INDIANAPOLIS (RNS)—Clint Pressley, a North Carolina megachurch pastor known for a conservative but even-keel approach to leadership and who does not wear jeans in the pulpit, was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

After a pair of runoff elections, Pressley received 56 percent of the 7,562 votes cast during a June 12 session of the SBC annual meeting at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. Tennessee pastor Dan Spencer, who had qualified for the final runoff with Pressley, received 43.7 percent of the votes.

Brad Graves, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Ada, Okla., was elected first vice president, and Eddie Lopez, pastor of First Baptist Church en Español of Forney, was elected second vice president.

Nathan Finn, executive director of the Institute for Transformational Leadership, was reelected as recording secretary, and Don Currence, administrative pastor of First Baptist Church in Ozark, Mo., was reelected as registration secretary.

Dial back the heated rhetoric

Pressley, who has led Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte the past 14 years, prefers a suit and tie and a more traditional approach in worship, and he has indicated that his more formal style will translate into his leadership.

“It seems like the kind of rhetoric and the temperature is really high, and I’d like to see it come down a good bit,” Pressley told Religion News Service earlier this year.

He repeated that message at a forum hosted by the National African American Fellowship of the SBC earlier this week, saying he hoped Southern Baptists, known for evangelism and missions, would “get our attention focused back on what we do.”

“We got to quit arguing and start going back to work,” he said.

Pressley was one of six candidates seeking the SBC presidency, an influential volunteer role in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Three of the candidates—North Carolina pastor Bruce Frank, Oklahoma pastor Mike Keahbone and Tennessee pastor Jared Moore—were eliminated after the first round of votes. David Allen, a longtime seminary professor, missed the cutoff during a first runoff.

The field of six candidates was the largest since 2008. This year’s race was the first to be undecided after one runoff since 2016. That year, a runoff between North Carolina megachurch pastor J.D. Greear and Tennessee megachurch pastor Steve Gaines ended in a tie. Greear dropped out of the race but was elected president two years later.

Pressley supported the so-called Law Amendment, a measure that would have barred churches with women pastors. He also has been generally supportive of abuse reforms but did have questions about a proposed database of abusers, which was approved for the third year in a row by messengers.

Supports training to deal with abuse

He supports more training and awareness for churches in dealing with abuse. At an SBC presidential forum, Pressley said that in the past, his church would not have been prepared to deal with abuse. But the recent reforms, he said, caused his church to take the issue seriously and enact policies and training to deal with abuse.

That training meant the Hickory Grove leaders knew what to do when a church volunteer recently was accused of abusing a family member. Had the SBC not started dealing with abuse in recent years, he said, “We would not have known what to do.”

In his first news conference, Pressley told of growing up in a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and then how his life changed when his family began attending a Southern Baptist church.

“Never heard anything like that,” Pressley said. His family soon joined Hickory Grove, the congregation he now leads.

Pressley said he is glad to serve Southern Baptists but is aware of the limits of the president’s role, which is a volunteer role.

“As the Southern Baptist Convention president,” he said. “It sounds like you have a whole lot of power, but you don’t.”

Pressley said he is confident long-promised abuse reforms will move forward.

He also said that despite the failure to pass the Law Amendment, which would have added a constitutional ban on churches with female pastors of any kind, the SBC remains committed to complementarianism—the belief that men and women have separate roles in the family and in the church.

When asked about a newly passed resolution warning about the ethics of in-vitro fertilization, the North Carolina pastor volunteered that he and his wife had dealt with infertility, and IVF had been one of the treatment options they thought about. He said pastors should use the resolution to help Southern Baptists think through the issue.

“We have just not thought about it very much,” Pressley said.

Pressley detailed some of his career as a pastor, saying he’d served small rural churches and older churches before coming back to lead Hickory Grove. He said Southern Baptists should be known for their joy—something he said Southern Baptists have a duty to show.

In a moment of self-deprecation, Pressley also admitted he’ll need help in overseeing the denomination’s annual meeting. His predecessor, Texas pastor Bart Barber, is known for his expertise in parliamentary procedures and Baptist polity.

That’s not Pressley’s strong point, he admitted.

“I shudder to think of how poorly I will compare to Bart Barber.”

Adelle M. Banks contributed to this report.

INDIANAPOLIS (RNS)—Leaders of a volunteer task force charged with implementing abuse reforms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination say they were given an impossible task.

In the end, the task proved too much.

“We took this work as far as we were allowed to take it,” North Carolina Baptist pastor Josh Wester, chair of the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force, told the more than 10,800 messengers gathered June 11 for the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting.

Instead, the SBC’s Nashville-based Executive Committee will now have the task of implementing those reforms.

Resources created, but database still not online

The task force was charged two years ago with creating resources to help churches deal with abuse, publishing a database of abusive pastors and finding permanent funding and long-term plans for abuse reforms. While the task force unveiled a new “Essentials” training resource for churches, the other two tasks remain incomplete.

Wester said the task force has vetted more than 100 names of abusers but has not been able to publish them on an online “Ministry Check” database of abusers, largely due to concerns about insurance and finances.

