Steve Gaines, a Tennessee megachurch pastor who served as Southern Baptist Convention president from 2016 to 2018, died Friday, March 20, his former congregation announced. He was 68.

“It’s with a heavy heart that we share with you the passing of our beloved pastor emeritus, Dr. Steve Gaines,” Bellevue Baptist Church said in a post on its Facebook page.

“After a two-year long battle with cancer, brother Steve stepped into eternity earlier this afternoon, and he is now fully healed in the presence of the Lord.”

Gaines led the Memphis-area church, one of the SBC’s largest congregations, for 19 years.

He stepped down as the congregation’s pastor in 2024, 10 months after being diagnosed with kidney cancer.

Gaines was born Dec. 31, 1957, in Corinth, Miss., and grew up in Dyersburg, Tenn., according to Baptist Press.

He earned degrees at Union University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and pastored churches in Tennessee and Texas while in school.

Serving in the SBC

He was elected president of the SBC in 2016 during a period of relative calm in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

After two rounds of voting by SBC annual meeting messengers, neither Gaines nor North Carolina megachurch pastor J.D. Greear had the 2,413 votes needed to win the presidency.

Both men offered to bow out, but Greear, who trailed by 104 votes, eventually dropped from the ballot, and Gaines became SBC president. Greear was elected two years later.

“Steve Gaines was a brother in arms to me if ever there was such a thing. He was a colleague, a captain, an older brother, a friend, a mentor,” Greear posted on X, after news of Gaines’ death became public Friday.

“He had a relentless, unflagging, inspiring fixation on evangelism. It stood at the center of everything he did, every venture he undertook, every fight he engaged in.”

At the time of Gaines’ election, the most pressing issue facing the SBC was its ongoing decline.

“I want to encourage you to be a soul-winner. I want to encourage you to be evangelistic,” Gaines told Southern Baptists in 2017 after he was reelected for a second term.

Responding to politics

In an interview before the 2016 election, Gaines said he was worried about the tone of the nation’s political debate, especially what he called “hateful statements” about the two major party candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, according to Baptist Press.

“Many voices, even among Southern Baptists, have been less than wise, and sometimes downright ill-mannered,” Gaines told Baptist Press at the time.

“Christians must at times be prophetic. But we never have a license to be pejorative or denigrating.”

He also called on his fellow Christians to honor their political foes after the 2016 election was over.

“May we be responsible and mature in our comments on social media posts, blogs, and articles. The world is watching us,” he wrote after the election. “May they see Jesus in us.”

In 2017, Gaines oversaw a denominational annual meeting in Phoenix rocked by fierce debate over a resolution condemning the alt-right movement and white supremacy.

That resolution was initially sidelined by a denominational committee, leading to anger at the convention and on social media and making national headlines.

The resolution was later resurrected and passed.

Gaines’ involvement in abuse investigations

Gaines was one of several SBC leaders mentioned in the 2022 Guidepost Solutions investigation into how Southern Baptist leaders had responded to sexual abuse allegations.

He told investigators from Guidepost Solutions he failed to report abuse allegations in a 2006 case for months.

That situation involved a staff member who had allegedly abused a member of their family.

“When I was informed, I believed that it was being properly taken care of and did not know my obligation to report it to authorities. I now know I did not handle the situation properly,” Gaines told a Memphis television station after the Guidepost report was released.

Gaines’ cancer diagnosis

In November 2024, Gaines told his church he had been diagnosed with kidney cancer. The following September, he announced he would be stepping down as pastor.

At the time, he told the church his prognosis was good.

“My treatments are going well, and I even received a good report last week on my latest PET scan,” he said.

“But regardless of what tests show, I firmly believe the word the Lord has given me that ‘I will not die, but live, and tell of the works of the Lord,’ (Psalm 118:17),” he told the church in his resignation letter.

Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, called Gaines “a remarkable example of family leadership, pastoral effectiveness, preaching power, and evangelistic zeal.”

“He inspired me and encouraged me to be a better husband, father, friend, and leader,” Iorg told RNS in an emailed statement.

“We thank God for his leadership in the Southern Baptist Convention, pray for his family as they grieve, and celebrate the peace he now enjoys in heaven.”

A funeral for Gaines was held at Bellevue Baptist on Sunday, March 22, according to the church’s website.

“Please join us as we lift the entire Gaines family up in prayer during this difficult time,” the church announcement read.

John M. Perkins, an influential Baptist author, Bible teacher, and longtime racial reconciliation advocate, died Friday, March 13. He was 95. 

Perkins died surrounded by his wife and family, they announced on social media. On March 4, his daughters, Priscilla and Elizabeth Perkins, co-presidents of the John & Vera Mae Perkins Foundation based in Jackson, Miss., said he was under hospice care.

“To the world, he was Dr. John M. Perkins, a voice for justice, reconciliation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ,” his daughter, Elizabeth, wrote in announcing his death on Instagram. “He received 19 honorary doctorate degrees, but most importantly, he was the devoted husband of his bride, Vera Mae Perkins, for 74 years, and together they were blessed with 8 children.”

A civil rights veteran, minister, and co-founder of the Christian Community Development Association, Perkins was known for his dedication to a collaborative approach to ministry.

