.C. Baptists that we left no stone unturned in these efforts. However, our national convention has specific criteria in its constitution regarding the selection of host cities and changes to times and locations.

“I am grateful that our ministry partners included N.C. Baptists in this process. As we all know, we are separate conventions, but our national leaders have truly demonstrated an ‘on mission together’ spirit during this time.

“While we are disappointed that next year’s convention won’t be held here in North Carolina, we couldn’t be more excited that so many Great Commission Baptists want to be on mission together, and we look forward to joining them in New Orleans.”

by NC Baptist Communications