“I wish that standing before you today, I could say that the Ministry Check website is now online,” Wester told the messengers. “But I cannot do that.”

In his report to the messengers, Wester detailed some of the challenges the task force faced over the past year.

In January, he said, he was called to an “emergency meeting” with other SBC leaders, where he learned insurance concerns made the database impossible. He also said the task force has not been able to access the funds it needed to do its work.

“It was made clear to us there was no future for robust abuse reform inside the SBC,” Wester said.

In response, he said, the task force set up an independent nonprofit, known as the Abuse Reform Commission, to run the database. But the SBC’s two mission boards, which had pledged millions to support abuse reform, said they would not fund the new group.

However, Wester said Jeff Iorg, new president of the SBC’s Executive Committee, is committed to moving the reforms forward. He said the task force hopes the reforms will remain inside the SBC.

Messengers approved the task force’s recommendation that the reforms, including the database, would go forward and that responsibility for the future of reforms be given to the Executive Committee.

Though they would not fund the Abuse Reform Commission, leaders of Send Relief—the SBC’s humanitarian arm, which is funded by the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board—said they are willing to work with the Executive Committee on reforms.

Send Relief’s leaders pledged $4 million for abuse reforms two years ago.

“In the two years these funds have been available, Send Relief has not rejected any requests for funding that fall within the original intent of its commitment,” a spokesman for the North American Mission Board said in an email.

The spokesman said those funds still are available.

‘Essentials’ curriculum rolled out

Members of the task force did not come to the annual meeting empty-handed. The new “Essentials” curriculum went live online this week, at the sbcabuseprevention.com website, as part of the ministry toolkit authorized by messengers in 2022.

“To help make our churches safe from abuse, we must be proactive,” reads the website for the new curriculum, which outlines a five-step process for addressing the issue of abuse.

Messengers received a flyer when they registered for the annual meeting, telling them where they could pick up a copy of the curriculum. Copies also will be shipped to each state convention. The curriculum is available as a printed booklet or on a thumb drive.

“The task force looks forward to getting the Essentials curriculum into the hands of as many messengers as possible,” the task force told RNS in an email. The task force also will maintain the website that hosts the curriculum, even though its term has expired.

Wester said the delay in implementing reforms shows the limits of volunteer task forces to deal with issues like abuse.

“Task forces have some power,” he said. “They apparently have very limited power when it comes to doing things in the SBC.”

Southern Baptists have been calling for a database to track abusive pastors since at least 2007. In 2008, during a previous meeting in Indianapolis, SBC leaders said such a database was impossible.

Fourteen years later, messengers at the 2022 SBC meeting overwhelmingly approved the database and other reforms during their meeting in Anaheim, Calif. The delay in implementing those reforms has left abuse survivors discouraged.

“It’s such a long road to get where we need to be,” said Jules Woodson, one of a group of survivors who have advocated for reforms in recent years.

During their meeting Tuesday, messengers voted for the reforms to go forward and to task the Executive Committee with working on them.

INDIANAPOLIS (BP)—Jeff Iorg was ready to retire from the presidency of Gateway Seminary and spend more time with family when he was approached about seeking the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.

He put the matter before his wife Ann and their three adult children. His daughter Melody’s response helped seal the deal, he said in his Executive Committee report to 2024 SBC annual meeting messengers.

“She said: ‘Dad, from the day you moved our family to the West Coast to plant a church, our family has always been about the gospel. And this is your opportunity to minimize the distractions and help Southern Baptists stay focused on what we’re really here for.’”

His example of a man following God and his mission “above all else” was more valuable to his grandchildren than his watching them play basketball, Melody offered.

Her words mirror Iorg’s words to messengers to uphold the gospel mission above all other congregational and societal concerns, based on Ephesians 3:8.

“A bivocational pastor sharing the gospel with a teenager at an associational youth camp is a better example of fulfilling God’s eternal mission than a seminary student blogger spouting pseudo-gospel insight from a coffee shop couch,” Iorg said.

Accept no substitutes

Political activism, social justice, convention reform and doctrinal conformity are common mission substitutes, Iorg said, affirming their usefulness but negating their primacy.

In a world marked by tribalism, nationalism and prejudice, Iorg said, “Christians are a global community built on one shared allegiance, an allegiance to Jesus Christ.

“When people are changed by the gospel, they become friends with former enemies and brothers and sisters in a new family. This makes no rational sense. It even astounds angels and demons, but the gospel brings this kind of change in our lives.”

Southern Baptists face great challenges focusing on God’s eternal mission while giving other issues appropriate attention, Iorg said.

“The mission matters most,” Iorg said, reciting a phrase he said has helped him stay on track. “This phrase reminds me to prioritize God’s eternal mission, while still recognizing other matters need appropriate attention. The mission matters most means other things do matter—but just not as much as some people advocate—and never ever to the detriment of God’s eternal mission.”

Iorg, who already has invested 30 years in Southern Baptist denominational work, told messengers he himself is committed to staying on mission.

