Indianapolis | If you judged by secular news reports, or even other Christian media, you might think that the vote to limit the pastorate to men only was almost all the 2024 Southern Baptist Convention addressed. Or you might think that messengers opened a can of worms with the resolution on in vitro fertilization that grew far beyond their statement on respecting life and protecting frozen embryos.
That’s not all the messengers did in Indianapolis June 11-12. SBC President Bart Barber promised a very busy annual meeting, with an extra session to accommodate more business and more time at the microphones for messengers.
“Roll up your sleeves!” Barber declared in the first session. And the advice was well timed as messengers brought 50 motions. They heard three major reports from study groups about abuse reform and the effectiveness of a realignment more than a decade ago. They considered (again) abolishing the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and debated censuring three top SBC leaders for following their lawyers’ advice and joining an abuse lawsuit in Kentucky.
And a lot more.
Yes, the ‘Law Amendment’ to the SBC constitution failed, but messengers also dismissed a church that has a woman as pastor for women and children and whose views did not align with the complementarian stance expressed in the Baptist Faith and Message (2000). So the actions, which may on the surface seem contradictory, left the Convention with the same position on pastors and gender: male-only senior pastors, but some wiggle room on the titling of other positions held by women. (See full story starting on page 1.)
But other actions taken by messengers have equally long-ranging impact from a meeting that will be remembered for its many high-speed laps around the track—starting with the inaugural report from new SBC Executive Committee President and CEO Jeff Iorg.
Iorg cautions against distractions
“The mission matters most,” Jeff Iorg told messengers in his initial report as SBC Executive Committee President and CEO. Iorg’s first action as he took office a month earlier was to publish a document explaining why the ‘Law amendment’ to the SBC Constitution was unnecessary, although at the time its passage seemed likely. At the podium in Indianapolis, he took another risky step as he offered cautions about the distractions of national politics and doctrinal policing.
Iorg said one challenge to pursuing God’s mission comes from the common mission substitutes of political activism, social justice, convention reform, and doctrinal conformity.
“God’s eternal mission is not political, social, or organizational. Our mission must not be either,” Iorg said. “Our overarching eternal mission is introducing people to Jesus Christ and teaching them to live as his disciples.
“We must have the courage, every one of us, the courage to resist media pressure, social media attacks and agenda-driven advocates who are convinced we should devote ourselves to these priorities.”
“We must learn the spiritual discipline of not allowing the good to crowd out the best,” he told Baptists presently engaged in doctrinal debate and national politics.
“While many things matter, God’s eternal mission matters most.”
The EC proposed an SBC budget of $190 million for 2024-25, down $5 million from the previous year.
‘Friendly cooperation’ defined
The term ‘friendly cooperation’ in the SBC Constitution has been the defining measure for removing churches from the SBC rolls since the Credentials Committee was charged with the responsibility in connection with seating messengers in 2019. Some 19 churches have been dismissed: six for abuse claims and seven, including Saddleback Community Church previously led by Rick Warren in 2023, and FBC Arlington in 2024, were dismissed for having women as lead or teaching pastors or, in the 2024 case, a ministry philosophy that would allow for it.
The Cooperation Study Group appointed by Barber brought four recommendations. All were approved. “This SBC was chartered for the purpose of directing the energies of Baptists for the propagation of the gospel,” said Jared Wellman, the Texas pastor who chaired the group. “We understand that there are times that there are churches that step outside this phrase ‘closely identifies with’” the SBC in faith and practice, as stated in the constitution.
The group recommended a longer process for amending the Baptist Faith & Message, and exploration of publishing a national list of SBC churches.
Abuse reform returned to EC
Messengers accepted recommendations from the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force (ARITF) that effectively returned responsibility for tracking abusers back to the SBC EC, whose mishandling of abuse claims under a previous administration at least in part prompted the abuse investigation.
ARITF, successor to the Sexual Abuse Task Force, has operated for two years, trying to implement reforms approved by messengers in 2022—including a tracking system. “This undoubtedly has been the most difficult part of our work as a task force,” Chair Josh Wester told messengers.
“I wish that standing before you today I could say that the Ministry Check website is now online, but I can’t do that,” he said. “What I can tell you is that even though we have encountered unbelievable obstacles in the process and the course of trying to establish the Ministry Check website, we are closer than we’ve ever been.”
But possible legal liabilities have made it almost impossible to keep a public record of credible abuse claims and abusers. A separate non-profit was formed by some task force members in early 2024, but its development got stuck. Now EC will take up the issue—again—under new management.
GCR failure admitted
The Great Commission Resurgence of 2010 was a failure, the task force assigned to study the more than decade old realignment of SBC functions and entities’ program assignments reported. As previously published, the panel said only two of the seven original recommendations were implemented, and the actions intended to address evangelism put distance between the North American Mission Board and state conventions whose big-city and frontier works had been supported in large part by NAMB prior to 2013.
