There’s an old joke that when the Southern Baptist Convention comes to a city, they bring a copy of the Ten Commandments and a $20 bill and don’t break either one.

But Southern Baptists spent generously and Birmingham responded with great hospitality for 12,000 people, the biggest convention hosted at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex this century.

”I think it was a big success and everybody should be very proud,” said Steve Pierson, director of convention sales for the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors’ Bureau.

Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear set the tone early when he urged Southern Baptists to tip generously when they came to Birmingham.

Despite the ongoing presence of an ambitious highway construction job – the entire interstate is being replaced right in front the BJCC Legacy Arena - Birmingham played its role smoothly as major convention host.

Birmingham hadn’t hosted the convention since 1941, and really wasn’t sure it could handle it. That World War II-era convention only drew a little more than 5,000.

“The question we had leading up to this was, ‘Can we really handle a convention this big?’” Pierson said. “The answer is, ‘Yes, we can.’ We proved it this week.”

About 12,000 people attended Southern Baptist-related events this week, including 8,100 voting messengers who did the convention’s annual business. There may have been as many as 14,000 Southern Baptists who visited downtown Birmingham this week, Pierson said.

“This stretches all of our facilities,” he said.

Southern Baptist officials were impressed.

“Birmingham was very hospitable,” said Roger Oldham, vice president for convention communications and relations for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee. “The City of Birmingham was great to work with. The city and the Convention and Visitors’ Bureau did a wonderful job of working with our team.”

Baptist officials met with city convention officials today to go over how it went.

“They told us it’s one of the best conventions they’ve had, in terms of service, facilities and hospitality,” Pierson said. “Total cooperation and hospitality was the overall flavor.”

The only bigger convention the BJCC has hosted was the September 1995 National Baptist Convention, which drew more than 20,000 people.

“It’s the second-largest of all our conventions,” Pierson said. “It’s given us new life in going out and recruiting big conventions. The Southern Baptists are going to give us a testimonial.”

Birmingham took some extra steps to accommodate the large downtown crowds, such as organizing food trucks to park at Linn Park.

“I saw a lot of families walking over to Linn Park where we had food trucks the last two days,” Pierson said. “The Sheraton was maxed out. They did a great job; Uptown and the Westin did a great job. We felt adding food trucks only a block away would help.”

Southern Baptists braved walking past the construction area to experience all of downtown.

“They were walking downtown,” Pierson said. “They would venture out for meals. They are a bunch of nice people, nice families. They seemed to fill the restaurants when they weren’t in prayer meetings and business. They made use of what we had.”

Overall, the construction project did not seem to be much of a hindrance, he said.

“Everybody pitched in and helped with transportation,” Pierson said. “There were church vans and shuttles, there were park-and-ride spots in Gardendale, Trussville and Bessemer. Everybody stepped up.”

Once Southern Baptists arrived at the BJCC, the nearby construction didn’t hinder the convention.

“Once the delegates are downtown, it’s not bad,” Pierson said. “The issue is more for people traveling through Birmingham. Once you’re here it’s fine.”

The Convention and Visitors’ Bureau takes a long view on the interstate construction.

“The look of it from our standpoint is progress,” Pierson said. “We’ve got a high-tech first-rate construction project going on. We are making do and finding ways around it. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be.”

Other cities are used to dealing with big conventions in the midst of highway construction, Pierson said.

“We kind feel like a big city now,” Pierson said. “We’re getting a taste of what it’s like.”