Indianapolis | Jeff Iorg received a standing ovation as he took the podium at his first meeting as SBC Executive Committee (EC) President and CEO. A standing room-only crowd of guests were on hand at the EC plenary session Monday morning, June 10, one day before the start of the SBC Annual Meeting. The EC meeting took place at the Marriot Hotel across the street from the Indianapolis Convention Center.
“First of all, we will need to address the financial crisis of the Executive Committee that has been created by the indemnification agreement with Guidepost,” Iorg said in his address. Due to the agreement, the EC has paid $2 million in legal bills on behalf of Guidepost Solutions, which is currently being sued by two Southern Baptists over their inclusion in the 2022 report on sexual abuse within the SBC, Iorg reported. “We have to find a way to manage that.”
He also pointed to the expected new responsibilities SBC messengers are expected to hand to the EC. Three task forces will report to the convention this week, “particularly the ARITF Task Force reporting and asking us to choose the permanent home for sexual abuse, response, and reform in the Southern Baptist Convention,” Iorg said. ARITF is the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force, which was the successor to the panel that explored sexual abuse in the denomination and made recommendations two years ago.
“We receive these responsibilities gladly,” he said. “I’m glad to devote the next years of my life to leading you to solve these problems. Thank you for the privilege of serving with you.”
Iorg was elected to lead the EC on March 21, to widespread applause from Southern Baptists. The former seminary president, state association executive, and church planter shared with EC trustees and guests that he did not accept the role for money, honor, or legacy, but for two reasons:

Adron Robinson (left), SBC Executive Committee member, listens as a report is presented. Robinson pastors Hillcrest Baptist Church in Country Club Hills, Illinois.
First, out of a sense of “personal appreciation for what Southern Baptists have meant to me,” he said. He shared about growing up in a non-Christian home, in what he called “alcoholic chaos.” But at age 13, a Southern Baptist pastor led Iorg to faith, and over the next decade that church nurtured his faith. Eventually Iorg attended a Southern Baptist-affiliated university, graduated from a Southern Baptist Seminary, and started a NAMB-supported church plant in Portland, Oregon.
Second, “because of loss. People need to know Jesus Christ… When people ask me, what is your vision for Southern Baptist, I say it quite simply, to get the gospel to more people.”
In other actions, members heard a report from Josh Hetzler, chair of the EC’s Legal Strategies Committee, regarding the creation of an ad hoc committee to study “biblical justice and due process doctrine as it relates to our current legal system,” the “long-term legal strategy for the executive committee and Southern Baptist Convention,” and “the process by which the executive committee and the Southern Baptist Convention approve significant legal decisions.”
The Committee on Convention Mission and Ministry chair, Mollie Duddleston, presented several recommendations. All were approved.
- To adopt the 97th annual report of the SBC Executive Committee report as printed in the 2024 SBC Booking Reports.
- To decline to recommend an amendment to the SBC organization manual that would move certain duties away from the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force (ARITF) and assign them to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), due to concerns that this would be “out of sequence” as the messengers may act on this within the next few days.
- To report to the Convention meeting in Indianapolis that the EC continues to work toward ending all formal SBC relationships with Guidepost Solutions (currently limited to maintaining the reporting abuse hotline and the indemnification agreement).
Finally, the Committee on Convention Finances and Stewardship Development chair Adam Wyatt stated that his committee recommended that the EC decline to recommend two motions referred to them from the 2023 Annual Meeting that would require SBC entities to include information found on IRS Form 990 in the SBC annual Book of Reports.
Instead, that committee asked that the EC “request the trustees and staff of all Southern Baptist entities, institutions, and commissions to maintain accountability and transparency as directed by the business and financial plan in their reports to the Convention,” and that the SBC EC and all entities commit “to determine ways to enhance transparency and clarity of reporting to the Convention, and report its findings and recommendations to the messengers at the 2025 SBC at the meeting in Dallas, Texas.”
Several motions regarding the financial accountability and transparency of SBC entities are expected to be made during the two-day convention, which starts Tuesday, June 11.
–Ben Jones in Indianapolis