“John Perkins is probably one of the true unsung heroes in America—not in Black America, not in the church community, but in America,” said the Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner, co-founder of the Skinner Leadership Institute, a Black church civic engagement group, who knew Perkins for decades, in a 2023 interview.

 “He’s really done more to break down racial barriers and walls than almost any other person we know. We hear of Dr. King, we hear of others like John Lewis, but he lived the gospel of loving your neighbor as yourself. He lived the gospel of the Good Samaritan,” Williams-Skinner said.

A farewell tour

In recent years, Perkins had been on a bit of a farewell tour, realizing that in his 90s, he might have limited time to share his wisdom with younger generations who have embraced his 3 Rs—relocation, redistribution, reconciliation—through which he sought to address systemic racism with social action.

Perkins’ ministry approach in his later years also included a weekly Zoom Bible study that carried his name but featured more than 200 people, some of whom took turns leading it.

“I’m learning from them because they are doing really good research,” said Perkins, then 92, of his co-leaders, who have included Shane Claiborne, co-founder of Red Letter Christians, and megachurch co-founder Rick Warren, as well as civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson. 

“We want our Bible class to be a model of what the influential pastor or the influential leader can do back in their own hometown.”

In 2021, shortly after surgery for colon cancer, Perkins traveled from Mississippi to Missouri to attend the meeting of the CCDA, the community development organization he had helped organize decades before. It was worth the journey from Mississippi to Missouri, he said, to see his friends and to continue to motivate them while he could.

“Really to pass on, in my own way, this mission we have arrived at together,” he said in a phone interview. “I just came to encourage and to say goodbye.”

Overcoming loss and violence

Perkins’ life was accentuated by loss and violence, as he overcame the deaths of loved ones and his own hatred of white people, specifically police who took his brother’s life and, years later, nearly took his. Once one of the few Black leaders in predominantly white evangelical circles, Perkins credited particular white people for introducing him to the Christian faith, caring for his wounds, and comforting him when he was mourning.

His mother died of starvation in 1930, the same year he was born in Mississippi. While a teenager, his brother was killed by a police chief after the young man grabbed the blackjack the officer had used to strike him.

Perkins fled to California in the 1940s, after his brother’s death, and started a union of foundry workers in that state a decade later. He later was drafted by the U.S. Armed Forces and served three years in Okinawa, Japan, after the start of the Korean War. Returning to the United States, he became a Christian and was ordained a Baptist minister.

In 1960, he returned to his native state of Mississippi and started a ministry in Mendenhall, providing youth programs, day care, cooperative farming, and health care.

An activist who registered Black voters and boycotted white retailers, Perkins visited college students who had been arrested after a 1970 protest. He was tortured and “beaten almost to death,” he said in his 2021 book, Count It All Joy: The Ridiculous Paradox of Suffering.

“He was beaten for just attempting to be a human in Mississippi,” Williams-Skinner said. “But instead of being bitter, he became a better human and taught us to be better humans.”

After Perkins recovered, he continued to support college students, and, in 1976, published Let Justice Roll Down, which codified his “3 Rs.” In 2006, Christianity Today placed it at No. 14 on its list of the top 50 books that shaped evangelicals over the previous five decades.

“Justice is an economic issue,” Perkins told Religion News Service in 2021. “It’s the management and stewardship of God’s resources on the Earth.”

Perkins had extensive ministry influence

Ron Sider, former president of Evangelicals for Social Action (now Christians for Social Action), who died in 2022, told RNS in a 2021 interview Perkins had “phenomenal” influence, cultivating—possibly more than “any single American”—holistic ministries meeting both physical and spiritual needs of people in rural and urban settings.

His efforts on racial reconciliation, Sider said, also contributed to a more diverse “evangelical center,” to the point that the National Association of Evangelicals—on whose board Perkins served in the 1980s—chose an African American board chair, an Asian American president, and a woman vice chair in 2019.

Perkins encouraged “collective prosperity,” where wealth is distributed equitably, and living in neighborhoods close to the poor, something he had done in the West and in the South.

“I’d say a lot of white suburban folks like me were deeply challenged by his call to justice and to the three Rs of his ministry,” Jo Kadlecek said. She was inspired by Let Justice Roll Down and later co-authored a book with Perkins after he sought her out. 

“‘You know, Jesus didn’t commute from heaven,’ he’d say frequently,” she said in 2021, referring to urban ministers’ belief Christians who help poor and underserved communities should consider residing near them.

Founding ministries

In the 1980s, Perkins returned to California, and his family founded the Harambee Christian Family Center, now Harambee Ministries, in a high-crime area of Pasadena, offering teen and after-school programs and providing urban missions training to visiting church groups.

“You win the trust of parents, you win the trust of community leaders because you’re proving, day by day, that you want to develop children and young people,” Rudy Carrasco, who served as the center’s executive director, told RNS in 2021. “I learned that from John Perkins.”

In the 1990s, after returning to Jackson, Perkins founded the Spencer Perkins Center, named for his son who died in 1998, to continue his longtime focus on affordable housing, evangelism, and helping poor children and families.

