Southern Baptist Convention

Review of the SBC Annual Meeting 2025 in Dallas, TX

Again this year I had the privilege of attending the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention as a messenger. The two days spent together with fellow messengers are essentially the only two days of business for the denomination. The polity of the denomination functions similarly to a church with congregational governance. Major decisions, budgets, appointments, leadership, etc. must all happen in a gathered room with messengers making those decisions. Below are some observations from this year’s meeting.

Historic. The 2025 annual meeting of the SBC was historic in nature. Exactly one hundred years ago (1925), two integral components of SBC life began: the Cooperative Program, the Baptist Faith and Message. The Executive Committee was also established around that window (formed in 1917). With the advent of the Cooperative Program, baptists from all over the United States were able to give through their state conventions and then on to the national convention. The Cooperative Program operates as follows. Each state convention keeps a percentage. In North Carolina, the BSCNC keeps 50 cents of every dollar and then sends 50 cents onto to be distributed nationally. Of every CP dollar given roughly 50% goes to the IMB to send international missionaries, 25% goes to the NAMB to support church planting, replanting, and SEND Relief (disaster relief efforts). The six seminaries receive a proportional amount of what is left based upon enrollment. And a final small percentage goes to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission as well as the Executive Committee. The cooperative element of Southern Baptist life allows missionaries to go to the field, churches to be planted, and seminary students to be trained. The genius of the Cooperative Program is that forty six thousand churches can combine their giving to support institutional mission and educational structures.

The Baptist Faith and Message was first adopted in 1925 establishing a confession of faith that articulated doctrinal clarity for a denomination that at the time was eighty years old. Building upon the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, the BF&M has become a guiding document that instructs and determines friendly fellowship between churches. Revised in 1963 and 2000, the BF&M serves Southern Baptists as a confessional document for consistent doctrinal application.

The Executive Committee also began in that era (1917) as the standing leadership for the denomination to accomplish tasks and responsibilities for the denomination outside the annual meeting. The EC then and now serves the purpose of the legal and formal representation of the will of the messengers between annual meetings. 

We should not minimize the significance of the institutional history of the SBC. With mainline denominations shuttering doors and prominent seminaries moving or declining, the health of the SBC one hundred years after the establishment of these three components is something to be grateful for. Southern Baptists do not always agree. We face challenges annually and will continue to do so. But our shared history, love for cooperative missions, and willingness adapt to our polity make us a denomination with lasting capabilities. 

Difficult. Sometimes denominational actions are difficult. Over the past several annual meetings, the messengers have done things good and bad. From waiving attorney client privilege for an internal investigation regarding sexual abuse allegations to implementing reforms in the area of accountability for pastors and churches to facing legal bills, decisions at the annual meetings have consequences anticipated and unanticipated. One of the more significant actions of this year’s messengers was approving a financial plan with budgeting considerations for addressing lawsuits. Over the past several years, SBC actions have been perceived as defamation and lawsuits against the EC, SBC, and Credentials Committee have been filed. Fighting these legal challenges is costly. The desire of the messengers in recent meetings has overwhelmingly been aimed at pursuing integrity and transparency. So this year’s budget requests funds for legal fees. While no one likes spending money on legal fees, the SBC is the largest Protestant denomination in the US existing in a litigious society. While we may lament the necessity to pay legal bills we are obligated financially and legally. 

Troubled. At almost every recent SBC meeting, I’ve attended, there have been motions calling for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission to be defunded or abolished. One of our seminary presidents referred to the ERLC as a “troubled” entity. Rank and file baptists have expressed frustration at the ERLC for calling out conservative and Republican politicians and for accepting funds from sources that are not aligned with the SBC in values and worldview. The ERLC has the unenviable task of addressing policies in a divided political climate. A motion was made to abolish the ERLC once again. While the vote to abolish fell short, more than 40% of the messengers voted to abolish. We should pray that the ERLC board and officers hear the concerns and adjust accordingly. In my estimation, it would be devastating to lose the commission as a voice for the SBC in Washington, D.C. Nevertheless, when such a significant percentage of the messengers vote concerned, the entity should take notice.