“There’s plenty of blame to go around,” chair Jay Adkins said, deflecting attention from NAMB alone. He also cited the observation by National WMU Executive Director Sandy Wisdom-Martin.
“The Great Commission cannot be parceled and assigned to boards… This responsibility cannot be abdicated,” Wisdom-Martin said. “We have church members who get married in the church, get buried in the church, and live their entire life without once sharing their faith… It really doesn’t matter what strategy we put into place if we don’t change the culture of our community of faith, this has to be the foundation.”
Messengers approved six new recommendations.
ERLC saved, censure denied
With considerable debate from the floor, messengers turned away efforts to abolish the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), declined to censure three key leaders, and refused to appoint a study group to revisit the Baptist Faith and Message on its 100th anniversary. The votes marked a subcurrent to avoid stirring additional controversy.
The debate on a resolution on in vitro fertilization proved interesting and emotional, as messengers who have used IVF to have children or who have lost embryos through the process told their stories from the floor. Eventually, the body approved the resolution. (See story on page 10.)
Given additional time for their participation, messengers brought 50 motions. Most of them were ruled out of order or referred to the entities they would affect. Among them was a motion to abolish the ERLC. The SBC’s voice in the public square has come under criticism for political actions, especially in the previous administration under Russell Moore.
Florida pastor Tom Ascol, previously a candidate for SBC president, brought the motion, which would have required a two-thirds majority in two consecutive annual meetings. “A positive vote will give them one full year to make a course correction,” Ascol said.
Current ERLC President Brent Leatherwood came to a floor mic to defend the entity. He characterized a 2018 example cited by Ascol of an ERLC-produced video supporting animal rights as irrelevant, as it was removed from the ERLC website soon after complaints were raised, and it occurred under Moore’s tenure.
Leatherwood defended ERLC’s work in Washington D.C. as vital to Southern Baptists’ interests. “This commission speaks truth with a capital T. And the grace that it also speaks with is exactly what is needed now,” he said. Of the continued lobbying to end ERLC, Leatherwood said, “Send a signal that the political tactics that are being used in this room are not for us.”
Messengers agreed, with only about one-fourth raising ballots to abolish the ERLC.
A motion to censure three leaders for signing on to an amicus brief involving the statute of limitations in a Kentucky abuse suit failed after some debate. The motion would have censured Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler, Lifeway Christian Resources President Ben Mandrell, and SBC President Bart Barber.
As one messenger from the floor pointed out, Barber apologized for his participation. Barber received a standing ovation.
Mandrell and Mohler both pointed to legal advice to join the suit that they received at the time. “The presidents of your Southern Baptist institutions are not the lawyers for your institutions and for good reason,” Mohler said. “We believe that justice and righteousness will come by the application of the rule of law.”
Messengers ultimately ruled the motion out of order.
Final laps
Charlotte, N. C., Pastor Clint Pressley won the SBC presidency on the third ballot, defeating five other pastors for the top spot. Pressley received 4,244 votes (56.12%), while Dan Spencer, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Sevierville, Tenn. received 3,305 votes (43.71%). A total of 7,562 votes were cast with 13 disallowed.
The three candidates were eliminated in the first round: Bruce Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church, Asheville, North Carolina; Mike Keahbone, senior pastor, First Baptist Church, Lawton, Oklahoma; and Jared Moore, senior pastor, Cumberland Homesteads Baptist Church, Crossville, Tennessee. Both Frank and Keahbone were prominent in handling the abuse claims investigation and attempts to implement reform.
Pressley has been senior pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte since 2010 and is a member of the board of directors for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. He served as vice president of the 2013 SBC Pastors’ Conference and first vice president of the SBC from 2014-15. Since 2015, Pressley has been a trustee for the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, with a stint as chairman. He has pastored churches in Mississippi and Alabama.
In his appearance at a presidential candidate forum Monday night, Pressley reiterated his support for the ‘Law amendment’ to the SBC Constitution limiting pastors to male-only.
“It sounded like BFM (Baptist Faith and Message 2000), which we hold to,” Pressley said. “It sounded like the Bible and felt like it made sense, and it will provide some clarity, so that’s why I’ve thought it makes sense to me. I’m for it.” But he conceded at a press conference after his election that churches can have “robust theology” about pastoral leadership without amending the constitution.
Although Barber joked about having three major study groups in a single year under his watch, and said that he would support the new president if another task force were requested, messengers declined to call for any studies ahead of the Dallas convention in 2025.
The Annual Meeting next year will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Program, and perhaps have a little less busyness.
—IB team in Indianapolis and Springfield, with additional reporting from Baptist Press and The Baptist Paper