During the last two decades, Perkins has been honored by institutions of higher learning, including Calvin University, which hosts a fellows program named for him, and historically Black Jackson State University, which named a scholarship after Perkins and his wife, Vera Mae.

In 2023, his family honored Perkins and his wife with a gala dinner for their 63 years dedicated to reconciliation, Christian development, and justice.

“They say ‘a prophet is not recognized in his own home,’” Priscilla Perkins said, according to a report from Jackson Advocate news service. “That can be said of my father, but we will fight on for justice for the voiceless and make our community a place where children can thrive.”

When he was feted in 2022 as a Black Christian “elder” at a Museum of the Bible gala, Perkins continued to preach about the need for love.

“The only way we can go forward now is with ‘love one another,’” he said at the Washington, D.C., ceremony, quoting the New Testament as he spoke about elevating the church as a whole over congregations attended by Black or white people. “‘He that loves knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God.’”

(BIRMINGHAM, Ala.)––Connie Dixon, president of Woman’s Missionary Union of the Southern Baptist Convention, has formed a search committee to seek the organization’s next executive director-treasurer following Sandy Wisdom-Martin’s announcement on Dec. 10 of her intentions to retire by January 2027. 

Wisdom-Martin has devoted more than 35 years serving in Southern Baptist leadership roles, with the past nine and a half leading national WMU.

Candace McIntosh, executive director of Alabama WMU, will serve as chair of the search committee.

Serving along with McIntosh and Dixon are Linda Cooper, president of Kentucky WMU and president emerita of WMU, SBC; Sandra Hughes, president of California WMU; Phyllis Rodgers, president of Louisiana WMU; and Odelle Cadwell, former president of WMU of Michigan.

“After a season of prayer and fasting, I am very excited about the group God led me to appoint to this committee,” Dixon said. “Each has already been praying about this process and the leadership of WMU.”

“At times this task has seemed overwhelming, but we serve an awesome and faithful God who I know is already preparing the next executive director. Please be in prayer for this committee and the task before us,” she continued.

McIntosh joins Dixon in asking Southern Baptists to pray for the next executive director.

“We deeply covet your prayers as we move forward in dependence on the Lord,” McIntosh said. 

The search committee is refining a profile of characteristics, skills, and experience desired for the position of executive director-treasurer and is seeking further input from various audiences. A job description is posted at wmu.com/employment. 

Resumes and recommendations may be sent in March and April to WMUSBCSearch@gmail.com.

McIntosh said there is not a specific timeline to present a candidate to the executive board of WMU, SBC, and that the committee is committed to prayerfully following the Lord’s leading and timing. 

ORLANDO, FL. (BP)—Florida pastor Ted Traylor announced March 3 his intention to nominate South Carolina pastor Wayne Bray to serve as president of the 2027 Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference in Indianapolis.

“It is with great joy I announce my intention to nominate Wayne Bray for the president’s role of the SBC Pastors’ Conference in June,” Traylor told Baptist Press.

“Wayne has pastored First Baptist Church of Simpsonville/Upstate Church in South Carolina since 2015. He is a man who preaches the word, develops young pastors, and is heart-deep in commitment to his state convention and the SBC.”

Bray has served as lead pastor of First Baptist Simpsonville/Upstate Church since 2015.

In that time, the church has grown from 1,700 to nearly 5,000 in worship.

Bray has also become known for mentoring and developing younger pastors and has built a pipeline of dozens of preachers and teaching pastors who rotate preaching at 23 different services across 10 Upstate Church locations each week.

“Wayne is a pastor with a dedication to training the next generation of pastors,” Traylor said.

“He is both a teacher and a practitioner when it comes to training younger pastors. He would serve us well in leading the Pastors’ Conference.”

According to church profile data, Upstate Church saw around 4,600 average attendees last year.

In 2024, the church took in $10,417,535 in undesignated receipts and forwarded $305,000 (2.93 percent) through the Cooperative Program.

Upstate Church gave $40,100 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and $33,795 to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering in 2024.

Bray has long been active in Southern Baptist life, serving as president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention in 2021-2022 as well as president of the Georgia Baptist Pastors’ Conference in 2011, and as first vice president of the Georgia Baptist Convention in 2007-2008.

He is also an adjunct professor at Anderson University in South Carolina and at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Bray earned a Doctor of Ministry degree at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, master’s degrees at both Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and Columbia International University, and a bachelor’s degree at Leavell College.

He has been married to his wife Amy for 30 years, and they have five children and one grandchild.

The 2026 SBC Pastors’ Conference will be June 7-8 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

If elected, Bray would serve as president for the following year’s conference.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Feb. 23 to hear a years-long case brought by former Baptist state convention executive director Will McRaney against the North American Mission Board, upholding an appeals court’s decision to dismiss and essentially closing out the case.

Two judges in a three-judge panel for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a previous dismissal in September. The majority decision pointed out “church autonomy doctrine bars all of McRaney’s claims against NAMB” and resolving his claims “would require secular courts to opine on ‘matters of faith and doctrine.’”

“The Supreme Court’s decision not to review the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision brings closure to a long and difficult legal dispute filed against our ministry nearly nine years ago,” NAMB said in a statement.