Grateful. Parents, we raise our children, not to live at home, but to leave our homes, get married, and begin families of their own. While we may always desire our children to remain close, a sign of good parenting is sending your children away prepared and ready to face the world. Likewise, one of the greatest signs of our denominational values and health is in our sending. Our mission mandates sending (Matthew 28:16-20), and our denomination exists essentially as a cooperative body for mission sending. In 2024, the IMB commissioned 423 missionaries, connected thousands of Southern Baptists on short-term mission trips, and advanced in Project 3000 by engaging unengaged people groups. Last year more than 63,000 people professed faith in Christ due to IMB efforts, thousands of new churches were started, and 84,000 new leaders were trained. We cooperate confessionally in order to send missionaries. Why? Because 166,338 people die every day across the world and enter a Christ-less eternity. 

Highlights. At the luncheon for the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Albert Mohler noted the health of the Southern Baptist seminaries. Your six Southern Baptist Seminaries (The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and Gateway Seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention) are six of the ten strongest seminaries in the US. This is because the seminaries are committed to theological fidelity. This past graduation at SBTS, students from more than 13 countries graduated and walked. There were actually students from the Ukraine and Russia to graduate from SBTS. While their countries are at war, the gospel unites believers for the spread of the gospel. Dr. Mohler also made two other observations that should encourage us. First, while Southern Baptists will gather and argue about a great many things, at least we are healthy enough as a denomination to gather, argue, and debate. Many other denominations are not healthy, not gathering, and certainly not growing because they are not committed to biblical inerrancy and authority. Second, the SBC annual meeting may be one of the only places in the world where people in skinny jeans and others with fat ties can gather for mission cooperation and denominational decision-making.

Part of what makes being a Southern Baptist good is that we are diverse. We are imperfect. We disagree. We are overwhelmingly conservative, biblical, missional, and complementation. But we are diverse in the application of doctrine and practice.

If you would like to hear more about the SBC Annual meeting 2025, visit us at Wilkesboro Baptist Church on June 18 at 6 pm. I’ll be giving a more thorough review to our church family.

SBC Annual Meeting 2024

The annual meeting for Southern Baptists is finished, and here are some of my observations for the several days in Indianapolis. Regardless of the headlines you’ve read or the assessments you may or may not have heard on social media, remember this, Southern Baptists may never win the headlines. Our wins happen in the churches, seminary classrooms, and mission fields as the gospel is preached, theological fidelity practiced, and unreached peoples are engaged with the gospel.

Polity matters. One of the more helpful insights for me came from the 9 Marks at 9 event on Monday as Jonathan Leeman discussed the differences between connectional and cooperational denominations. He described connectional denominations as ones with structures that decide doctrine or practice for local churches (in varying degrees see the Roman Catholics the United Methodists). Leeman described the Southern Baptist Convention as a cooperational denomination. Churches remain autonomous with their own local church polity, statements of faith, and practices. In essence Southern Baptist Churches are not member churches of a denomination, but rather autonomous churches that cooperate for missional purposes. Because churches aren’t members, they send messengers who can attend and participate in the business based on the church’s cooperative giving. Giving through the denominational mechanisms allows churches to send and seat messengers as representatives to the annual meeting. The SBC can and does decide the grounds for seating messengers. This is the job of the credentials committee.

The SBC is complementarian and considering churches who are “not in friendly cooperation” remains a difficult process. If you’ve read any headlines, they probably highlighted the failure of the “Law” amendment to become a part of the constitution. Amendments to the SBC constitution have to pass by a two thirds majority in two consecutive annual meetings to become established. The proposed amendment stated that churches in friendly cooperation affirm, appoint, or employ “only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.” The stated aim of the amendment was to make the process of not considering churches in friendly cooperation more economical. As it stands now, the credentials committee can consider a church “not in friendly cooperation” on the grounds of doctrine or practice out of bounds with the Baptist Faith and Message or a church whose doctrine and practice on LGBTQ issues, sexual abuse issues, or racism issues are in contradiction to the stated position of the SBC. Churches that have women as pastors have also been considered “not in friendly cooperation.” This process happens on the convention floor and requires a messenger vote. While the proposed, but failed “Law” amendment, may have made the process more economical, I personally believe that dealing with this issue on the convention floor provides a healthy and weighty grief for the messengers. It offers the messengers consistent opportunities to articulate the complementarian position of Scripture that reserves the role of pastor for qualified men and in so doing, teaches the denomination. Our current, and for the time being at least, continuing process affords this opportunity to affirm our established conservative, complementarian position while allowing the messengers to function as a voting, disciplinary body. While cumbersome, the current process is weighty and closely aligns with the healthy process of church discipline in local congregations.