“Southern Baptists, I did not forego my retirement from organizational leadership to manage Baptist bureaucracy,” he said. “I set it aside because I believe in this role I can minimize the distractions, simplify the processes, quietly and efficiently take care of our business, so that we can focus on advancing God’s eternal mission.”

Future generations are dependent upon this generation to spread the gospel now, he said.

“Many issues demand attention,” Iorg said. “But Southern Baptists, nothing else demands our ultimate attention like God’s eternal mission and every single one of us devoting ourselves to that primary task.”

INDIANAPOLIS (BP)—Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting adopted six recommendations proposed by the Great Commission Resurgence Evaluation Task Force with one amendment.

A recommendation that called for simplifying the Annual Church Profile added another point clarifying the request for a church to provide its total amount of Cooperative Program giving.

One messenger brought forward an amendment regarding two questions on the ACP profile asking churches about screening and training processes for staff and volunteers regarding sexual abuse prevention. The proposed amendment to strike those two questions ultimately was struck down by messengers and thus remained in the recommendation.

“Our task force understood our purpose was to examine all pertinent material regarding the original [Great Commission Resurgence] report and to conduct an analysis of their implementation and impact on our cooperative efforts,” Chairman Jay Adkins told messengers.

‘Good intentions,’ but failure to increase baptisms

In speaking with reporters after the report, Adkins said that “there were some really good intentions” behind the Great Commission Resurgence, and Southern Baptists’ struggles to increase baptisms and other areas is not unique. A postmodern—even post-Christian—world makes that more of a challenge.

“Culturally, there is a natural dip,” he said. “Scripture speaks to these sorts of issues as they relate to the church.”

Stating that the Great Commission Resurgence clearly did not reverse the decline in baptisms, Adkins told messengers, “There is more than enough blame to go around for this continued trend,” even as there are “some very encouraging trends as of late.”

Adkins concluded his report with comments from Woman’s Missionary Union Executive Director-Treasurer Sandy Wisdom-Martin, who called Southern Baptists’ reluctance to engage in personal evangelism “the greatest tragedy of our generation.”

Other members joining Adkins, pastor of First Baptist Church in Westwego, La., were Robin Foster, associational missionary for Trinity Baptist Association in Trumann, Ark.; Adam Groza, president of Gateway Seminary; Luke Holmes, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Duncan, Okla.; Chris Shaffer, chief of staff and associate vice president for Institutional Strategy at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary; and Jeremy Westbrook, executive director for the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio.

INDIANAPOLIS (RNS)—Former Vice President Mike Pence addressed Southern Baptists at a luncheon event focused on public service where he criticized President Joe Biden, questioned the future of the Republican Party and upheld faith as the answer for the country’s problems.

He spoke during a June 11 luncheon held at a hotel across the street from the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention with Brent Leatherwood, president of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

After trumpeting his role in the Trump administration’s appointment of justices who “sent Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history,” Pence made it clear that he has found nothing to appreciate about the current presidency.

“I’ve never voted for Joe Biden,” he said. “I can’t think of a thing he’s done that I agree with. And I’ve known Joe Biden a long time.

“And, I mean, there’s a big debate over the president’s condition, ability to do the job. Let me just assure you, Joe Biden has always been that wrong. I mean, that’s not new.”

Some of the audience, about 400 people dining on boxed lunches of turkey sandwiches, pasta salad and chocolate chip cookies, laughed, and even more applauded the overturning of the constitutional right to legal abortion in the United States two years ago.

Pence, who was drawn to the Republican Party during the Ronald Reagan era, said he’s focused on “traditional conservative values” and advocating for them through his Advancing American Freedom, a foundation he created in 2021. But he sees division in his political party.

“The influential men and women in this room need to know there’s also a very healthy debate within my party about whether we’re going to stay on the course of a strong national defense of American leadership in the world, of limited government and balanced budgets, traditional moral values, the right to life and an affirmation of religious liberty and marriage,” he said, “or whether we’re going to start to move in another direction.”

Not the end of debate over life

One of those divides, he said, is future legislation about abortion at every level of U.S. political life.

“I honestly think we haven’t come to the end of the debate over life: We’ve come to the end of the beginning,” Pence said. “I think the destiny of this nation is inextricably linked to whether we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law.”

Leatherwood asked Pence how he deals with personal attacks, including about decisions that have made headlines, such as to not dine alone with a woman not his wife.

Pence drew laughter again when he described then-President Donald Trump’s reaction to a news story about that personal policy when they were with his team in the Oval Office: “He goes, ‘Can you all believe it? After everything they said about me, they’re attacking Mike Pence for being faithful to his wife.’”

But Pence included a clarification for those in Tuesday’s audience who did not know the history of that choice of personal behavior.

“It wasn’t Mike Pence’s rule. It’s the Billy Graham rule,” he said, referring to the famed evangelist. “When we got busy in public life, Karen and I sat down and just made some decisions about putting our marriage and our families first and that was one of them.”

Pence said he and Trump may never agree on the decision Pence made to support the outcome of the 2020 election—even as election deniers attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, some threatening his life. But Pence said he focuses on the faith on which he relied then and now.

“I know it’s God’s grace that saw us through that day,” he said.