“The outcome in this matter—the opinion of the Fifth Circuit—now stands as a landmark protection of religious liberty for all Southern Baptists and other people of faith.

“The Fifth Circuit recognized and respected doctrinal autonomy and voluntary cooperation among Baptist churches and ministries, while also carefully applying longstanding First Amendment principles that protect religious organizations from having internal ministry matters scrutinized by civil courts. We are grateful.”

In a statement, McRaney said he and his wife, Sandy, were grateful for the support and prayers they had received during the legal process.

“While we are disappointed the Supreme Court did not choose to grant cert in this particular case, we trust in time justice will be done and the rights of Baptist people and partners restored,” McRaney said. “This decision will have an impact on millions of Baptists and other religious groups.

“The Southern Baptist Convention and all of its entities won pyrrhic victories today and in the Sept. 2025 5th Circuit’s 2-1 ruling. Today after 9 years in the courts, NAMB won and secured their right to do what God forbids, to defame and interfere with Baptist ministers, partners, and financial supporters.”

In time, he continued, today’s SCOTUS decision will be viewed “as a historic loss in multiple ways.”

“NAMB has made clear in their statement that anyone who supports the mission efforts of the SBC can be defamed and their employment can be interfered with by SBC leaders without Baptist partners having the right to defend themselves in court,” McRaney’s statement said.

NAMB objected to assertions the decision would upend Baptist polity and religious liberty protection, citing the Fifth Circuit Court’s decision that “Baptist ecclesiology is non-hierarchical, and each Baptist church is autonomous.”

“Nevertheless, Baptist churches have long voluntarily cooperated in fellowship with one another and pooled resources for missions, evangelism, and church planting.”

McRaney, on the other hand, asserted the decision will have profound legal ramifications.

“As in other faith traditions like Catholics, now Baptist leaders, ministers, and partners will know for certain they have given up their personal legal rights with their voluntary partnering or contributing to the SBC. Sadly, this can already be seen in the Garner v. SBC court case before the [Tennessee] Supreme Court where SBC leaders also lied to the [Tennessee] Supreme Court justices,” McRaney stated.

“We pray the silence by those who tolerate the lies and deceptions to the courts will be broken and wrongdoings exposed. We pray there will be forthcoming repentance by SBC entity leaders, trustees, and other Baptist leaders resulting in a surge of renewed commitment to righteousness and truth telling above all as an act of obedience to God’s Word,” McRaney said, adding he would release a fuller statement in the coming days.

NAMB concluded its statement by saying: “The [judicial] outcome both respects Baptist distinctives and reaffirms that Baptists and other non-hierarchical faith groups are no less entitled to the First Amendment’s protections against secular intrusion into ministry affairs.”

McRaney sued NAMB in April 2017, claiming libel against the entity for actions that led to his firing as the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware executive director. That lawsuit was dismissed two years later, but the dismissal was reversed in July 2020 and sent back to a district court.

NAMB actually appealed to the Supreme Court to review the case, but that appeal was rejected in June 2021. The case continued to work through the courts until the Fifth Circuit heard from both sides in April 2024.

In addition to its full statement, NAMB posted a thread on X including an FAQ on the matter. Those questions addressed how the decision affects church autonomy, lawsuits filed against religious organizations, and how the ruling does not affect NAMB’s protocols for working with churches and other ministry partners.

MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (BP)—A Mississippi pastor has become the third known candidate to be nominated for Southern Baptist Convention recording secretary.

Jonathan Greer will be nominated for the office by Alabama pastor Tyler Armstrong at the 2026 SBC annual meeting in Orlando.

Greer has served as the pastor of Franklin Creek Baptist Church in Moss Point, Miss., since 2017.

Armstrong said the first time he saw Greer was from a distance at an annual meeting as Greer was asking an “informed question” from one of the microphones.

“Jonathan understands that the role of recording secretary is about faithful stewardship, not visibility,” Armstrong said, “He is careful, steady, and committed to serving the convention with integrity as an everyday Southern Baptist pastor who values clarity, accountability, and cooperation.”

He added Greer cares about sustaining the work of Southern Baptists.

“I’ve come to see that he deeply cares about our convention as a pastor of a normative-sized church in Mississippi,” Armstrong told Baptist Press.

He said when he thinks about Greer’s work as a pastor, he believes Greer’s public ministry “reflects a private life shaped by faithfulness.”

Franklin Creek Baptist Church reported total receipts of $116,000 in 2025 and gave $2,970.44 (2.6 percent) through the Cooperative Program, according to the annual church profile. They averaged 40 people in worship attendance and celebrated five baptisms.

Greer holds a bachelor’s degree from Blue Mountain College, now Blue Mountain Christian University.

He has served churches in Mississippi and Alabama. He has served on the SBC Registration Committee, the SBC Tellers Committee, and the SBC Committee on Committees.

He is serving his second term as moderator of the Jackson County Baptist Association and leads the Church Development Team.

“In every role he has held, he represents the normative pastor and church that form the backbone of our convention,” Armstrong told BP.

“Jonathan leads his home with attentiveness and sacrificial love,” he said. “He prioritizes his wife and children, ensuring that ministry flows from a healthy household.”