Leadership and character is indispensable. Too many SBC and evangelical leaders with large platforms and well-recognized names have fallen in sin or leadership folly. It is wonderful to begin well, but God has called us to finish well. To this observation, I express gratitude to Dr. Albert Mohler at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for more than 30 years leading the flagship seminary of the SBC, to Dr. Danny Akin at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary for more than 20 years at SEBTS, and to Dr. Jeff Iorg who retired from Gateway Seminary to take on the role of the President and CEO of Executive Committee for the denomination. These men are representative of the many thousands of obscure baptist pastors and leaders who remain faithful to their calling and service to Jesus Christ. May we learn from their example and remain faithful.

Our large and diverse body will always have differences of opinion. In the lead up to the annual meeting, much is made of our disagreements and divisions. And we will always have them. I have great friends on various sides of different doctrinal and practical issues facing Southern Baptists. Several tried to convince me of their positions this week. And our polity allows for any messenger (some of them affectionally referred to as “crazy uncles”) to bring motions or speak to the messengers at microphones. Our diversities and “crazy uncles” are part of what makes the SBC special.

We have much work left to do. I mean this in two ways. First, the SBC remains cooperative for the spread of the gospel to the nations (see next observation for more detail). But even as we celebrate what has been done and is being done, we reflect on the great task in front of us. With nearly 3000 unengaged, unreached people groups, the frontier project of the SBC is to send pioneer missionaries and researchers to find, evaluate, and begin the process of evangelization of these people groups. Second, the SBC has moved the needle on handling sexual abuse issues, but is not there yet. The Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force (ARITF) has made progress in curriculum development, but has not completed the ministry check website. Southern Baptists must remain vigilant in establishing protocols to protect and defend those who attend our churches. The work of justice and congregational care in this area is far from complete.

Missionaries and mission sending remain the central reason for cooperation. Eighty-three missionaries were commissioned or re-commissioned to the field this week. Some will go to places where the gospel is not welcome. Some missionaries were not able to introduce themselves with their own voices or show their faces because of the security risks in the places they will go. Recently, the IMB celebrated the retirement of 40 career missionaries whose cumulative service was more than 1100 years. These missionaries who have given their lives or who are going to the field for the first time ought to be our heroes and the ones we celebrate.

The location and weather for the annual meeting was excellent. Indianapolis was a fantastic host city. Hotels and amenities are in close proximity to the convention center. Even with large crowds, the plethora of restaurants surrounding the vicinity handled the messengers and visitors easily. But the most excellent thing about Indianapolis was the weather! Comfortable, not sweltering weather for an SBC annual meeting was a plus for this year’s meeting.

Here are some of my favorite quotes for the week:

“If we evaluate the SBC on twitter, we’ll hate it. If we evaluate the SBC in the convention hall, we’ll like it. If we evaluate the SBC by working with a missionary on the field, we’ll love it.” Dr. Juan Sanchez

“Between the Great Commission (Mt. 28) and the Great Multitude (Rev. 7) is the Great Pursuit, the responsibility of the church to reach the nations with the gospel.” Dr. Paul Chitwood

As imperfect as we are, we remain solidly biblical, theologically diverse, and missionally committed as the largest Protestant denomination in the country. For those that live in proximity to Wilkesboro Baptist Church, I will take the Wednesday evening gathering on July 10 at 6 pm in our church sanctuary to discuss more of these denominational details and answer questions about the state of the SBC.

Photo by Corbin Mathias on Unsplash