The following is adapted from my written report to my church concerning the 2026 SBC Annual Meeting.
One of the things I love most about the church I pastor is our generous and sacrificial giving for the sake of the gospel. Our primary channel for that giving is the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). As I teach in our new members class, the SBC is not a top-down denomination. Instead, each SBC church is fully autonomous, and we have voluntarily chosen to cooperate together for the sake of missions and theological education.
Each year our little church gives a significant amount of money to SBC causes through the Cooperative Program, mission offerings, and other direct giving. That’s why it’s important to us to send messengers from our church each year to the annual meeting of the SBC. If we’re going to invest in our cooperative work as Southern Baptists at such a high level, it’s important for us to have a say in the direction of that cooperative work. This year we had six messengers from our church.
If you’ve never attended the SBC annual meeting, I wish you could see it in person. You would see very clearly that the news reports coming out of the meeting each year do not come close to giving a full picture of what takes place. There are always a couple of things that grab the headlines, but there are many more things that give a far more accurate representation of the important gospel work we are doing together as Southern Baptists.
The highlight of the meeting is always the International Mission Board (IMB) sending celebration where new missionaries are commissioned to take the gospel to the nations. This year 63 missionaries were commissioned. Many of them are going to difficult places where it is not even legal to be a missionary. Therefore, their identity is hidden as they share where they are going and what they will be doing. Your giving to the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering makes this possible.
I also had the privilege of attending two events put on by the North American Mission Board (NAMB). I shared on Sunday about a church planter in Wyoming who is working to raise up preachers to send throughout Wyoming to preach the gospel in places where there are no gospel preaching churches. Your giving to the Cooperative Program and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering helps make that possible.
Another highlight of this year’s annual meeting was celebrating the retirement of Dr. Daniel Akin who has served as the President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary for 22 years. We had the privilege of having Dr. Akin lead a marriage conference at our back in 2019. Dr. Akin also served as my supervisor for my doctor of ministry project. I am thankful to God for his impact in my life and ministry. In addition to Southeastern, Southern Baptists have five other seminaries that are doing the important work of training and preparing pastors, missionaries, and other church leaders for the work to which God has called them. Your giving to the Cooperative Program helps make that possible.
In addition to all the reports about all the wonderful things that are happening among Southern Baptists, I wish you could see and experience the spirit of unity and love in the gospel that exists when we get together. I have friends around the country that I typically only get to see each year at the SBC annual meeting. I am thankful for the opportunity to reconnect and celebrate what God is doing in our respective ministries and our cooperative work.
The big headline that came out of this year’s annual meeting was an amendment to the SBC constitution regarding the office and function of pastor.
Let me start by saying that Southern Baptists have always overwhelmingly believed that the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture. That position was enshrined in our statement of faith, the Baptist Faith & Message, in 2000. The Baptist Faith & Message is our church’s statement of faith and accurately represents our position when it comes to the office of pastor/elder/overseer. We believe that 1 Timothy 2:8-3:7 clearly teaches that only qualified men should serve in the office of pastor/elder/overseer and preach to the gathered congregation on the Lord’s Day.
We also believe that men and women are equal in dignity and worth, need for salvation through faith in Christ, and value to God’s kingdom. Women serve the Lord in our church in many ways. In fact, the only area of ministry where women are limited in our church is the office of pastor/elder/overseer and preaching to the gathered congregation on the Lord’s Day. We have women serving as deacons, Sunday School teachers, ministry directors, office manager, treasurer, hospitality, and much more! Where would we be without our sisters? I shudder even to think about it. God gifts, equips, and calls both women and men in service to Him. “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Cor. 12:21).
The constitutional amendment that was proposed states that a cooperating SBC church does not “act to affirm, appoint, or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation.” The amendment passed with just under 75% of the vote. It needed and received a 2/3 majority to advance. It will need to receive at least a 2/3 majority again at next year’s convention to be adopted into the constitution.