The SBC recording secretary oversees each year’s SBC Annual and serves as a member of the SBC Executive Committee. The position is elected each year but has no term limits.

Greer and his wife Hannah have been married nearly 14 years and have three children, Josiah, Levi and Ruth.

The 2026 SBC annual meeting is set for June 9-10 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)—Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Denny Burk has announced plans to nominate Travis Kerns, a South Carolina associational mission strategist for the Southern Baptist Convention recording secretary at the 2026 SBC annual meeting.

“Travis’ devoted service at various levels of Southern Baptist life is extraordinary,” Burk told Baptist Press.

“Not only has he pastored a Southern Baptist congregation, but he has also served with distinction at several SBC entities.”

Burk said he has known Kerns since 2008 when they both served at Southern Seminary.

Kerns is the associational mission strategist for the Three Rivers Baptist Association in Taylors, S.C., and a member of First Baptist Church of Greer, S.C.

“His passion to reach the lost for Christ and his commitment to the SBC and her work has been unparalleled,” Burk said.

“He has been a devoted husband, a faithful father, and a committed churchman. I couldn’t be more enthusiastic to nominate him for recording secretary this June in Orlando.”

First Baptist Church of Greer reported total receipts of $1,478,013 and gave $102,978.90 (7 percent) through the Cooperative Program in 2025.

It also gave $35,450.53 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and $6,347.80 to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. The church averaged 500 in attendance and celebrated 16 baptisms.

In addition to teaching at Southern Seminary, Kerns has also taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and North Greenville University.

He was a Send City missionary in Salt Lake City with the North American Mission Board.

Kerns served as an associate pastor in Greenville, S.C., for three years in the early 2000s.

He holds a Ph.D. and Master of Divinity from Southern Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts from North Greenville University.

“His training as an academic and as an author have prepared him for the duties of recording secretary, which includes overseeing the publication of the SBC Annual,” Burk said.

The office of recording secretary is elected each year but has no term limits.

He has served on the SBC Credentials Committee, the Committee on Committees and, in 2023, the Cooperation Study Group.

In addition, he has served on numerous local, state, and national boards.

He and his wife Staci have been married for more than 26 years and have one son, Jeremiah. Staci’s father has pastored Southern Baptist churches for more than three decades.

The 2026 SBC annual meeting is set for June 9-10 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

Florida pastor Dean Inserra has announced his intention to nominate Texas pastor George Schroeder as Southern Baptist Convention recording secretary at the 2026 SBC annual meeting.

Schroeder serves as lead pastor at First Baptist Church in Fairfield, Texas. “George Schroeder has been a friend since before he left a prominent career in sports journalism to follow the call upon his life to enter into full-time ministry,” Inserra told Baptist Press. 

Schroeder was a longtime and well-respected sports journalist with publications such as USA Today, Associated Press, Sports Illustrated, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He also hosted various shows on SiriusXM radio.

“George would be a fantastic recording secretary coming from his sports journalism career at the highest level, which included covering college sports,” Inserra said.

In 2020, Schroeder left sports journalism to pursue a call to ministry. His first stop was as associate vice president for convention news at the SBC Executive Committee, where he served as Baptist Press editor.

He left the Executive Committee in 2021 to become associate vice president for institutional relations at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and to focus on completing his seminary education.

In addition to a master’s degree from Southwestern Seminary, he also holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma.

According to First Baptist Fairfield, the church received $716,398.22 in undesignated receipts in 2025 and gave $35,820 (5 percent) through the Cooperative Program. It averaged 160 in worship attendance and baptized three people. The church’s most recent Lottie Moon Christmas Offering total is $3,110 and Annie Armstrong Easter Offering total is $2,315.

Inserra said Schroeder has led the church to “double their CP giving since he arrived in 2024.”

Schroeder previously served at Storyline Church in Arvada, Colo. “George understands deadlines and details, which is essential for a recording secretary,” Inserra said.

The SBC recording secretary oversees each year’s SBC Annual and also serves as a member of the SBC Executive Committee. The position is elected each year but has no term limits.

Inserra added that Schroeder’s family has deep roots in the SBC. “He also knows, loves, and is called to Southern Baptist life. His grandfather led the SBC’s Brotherhood Commission, so it might be in his blood.”

Schroeder and his wife Shannon have been married for 29 years. They have two adult children, Elizabeth and George, and Christopher, a heart and kidney transplant survivor, still at home.

The SBC annual meeting is June 9-10 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

BUENA PARK, Calif. (BP)—Wiley Drake, a self-proclaimed “champion of the little guy” known for his perennial presence at Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting microphones, died Jan. 27. He was 82.

Over the past three decades Drake spoke more than 70 times from the SBC annual meeting floor, becoming a legend among convention insiders and occasionally drawing cheers from messengers as soon as he announced his name and church.

He helped launch the convention’s boycott of the Walt Disney Corporation in 1997 and served as SBC second vice president in 2006–2007.

“Wiley Drake is the SBC,” Texas pastor Bart Barber posted on social media a few years ago. “He’s the guy who isn’t the president, and isn’t going to become the president, who is passionate about the convention and wants it to be the very best that it can be. So, instead of carping and complaining, he gets involved.”