‘Pray for America’

Leatherwood asked Pence if he had any advice for approaching the upcoming election, as research has shown that most Americans do not want a presidential rematch between Biden and Trump.

“If there was a time to go back to that pulpit and tell your folks pray for America, it’d be now,” the former vice president said, adding that repentance is also necessary.

He recommended “calling our neighbors and friends, not just the people out there that disagree with us openly, that don’t embrace our faith in Jesus Christ, but I’m talking about including people who do and say let’s all examine our hearts and see how it is that we can, in our own lives, have a change of heart that will inspire the nation.”

Pence expressed his gratitude for those in the audience who are leading and preaching to congregations across the country.

“I want you all to know how grateful I am for the role that you play in the lives of families and communities that you serve,” he said. “I will always believe that the pulpits that you speak behind are infinitely more valuable to the life of this nation than any podium that I’ve ever had the privilege to stand on.”

Trump speaks via video prior to SBC

The day before Pence spoke to the ERLC luncheon, former President Donald Trump delivered a prerecorded video message to Southern Baptists attending a luncheon in Indianapolis sponsored by the Danbury Institute prior to the SBC annual meeting.

Trump—the presumptive Republican nominee for president—thanked those assembled for their “tremendous devotion to God and country” and their “tremendous support of me.”

He described the United States as a “declining nation” under the Biden administration, and he offered his partisan remedy.

“We can’t afford for anyone to sit on the sidelines,” Trump said. “Now is the time for us to all pull together and to stand up for our values and for our freedoms, and you just can’t vote Democrat. They’re against religion. They’re against your religion in particular. You cannot vote for Democrats, and you to have to get out and vote.”

With additional reporting by Managing Editor Ken Camp.

INDIANAPOLIS (BP)—Astronaut Charlie Duke, the youngest man to ever step on the moon, carried an emblem of the Woman’s Missionary Union pin to the moon and back in 1972, Executive Director-Treasurer Sandy Wisdom-Martin told participants at the WMU missions celebration and annual meeting.

In addition to that treasured artifact, Wisdom-Martin said the national WMU archives also holds a handwritten note from Jim Irwin, astronaut on Apollo 15.

Irwin’s note states; “To the Woman’s Missionary Union of the Southern Baptist Convention with gratitude for your great work in projecting the ‘holy light’ throughout the world.”

“The moon does not produce its own light. We see the moon because it reflects light from the sun,” Wisdom-Martin said to 350 attendees at this year’s WMU missions celebration and annual meeting held June 9 prior to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“As Christ followers, we do not produce our own light. We only reflect light from the Son.”

Surprising her audience, she removed her jacket to reveal an astronaut costume underneath.

“Are you projecting his light?” she asked. “Let’s suit up and show a lost world we love them to the moon and back.”

Wisdom-Martin talked about a WMU edition of the book, 50 Steps with Jesus: Learning to Walk Daily with the Lord, which is designed for a shepherd to guide a new believer through a 50-day journey with God.

“In 2024, we intend to raise up 1,000 disciplers using this material,” she said, revealing she recently started discipling an 11th person using this resource, written by Air Force Chaplain (Brig. Gen.) Ron Harvell (ret.) and his wife Marsha of Moncks Corner, S.C.

According to Marsha Harvell, the discipling resource was born out of a need for something to help her disciple a “brand new lamb of Christ who did not know anything about Christianity.”

“What if WMU had an army of 1,000 disciplers at the ready to invest in new believers in their communities or even those campus ministers and church planters were leading to Christ elsewhere?” Wisdom-Martin asked. “Just think of the significant kingdom impact that could be made.”

‘Pray we dream big dreams’

In her presidential address, Connie Dixon shared a quick report and described a lot of what she saw God do this past year.

“I took 72 flights, had 59 Zoom calls. I spoke 51 different speaking engagements and wrote 23 articles. I spoke in 16 different state conventions and 12 conferences. I was trained in Mental Health First Aid. I was on numerous conference calls, and I wrote a book,” she said.

Noting she has spoken to thousands of WMU members across the nation, Dixon said she has heard hundreds of stories of what God has done in lives through WMU and the missions heritage being handed down through generations.

These included stories about 30,000 migrant workers coming to Jesus, book clubs for women coming out of incarceration and other types of groups and Bible studies, and despite major difficulties, the miraculous ministry happening in Cambodia, Nigeria, Mozambique, Philippines, Kenya and more.

“In spite of all of these difficulties, the faithful WMU people around the world are praising God and persisting with the word [of God]. What joy to hear from our missionaries and to hear their stories,” she said.

“WMU has always had challenges and oppositions. We have never felt like we had as much money as we needed or as many people as we needed, but we have always—always—had enough to accomplish what God has asked us to accomplish.

“Let’s pray that we proclaim from the heart the love of Jesus to a broken and hurting world. Let’s pray that we dream big dreams. Remember that any time an organization has more memories than it has dreams, the end is near. We need to dream big dreams.”