I am in full agreement with the theology of the amendment. I do, however, have concerns with the fact that we are continuing to talk about this issue year after year. It would be much more beneficial to focus our attention on all of the wonderful ways that women give of themselves in service to our Lord and His church. I also believe that our statement of faith should focus on our theology, and our constitution and bylaws should focus on governance. They are separate documents with separate purposes. We do not need to delineate certain “super doctrines” in our constitution. And even if we did, there are a lot of doctrines in our statement of faith that are far more fundamental to the Christian faith than this one.
The question of whether women can serve as a pastor is relevant to our cooperative work of missions and theological education, but Southern Baptist messengers agree on the theology of this issue. Our seminaries all teach that the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture. Our mission boards both require that pastors be qualified men. There is no creeping theological liberalism in the SBC on this issue outside of perhaps a very small number of outliers. While there has been some confusion at times, that confusion has been almost completely cleared up. It’s hard to understand why a constitutional amendment is needed. I do hope that we will be able to move past this issue after next year’s convention.
One of the big things that happens at every SBC annual meeting is the election of a convention president. As I teach in our new members class, this matters because the convention president appoints the Committee on Committees who nominates the Committee on Nominations who nominates trustees for the mission boards, seminaries, and other entities. If you want to ensure that the convention stays on the right track, you have to elect trustees who will keep things moving in the right direction.
There were two candidates this year for SBC president, Willy Rice from Florida and Josh Powell from South Carolina. My preferred candidate was Josh Powell, but Willy Rice won the election with 57% of the vote. The big difference between the two candidates was really the question of whether reform is needed in the SBC. Willy Rice was the self-professed reform candidate, while Josh Powell generally believes that things have been headed in the right direction.
It remains to be seen what kind of reform will result from Willy Rice’s presidency. The SBC presidency has the authority of appointments and the opportunity to speak to issues he believes are important, but one SBC president cannot institute sweeping reform on his own.
My biggest concern with both candidates and some other SBC leaders is the way that they have spoken about the issue of sexual abuse in SBC churches. There are some who say that the issue of sexual abuse in SBC churches has been overblown and that some of the convention actions to address the issue in recent years were a mistake. Both presidential candidates would fall somewhere in that group. There are others who say that the SBC hasn’t done anything to address the issue of sexual abuse in SBC churches.
I think both of those perspectives are wrong. Sexual abuse has been an issue in SBC churches, and sadly, it will continue to be an issue until Jesus returns and makes all things right. Southern Baptists voted a few years ago to create a database of convicted and credibly accused abusers with connections to SBC churches. The database has never been created, and there does not seem to be any appetite among Southern Baptist leaders for creating such a database. While I do have questions as to how much benefit such a database would be, if the messengers vote to do something, it should be done. No one in Nashville should be deciding not to do something that the messengers voted to do.
However, while it is true that we have not done enough to address sexual abuse in SBC churches, it is not true that nothing has been done. We now have a standing Credentials Committee that is interacting with churches on a number of issues. The vast majority of reports received by the Credentials Committee have to do with the response of churches to situations of sexual abuse. Those issues are being addressed. Churches that want help are being helped, and those that continue to demonstrate apathy regarding sexual abuse are being removed. In addition, Baptist Press is proactively reporting on instances of sexual abuse by people connected to SBC churches, in effect creating an unofficial database that anyone who knows how to Google can access when hiring staff or receiving a new member or volunteer.
Our church has been doing background checks and sexual abuse awareness training for all children and youth ministry volunteers for quite a while now. The church was already doing background checks ten years ago when I arrived, and we began requiring the training in the years since. We take very seriously our responsibility to protect the children and youth that God and parents entrust to our care as a church.
There is so much more I could say about the Southern Baptist Convention and this year’s annual meeting in Orlando. But if you’ve read all the way through to this point, you already deserve a gold star. What I would really love is to have you join me in Indianapolis next June for the SBC annual meeting so you can see in person our cooperative work in action.