Pastor and advocate in southern California

Pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., for more than 25 years, Drake was known in his Southern California community as a friend to the needy.

He engaged in a years-long legal battle with local authorities over his desire to use the church building as a homeless shelter.

In 1997, he was convicted of violating building and property codes with a ministry that housed up to 70 people per night and distributed 30,000 pounds of food monthly.

“As long as I am pastor, we will provide shelter, food, and love to the homeless,” he told The New York Times at the time. In 2017, the city condemned his church’s shelter.

Drake told The Dallas Morning News in 2007 he was a “champion of the little guy.”

At times, Drake sparked controversy with his public comments on an array of topics. He received a cease-and-desist letter from the SBC Executive Committee in 2006 after endorsing a U.S. Senate candidate on letterhead identifying Drake as SBC second vice president.

He claimed to be among founders of the so-called “birther” movement and filed a 2008 lawsuit claiming Barack Obama was ineligible to serve as president because he was not a natural-born U.S. citizen. Drake also said he prayed imprecatory prayers against Obama.

At SBC annual meetings, messengers wondered what Drake would propose at the next introduction of new business.

He set his sights on Disney in the mid-1990s as the family entertainment giant promoted homosexuality and other unbiblical lifestyles.

In 1996, he successfully amended a resolution urging “prayerful consideration” before purchasing Disney products to add warning of a boycott if Disney continued its “anti-Christian and antifamily trend.”

The next year, Drake submitted a resolution to the SBC Resolutions Committee that eventuated in the official Disney boycott.

Leadership and SBC service

Following an unsuccessful run for second vice president in 2005, he was nominated again the following year and won on the first ballot over three other candidates, including future SBC president J.D. Greear.

In nominating Drake, Kentucky pastor Bill Dodson called him “a foot soldier” in the SBC’s return to theological conservatism who “represents those like you and me.”

As pastor of a church with fewer than 100 active members, Drake fought to enable other small church leaders to pursue SBC offices. During the annual meeting concluding his vice-presidential service, Drake moved that the convention cover “reasonable” travel expenses for SBC officers.

He told The Dallas Morning News the expense of attending SBC events played a role in his decision not to seek a second term since his church couldn’t afford to help him travel.

The following year, the SBC Executive Committee responded to his motion by agreeing to pay travel expenses for future officers whose churches didn’t have funds for convention-related travel.

Twice Drake was nominated for the SBC presidency—once by himself—though he never won the office.

He ventured into secular politics in 2008, running for vice president of the United States with American Independent Party presidential candidate Alan Keyes.

He ran for president in 2012 and 2016 as an Independent, saying, “It’s time we got back to our history of ministers of the Gospel running for office without a party.”

But for many Southern Baptists, Drake’s most memorable venture into presidential politics came in 2015, when he made a motion at the SBC annual meeting requesting that then-convention president Ronnie Floyd run for president of the United States.

The motion was ruled out of order.

A native of Arkansas, Drake dropped out of school in the ninth grade to enter the circus and rodeo, he told Baptist Press in 2008. Sidelined by a bull-riding injury, he worked on a crew building missile silos before he joined the U.S. Navy.

During a tour of duty in Vietnam, he accepted Christ as Savior. Drake attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary among other schools.

He was preceded in death by his wife Barbara. He is survived by five siblings, four adult children, 12 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren with one on the way.

NASHVILLE (BP)—A recently-released list of three commitments by trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission to Southern Baptists was drafted over the last month, chairman Scott Foshie told Baptist Press, but marks the latest step in a longer process.

Those commitments were approved at a special-called trustee meeting Jan. 30 and published Feb. 2.

The ERLC commits “to robust engagement and strong relationships with churches, local associations, state conventions, and SBC entities.”

Acknowledging an erosion of trust among some Southern Baptists, the ERLC commits to rebuilding trust with Southern Baptists.

Continuing its commitment “to representing Southern Baptists well in the public square,” the ERLC “will provide effective advocacy in Washington, D.C., by focusing on issues where Southern Baptists have strong consensus.”

The ERLC identifies issues for advocacy “primarily [using] the Bible, the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 (amended 2023) and recent SBC resolutions.”

ERLC staff “will also be available to assist Southern Baptists at the state and local levels on matters of public policy, working closely with state conventions and local associations.”

Trustees also announced the number of presidential candidates has been halved to eight.

An update from the search team will come at the next regularly scheduled trustee meeting in March.

Hopes are for a final candidate announcement in late spring who will be presented at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., in June.

The Dallas meeting

Foshie was an Illinois pastor in 2018 when he accepted a nomination to serve as an ERLC trustee.

That year’s SBC annual meeting in Dallas was the first of several in subsequent years—including a return to Dallas in June 2025—to attempt to abolish or defund the entity.

“A lot of us had concerns when I became a trustee,” he said. “I just wanted to learn and was overjoyed with the hard work of the staff, but I did have concerns. I wanted to see the president relate better; that there wasn’t just encouragement, but oversight. We’ve worked relentlessly at that.”

Although the votes went in favor of the entity, Foshie sees them as signals from messengers who wanted to ensure the ERLC heard their concerns.