‘Prayer warriors’ for missionaries

This year’s meeting also included testimonies from missionaries and former WMU participants, including the Harvells; Dani Bryson, assistant district attorney at the 23rd Judicial District in Dickson, Tenn., and member of the SBC Executive Committee; Gay and John Williams, directors of Hawaii Baptist Disaster Relief in Honolulu; and Sarah Sanborn, a former IMB Journeyman missionary to Krakow, Poland, among others.

The Harvells, whose two children are serving as IMB missionaries in Asia (one in Japan and the other in an undisclosed country), told how they never put a “distance limit” on their children’s service to God. They also thanked WMU for being “prayer warriors” for missionaries, relating a story that surely was a result of such prayer.

Their daughter traveled to her country’s capital city to the U.S. Embassy to get a passport, Marsha Harvell explained. Living and serving in the jungle, away from simple luxuries, she looked forward to enjoying a cup of coffee at a nearby coffee shop, but she first needed to make copies of her documents at the guest house.

Uncharacteristically, the printer would not print. Knowing her precious moments at the coffee shop were dwindling, she frantically tried to get it to work. Then, all the sudden, she heard sirens and blared announcements to “Stay in place.” She later learned a terrorist bomb had just gone off at the coffee shop right next to the embassy.

“You precious WMU,” Marsha Harvell said tearfully. “For the past 136 years, you have prayed for our missionaries. Don’t ever stop!”

Ron Harvell, who has served a total of 34 years in military chaplaincy, has baptized more than 500 people. Acknowledging how easy it is for churches to harden their hearts to “transitional” military personnel, he urged his listeners to love, care and pray for them, and to contact them during their next assignments.

It’s a privilege to help them transform through Jesus, he said.

‘Thank you’ to women who serve in ministry

Bryson, who has served on the SBC Executive Committee and the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, is a legacy WMU member, who grew up participating in Girls in Action and Acteens, ultimately serving as a national Acteens panelist in 2005.

She said the “single biggest missional force” in her life was her mom, Carmen Westerman, who served as her Acteens leader and “a fearless and constant voice for missions.”

“When women do missions, they bring their families with them,” Bryson said, noting her mother took her “alongside her” to association meetings, WMU meetings, international mission trips and more.

“As a thank you to her and to all the women who serve in ministry,” Bryson welcomed her mother to the stage, tearfully presenting her with a large bouquet of red roses.

Gay and John Williams shared their life-long missions journey, which culminated in their current role as disaster relief directors in Honolulu, after serving in student ministry for 26 years in three different countries and five U.S. states.

John Williams described the area’s two major events in 2023, a super typhoon in Guam, where they helped with water and food distribution, and the fires in Maui, where they are helping with rebuilding.

“Hawaii is a very communal culture,” he said, thanking WMU for their prayers. “When part of the islands hurt, we all hurt.”

Sanborn presented testimonies of sharing her faith with other young women. One admitted she initially was annoyed at Sanborn for how much she talked about Jesus, but after becoming a Christian, she said: “I am now the weird one always talking about Jesus Christ. How could I not tell others about him?”

“We have to be bold in sharing and hopeful in waiting,” Sanborn asserted. “We can have steadfastness in our evangelism because we know …. God is who he says he is, and he will do what he says he will do.”

During the business session, Dixon of First Baptist Church, Elida, N.M, was re-elected president, and Texan Shirley McDonald of Greens Creek Baptist Church in Dublin was re-elected as recording secretary, each for another term.

Shannon Baker is director of communications for the Baptist Resource Network of Pennsylvania/South Jersey.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (BP)—A Virginia church has disclosed an inquiry it reportedly received April 8 from the Southern Baptist Convention Credentials Committee regarding the church’s employment of a female pastor.

First Baptist Church of Alexandria, which employs a female pastor for children and women, offers a detailed history of the inquiry at fbcalexandria.org, along with the church’s theological statement on gender roles in the church and related developments, including a teaching series.

“First Baptist Church of Alexandria closely identifies with the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 and in fact agrees explicitly with the vast majority of the beliefs articulated within it,” the church wrote in its response to the Credentials Committee.

“In this particular instance however, while we would concur that both men and women are gifted for service in the church and that there is indeed an office clearly identified by scripture entitled pastor/elder/overseer, we do not believe that the Bible limits the fulfillment of this office exclusively to men.”

First Baptist Alexandria Senior Pastor Robert Stephens heads an eight-member church leadership team that includes the pastor for women and children and two other women employed as a student ministries director and an interim music and worship coordinator. As recently as 2022, the church said on its website, it employed two women as pastors.

The church noted Kim Eskridge, pastor for children and women, is among its “longest-tenured staff, being in this position with this title for nearly 20 years.”

“While we understand the Convention’s desire to ensure faithfulness, we also ask that the Convention respect the long-standing principle of autonomy that allows each church to determine its leadership, bylaws, statement of faith, and with whom to partner,” the church stated.

Detailed answers with biblical references

In its response to the committee, the church provided detailed answers to specific questions raised in a Credentials Committee questionnaire.

The church noted its “doctrinal congruence across the vast majority of issues” covered by the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, while expressing its belief that “there is plenty of reasons within the Bible to affirm women serving in pastoral roles.”

Specifically, the church pointed to the women the Apostle Paul lists in Romans 16 as deacons, patrons, co-workers, house-church hosts, laborers and “even apostles.” The church provided explanations of its interpretation of 1 Timothy 2 and 3 and 1 Corinthians 14:28-40.

It also cited multiple passages in both the Old Testament and New Testament affirming the leadership roles of women.

The Credentials Committee maintains confidentiality in inquiries, and would neither confirm nor deny to Baptist Press an active inquiry of the church.

However, the church noted it learned in an April Zoom call its status had been advanced from “informal inquiry” to “formal inquiry,” and it should be prepared for a motion to be made on the floor of the SBC annual meeting requesting that its messengers be “unseated.”

If that happened, the church was told, the Credentials Committee would “read the as-yet-unreviewed answers” to its questions and call for a vote of the messengers. The church would then be allotted three minutes to respond.

The committee told Baptist Press it currently does not intend to make a recommendation to the SBC Executive Committee at its June meeting that the church be deemed not in friendly cooperation with the SBC, but did not rule out a future recommendation.

“At this time, the Credentials Committee is not scheduled to present a report to the Executive Committee at its June 10, 2024, meeting in Indianapolis,” a representative of the Credentials Committee said in a written response to Baptist Press.

“The Credentials Committee is committed to maintaining the confidentiality of all information communicated or obtained during the inquiry process, regardless of whether a church chooses to make these communications public,” the representative said. “If a church is placed under inquiry, it means the Credentials Committee has questions that need to be addressed by the church.

“An inquiry is intended to open dialogue with a church, to help us form an opinion about whether a church should continue to be considered a cooperating church with the Convention. After an inquiry letter is sent, the committee has two possible pathways: one of which is making a recommendation to the Executive Committee.”

First reported by maker of the Law Amendment

First Baptist Church of Alexandria first was reported to the Credentials Committee in 2022 “for being ‘out of step’ with the Baptist Faith and Message 2000,” the church states on its website, but only received a formal inquiry in April.

According to the Alexandria church’s response to the Credentials Committee, Pastor Mike Law of Arlington Baptist Church in Arlington, Va., notified the congregation’s then-interim pastor by email on May 24, 2022, of his intent to report the church to the SBC Credentials Committee.

Arlington Baptist Church is located four miles from First Baptist Church of Alexandria.

The membership of the Credentials Committee changes annually, with members serving staggered three-year terms joined by the Executive Committee chairman and the SBC registration secretary as ex-officio members.

The formal inquiry as reported by the church comes as SBC messengers will consider at the 2024 SBC annual meeting a second vote to amend the SBC Constitution to limit the role of pastor/elder/overseer to men. Law, who reported First Baptist Church of Alexandria to the Credentials Committee, originally introduced the amendment.

The Law Amendment would augment Article VI of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 that states in part, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

Stephens includes a video response to the first affirmative vote of the Law Amendment at the 2023 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans.

“One of the things that impacts the life of us as a church is that earlier today an amendment was proposed to the constitution of the SBC,” Stephens said in the video. “The amendment reads as follows: ‘Southern Baptist churches affirm, appoint and employ only men as any kind of pastor.’ … This amendment therefore calls into question the relationship between First Baptist Church of Alexandria and the SBC.”

‘Nothing … contrary to the teaching of God’s word’

Stephens said the church would take a year to review and consider its relationships with the SBC and other related entities at the local and state level.

“It’s time for us at FBCA to consider who we partner with in an effort to fulfill our command and our commission to sharing the gospel,” Stephens said in the video.

“I am confident and I believe on the basis of Scripture, that there is nothing in our staff structure, there is nothing in our church polity or the way in which we worship, and function and serve as a church that is contrary to the teaching of God’s word.”

First Baptist Church of Alexandria references on its website Saddleback Church and Fern Creek Baptist Church, two congregations no longer considered in friendly cooperation with the SBC because they employ women as pastors.

If First Baptist Church of Alexandria is deemed not in friendly cooperation, the church indicated it would appeal such a ruling to messengers at a future SBC meeting.

The church posted on its website a five-part teaching series on women in pastoral ministry.

In the 2023 Annual Church Profile, First Baptist Church of Alexandria reported 44 baptisms, 4,510 members and an average Sunday morning worship attendance of 663.

The church gave $467,316 (11.98 percent) to the Cooperative Program from $3.9 million in undesignated receipts, $709,309 to Great Commission causes, $179,744 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and $39,044 to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, according to the ACP.

First Baptist Church of Alexandria cooperates with the NorthStar Church Network and the Baptist General Association of Virginia.

The church, founded in 1803, has been affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention since the convention’s formation in 1845.

With additional reporting by Managing Editor Ken Camp.

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (BP)—After meeting with church music leaders, Lifeway Christian Resources announced its commitment to continue operating lifewayworship.com.

Lifeway President and CEO Ben Mandrell said he and the leadership team appreciated the feedback they received over the last several months.

“We’ve held listening sessions with over 200 church leaders from across the country since last fall,” Mandrell said.