He asserts trustees did.

In 2023, bylaw revisions addressed the relationship between the president and the board. The next year brought a list of advocacy questions outlining the entity’s process for engaging with a public policy issue.

Foshie gave much credit to former president Brent Leatherwood for such steps.

“It’s been a journey for the board, a great one, really,” said Foshie. “When Brent became president, even before, when he was acting president, he was committed to working with trustees.

“We had forward-facing concerns,” Foshie continued, “[and] wanted to improve the relationship between the president and board, to discover best practices and live those out, and Brent was really supportive of that.”

Last fall’s approval of retired South Carolina Baptist Convention Executive Director Gary Hollingsworth as interim president accompanied the development of a presidential profile.

“We’ve tried to deeply engage with the pastors we serve, with local association leaders, state convention leaders and fellow national entity leaders. We’ve tried to listen to the Lord through them. I think that’s important,” Foshie said.

The “robust engagement” promised in the first of the three commitments means personally engaging Southern Baptist churches “of all sizes and different cultures.”

“We’re going to expect [the ERLC president] to be out helping us advocate, but he needs to spend a lot of time in churches with pastors, with local association leaders, and with state convention leaders,” Foshie said.

A different perspective

Foshie will get a different perspective after the June annual meeting, when he will rotate off the ERLC board and officially begin his new role as executive director for the Illinois Baptist State Association.

“I would like the ERLC president to not just be accessible to me, but to my pastors I serve here in Illinois and the local association leaders. I expect the team to continue to be responsive,” Foshie continued.

“And if there are issues with a range of opinions, maybe convene Southern Baptists with different perspectives. Encourage understanding and dialogue and remind them where we have agreement on carrying out the Great Commission together, even if we have different opinions,” Foshie said.

Foshie also told Baptist Press that Jon Nelson has resigned as a trustee after accepting a staff position with a non-SBC church.

Commitment to ERLC

Mariano Sarabia, student pastor of First Baptist Church in O’Fallon, Ill., was selected by trustees Friday to replace Nelson until Southern Baptist messengers vote on a permanent replacement.

The just-released three points of commitment are “a clarifying moment,” he added, for Southern Baptists as well as the next president.

“First of all, we wanted Southern Baptists to know of our commitment to them,” Foshie said. “But it also gives clarity to the candidates. They know what to expect and understand the posture we’re expecting them to have.”

Furthermore, the commitments establish an objective standard through which the search team and board can evaluate candidates.

“That’s important for us, too. The board believes in the ERLC as an important place in Baptist life, and we are thankful for the trust we have. We know we still have work to do with some and want them to know we hear their concerns, and we’re committed to earning their trust.”

Last month, Atlanta pastor Jason Dees wrote an open letter to ERLC trustees published in The Christian Index calling for the ERLC’s dissolution.

Today’s political landscape, he wrote, creates an environment where effective representation of Southern Baptists even among “core moral convictions” is “simply impossible.”

“I don’t sense that has been something the trustees have brought up,” said Foshie. “If anything, there’s more need for the ERLC than ever. We have a [presidential] administration that is extremely open to input from Southern Baptists. And whether an administration is open or not, Southern Baptists need and want an entity that can represent them in the public square.

“I think the issue has been some Southern Baptists have felt they can’t trust the entity, and we want them to know they can. Trustees have been focused on making sure the ERLC is trustworthy and effective for the future.”

With additional reporting by Baptist Standard Reporter Kendall Lyons.

South Carolina pastor Josh Powell will be nominated for Southern Baptist Convention president at the 2026 SBC annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

Tennessee pastor Jay Hardwick told Baptist Press he intends to nominate Powell this summer.

“I’ve known Josh as a close friend for 30 years, and the word I use to describe his character and relationship with God over these 30 years is consistent,’” Hardwick said.

Powell is the lead pastor of Taylors First Baptist Church in South Carolina. He has served the church since 2021.

“He is a man of integrity, he loves God’s word, and he is diligent in his personal pursuit of growth as a disciple of Jesus,” Hardwick said. “He is humble, approachable, and wise, all qualities that stem from his walk with the Lord.”

In 2025, Taylors First Baptist Church received $5,794,403 in total receipts, according to the church. They gave $438,259 [7.6 percent] through the Cooperative Program, $273,673.79 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, and $52,414.49 to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. They reported 1,667 people in weekly worship attendance and 56 baptisms.

A pastoral legacy

Powell has a long legacy of pastors in his family as his father, grandfather, father-in-law, and grandfather-in-law have all served as Southern Baptist pastors. 

Hardwick says he has personally experienced the consistency of Powell’s leadership as he was a part of a church in South Carolina Powell helped revitalize.

“I had a front row seat as Josh led that church through a wonderful season of revitalization that was centered on the word of God and focused on the mission of God. That church is thriving today in large part because of how God used Josh and his family,” he said.

“Josh loves people, he loves preaching, and he loves being present and engaged in the community his church is serving. He is a consistent and effective preacher, and his ministry bears the fruit of his commitment to shepherd, disciple, and reach people with the gospel.”

Powell previously served Lake Murray Baptist Church in Lexington, S.C., and First Baptist Church Fairdale in Fairdale, Ky.