 “Worship leaders told us this is their curriculum for discipling the people they lead in their ministries, and they rely on Lifeway Worship for music that has been vetted theologically and that encourages congregational singing.

“Lifeway has decided to continue offering this essential resource and provide new arrangements of music for worship teams.”

Last summer, Lifeway announced it would shut down the website that provides arrangements, charts, sheet music and other music resources for church worship.

In response to concerns from ministry leaders after that initial announcement, Lifeway made the decision to continue the website for another year while conducting listening sessions with worship leaders.

Those listening sessions were a catalyst for Lifeway’s most recent decision to continue operating the website into the future.

More than 200 church leaders from 10 states participated in listening sessions, while many others reached out through email and phone calls expressing how much they appreciate the support Lifeway offers to their worship ministries through lifewayworship.com.

“We underestimated the value this tool brings to a meaningful portion of our churches,” Mandrell said.  “The listening sessions not only underscored the value of lifewayworship.com, but they also revealed other ways Lifeway could come alongside worship leaders in their ministries.

“Lifeway is committed to our long history of serving music leaders, and we want to make sure that continues for years to come as we look for additional ways we can support worship ministry. I’m very excited about the future of Lifeway Worship.”

GREENSBORO, N.C. (RNS)—A North Carolina Baptist church has suspended its pastor after he was indicted on allegations of giving false records to the FBI.

Matt Queen, a former professor and administrator at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice last week with attempting to interfere with a grand jury investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention’s handling of sexual abuse. He has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.

Queen is pastor of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, NC, a role he was named to in February. But on May 27, Friendly Avenue said Queen had been placed on administrative leave. He has not preached since May 19, the Sunday before his indictment was announced by DOJ.

“The actions alleged in the indictment oppose the moral values of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church, and we condemn all forms of sexual abuse,” the church said in a statement.

“Dr. Queen has committed to resolve this matter responsibly, and we support his full cooperation with the authorities. To this end, Dr. Queen is on administrative leave from his pastoral responsibilities. He will step away to devote his attention to his family and to assist authorities in their inquiry.”

Few details have been made public about the federal government’s 2-year-old investigation into the SBC, which began after the release of a report by the third-party investigation firm Guidepost showing denominational leaders had mistreated abuse survivors for years and sought to downplay the extent of abuse in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

SBC leaders pledged to cooperate fully with federal law enforcement. As part of the investigation, SBC entities such as Southwestern Seminary were required to report any case of abuse to the Department of Justice.

Alleged failure to follow the rules of investigation

However, when a student was arrested on allegations of sexual abuse in the fall of 2023, the seminary reported the incident to police but not the FBI.

When a seminary staffer subsequently wrote a report noting the FBI had not been notified, a seminary leader allegedly told the staffer to destroy the report. Queen allegedly was at the meeting when this conversation took place but told the FBI he had not heard any comment about destroying the document. He produced notes to that effect, which the FBI claims had been faked.

But, Queen told a grand jury he heard a seminary leader say the document should be destroyed, according to the DOJ.

“The notes prepared by Dr. Queen cited in the accusation were true to his best recollection and did not contain false information,” said Sam Schmidt, Queen’s attorney, in a statement. “Dr. Queen testified truthfully before the Grand Jury.”

Southwestern Seminary said Queen was suspended after the school learned of his alleged actions. The school also has stated all employees involved in the allegations in the DOJ indictment are no longer with the school.

The Tennessean in Nashville reported May 29 a Florida pastor—whom the newspaper identified as Heath Woolman, former chief of staff at Southwestern Seminary—also was implicated in a conspiracy to destroy evidence, but he has not been charged at this point.

NEW YORK (BP)—Former Southwestern Seminary interim provost Matthew Queen issued a statement through his attorney May 22 asserting his innocence of federal charges brought through a Department of Justice investigation.

Queen issued his statement to Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C., where he has served as pastor since February after having most recently been an evangelism professor at Southwestern.

“I fully cooperated with this investigation and have pleaded not guilty to the charge against me,” he said. “As a Christian, a (former) seminary professor, and now a pastor, my integrity is everything to me and I will cling to that integrity and seek to be vindicated by God and man.

“Until that day, I do not intend to comment or discuss this matter further. I covet your prayers for me and my family. Thank you.”

Queen had served as an associate pastor at Friendly Avenue before accepting a role at Southwestern in 2010.

He was charged with withholding from federal investigators his knowledge of a document about an allegation of sexual abuse connected to Southwestern. Furthermore, investigators said, Queen knowingly provided false information in the form of a notebook.

In his statement, Queen said he was interviewed about his recollection of “a conversation of interest to investigators” at which he was present.

In a separate statement, his attorney said the meeting had been scheduled to discuss a matter separate from the document about the allegation.

“Dr. Queen has never seen the contents of the document and became aware of the general nature of the contents of the letter, i.e., about the rape accusation, at a later time,” said attorney Sam A. Schmidt.

That later time was when charges were filed against his client, Schmidt clarified, adding a defense of the notebook provided by Queen to investigators.