Powell’s personal story

Powell and his wife Allison have been married for 27 years and met at North Greenville University.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from North Greenville University and a Master of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

They have four children: Wilds, Levi, Macy Grace, and Paton. Their three older children are pursuing a call to ministry, according to Powell.

He told Baptist Press he has been on dozens of mission trips across five continents and served as an independent missionary in South Asia from 2009-2014.

In 2023, he spent a night in jail for publicly preaching the gospel during a mission trip, as told in a 2025 Baptist Courier story.

Powell has served as president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, a trustee at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, including serving as the trustee chair, and on the board of North Greenville University where he also served as chair.

Hardwick said Powell is a “product of and example of the great things God has done and is doing through the SBC.”

“I believe we need leaders who love Southern Baptists, who embody the best of who we are as Southern Baptists, who love and are personally invested in our SBC family and mission, and are leading their churches to be heavily invested in our cooperative efforts,” Hardwick said.

The 2026 SBC annual meeting is set for June 9-10 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

As the next step in Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s long-term strategy to evaluate its property usage in keeping with its student-focused core value and to prioritize seminary resources, the seminary announced Jan. 13 Student Village Apartments and Townhomes have been sold to Bellrock Real Estate Partners, a Fort Worth-based company.

“This transaction creates an opportunity to partner with Bellrock in ways that will enhance the residential experience for our students,” said Southwestern Seminary President David S. Dockery.

“We are encouraged by Bellrock’s commitment to investing in the property and to working collaboratively to ensure it continues to serve the needs of the seminary community,” Dockery added.

Bellrock co-founder Anthony Wonderly emphasized the firm’s commitment to thoughtful ownership and continuity for residents.

“We understand the importance of this community to Southwestern Seminary and its students,” Wonderly said. “Our goal is to invest responsibly, improve the quality of life for residents, and position the property for long-term success while maintaining continuity for those who already call it home.”

The sale of Student Village represents a key component of Southwestern Seminary’s broader financial turnaround since 2022, Dockery said.

The institution has implemented disciplined financial management, reduced operational expenses, and experienced growth in operating revenue, resulting in the elimination of all short-term and long-term debt and cash reserves in excess of $20 million.

Turnaround following financial crisis

This turnaround follows a period of financial crisis under former president Adam W. Greenway, who resigned from Southwestern Seminary in Sept. 2022.

According to a previous report by the Baptist Standard, Greenway’s resignation was linked to reports of a major budget deficit and significant turnover of faculty, staff, and administration, resulting in the need for more financial guardrails to prevent spending irregularities and provide trustee accountability. 

Greenway’s tenure followed predecessor Paige Patterson’s efforts to expand faculty and lead the seminary in taking on several expensive building projects during a period of enrollment decline, contributing to Southwestern’s further financial instability, according to the report. 

Sale part of longer-term strategy

Dockery contrasted the sale of Student Village with the 2023 sale of seminary’s former B.H. Carroll Park housing complex.

While the Carroll Park sale helped address the seminary’s then “financial crisis,” he said the sale of Student Village “is an aspect of a longer-term strategy to serve students well and to prioritize the campus resources, all of which are an aspect of implementing the space and property utilization guidelines and priorities approved by the [seminary] board in the fall of 2024.”

The Student Village community, located at 2000 W. Seminary Drive, includes a total of 376 residential units, consisting of 252 traditional apartment units constructed in 2012 and 124 townhomes built between 1976 and 1995. The mix of apartments and townhomes provides flexible housing options well suited to seminary students and their families.

In April 2023, the seminary’s board of trustees created a space and property utilization task team composed of trustees and seminary personnel with a commitment to institutional stewardship and discovering the best way to utilize Southwestern’s campus, property, and assets in order to advance the seminary’s mission. In 2024, trustees approved guidelines and priorities for the task team. In the summer of 2025, the board authorized the sale of the property.

In recent months, seminary administrators have met three times with residents of Student Village to inform them of the prospective sale, Dockery noted.

Serving students is a priority

“Every aspect of the decision-making process was always shaped with the theme of how to best serve our students,” he said.

“We have worked hard to ensure a good transition for the students. We pray that current and future students will benefit in the new year and in the years ahead. Our priority all along in this process has been to find ways to strengthen this aspect of student life.”

Dockery also said Bellrock has communicated plans to make a significant capital investment in the community following the acquisition with both short-term and long-term improvements. Planned improvements include interior unit upgrades, enhanced safety and security measures, refreshed landscaping, and the development of new or improved gathering spaces intended to foster community among residents.

The partnership with Bellrock, Dockery added, is structured as an ongoing relationship rather than a one-time transaction. The two organizations will continue to work together closely as improvements are implemented and as the community develops. 

The seminary will remain involved in key areas that affect student experience, including security and facilities coordination, helping to ensure continuity for staff and student workers who have long served the Village.

“We believe the Lord has provided a way for a strong and ongoing partnership so that the student village will continue to be a vital part of seminary life for many years to come,” Dockery added.

The transaction was brokered by Jason Harrell of Transwestern, representing the Southwestern Seminary.

Additional reporting by Faith Pratt, reporter for the Baptist Standard.