“The notes prepared by Dr. Queen cited in the accusation were true to his best recollection and did not contain false information,” he said. “Dr. Queen testified truthfully before the Grand Jury.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A former Southern Baptist seminary professor and interim provost has been indicted on a charge of obstructing justice in a sexual misconduct case, the Department of Justice announced May 21.

Matt Queen, who was previously an administrator and professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, allegedly gave the FBI falsified notes during an ongoing investigation into alleged sexual misconduct at the Fort Worth seminary. He was arraigned Tuesday, according to the DOJ.

“As alleged, Matthew Queen attempted to interfere with a federal grand jury investigation by creating false notes in an attempt to corroborate his own lies,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York in a statement.

“The criminal obstruction charge announced today should exemplify the seriousness of attempts by any individual to manipulate or interfere with a federal investigation.”

Queen, who was named pastor of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C., earlier this year, could not be reached for comment.

DOJ probe of SBC acknowledged

The indictment is the first official acknowledgment by the DOJ of an investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention and its entities. Southern Baptist leaders announced in 2022 that they had been subpoenaed by the Department of Justice and promised to cooperate.

News of the DOJ investigation followed the release of a report from Guidepost Solutions showing SBC leaders had mistreated abuse survivors for years, denied responsibility for the actions of local churches and downplayed the number of sexual abuse cases in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

Earlier this year, the SBC’s Executive Committee announced the DOJ’s investigation into the committee was ended, leading to confusion. The Executive Committee later issued a statement saying the DOJ’s investigation into the SBC and its entities remained open.

In a statement Tuesday, the DOJ gave more details about the investigation.

“Since approximately 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (‘U.S. Attorney’s Office’) and the FBI have been investigating allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct related to a national religious denomination (the ‘Denomination’) and its affiliated entities, and the alleged cover-up of such allegations by individuals and entities associated with the Denomination,” according to a statement.

As part of that investigation, Southwestern was required to give any documents about abuse to the FBI. However, according to the DOJ, a seminary official received a report of alleged sexual abuse by a student in the fall of 2022. That alleged abuse was reported to the school’s campus police, though not to the FBI, but no other action was taken.

A Southwestern staffer, referred to as “Employee-1” by the DOJ, later was told by a Southwestern leader (Employee-2) to destroy a document about the incident and the seminary’s inaction, according to the DOJ.

Queen was allegedly in the room with Employee-1 when this happened, but allegedly told the FBI in an interview that he had not heard Employee-2 say to destroy the report.

Accused of falsifying records

He subsequently produced a set of fake notes from the meeting, the DOJ alleges, which he presented to the FBI in June 2023—but he gave conflicting stories about when the notes were written, later admitting the notes were fake.

“On June 21, 2023, Matthew Queen testified under oath that he had in fact heard Employee-2 direct Employee-1 to make the Document ‘go away,’” according to the DOJ.

The 49-year-old Queen could face up to 20 years in prison after being charged with one count of falsification of records.

“Matthew Queen, an interim provost, allegedly failed to inform the FBI of a conspiracy to destroy evidence related to the ongoing investigation of sexual misconduct and instead produced falsified notes to investigators. Queen’s alleged actions deliberately violated a court order and delayed justice for the sexual abuse victims,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Smith.

 “The FBI will never tolerate those who intentionally lie and mislead our investigation in an attempt to conceal their malicious behavior.”

‘Antithetical’ to seminary’s values

Southwestern said the student involved in the alleged abuse was suspended and later withdrew from the school. The seminary also stated it reported the matter to the DOJ as it was required to do.

The school said the alleged actions described in the indictment were “antithetical to the values of the seminary.”

“After the seminary learned of Queen’s actions in June 2023, he was immediately placed on administrative leave and resigned as interim provost,” the school stated. “All employees alleged to have acted improperly in this matter are no longer employed by the seminary.”

Southwestern, once one of the nation’s largest seminaries, has fallen on hard times in recent years. Last year a report from the school’s leaders detailed years of financial mismanagement, including overspending its budget by $140 million over 20 years. The school’s former president, who left in the fall of 2022, is suing the school for defamation.

The school also settled a lawsuit in 2023 with a victim of Paul Pressler, a leader of the “conservative resurgence” in the SBC, and in 2021, sued to regain control of a Texas foundation that had been taken over by former staffers, who allegedly tried to divert money away from the seminary.

NASHVILLE (BP)—Did the Great Commission Resurgence accomplish its goal of reversing the decline of baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention?

According to the final report from a task force commissioned to answer that question, “The answer is a clear and decisive, ‘No.’”

Where the blame lies is complicated, but there is plenty to go around, the task force said.

The Great Commission Resurgence Evaluation Task Force—not to be confused with 2009/2010 Great Commission Resurgence Task Force—was formed with the approval of messengers to the 2023 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans.

Its assigned task was to study the impact, if any, of the adoption of the recommendations put forth by the original 2010 Great Commission Resurgence Task Force.

“Jay Adkins and his team of scholars and analysts have met more than 20 times since the Southern Baptist Convention last convened in New Orleans,” said SBC President Bart Barber.

“They have taken their work very seriously, and we are indebted to them. Ultimately, God has entrusted the Great Commission to the churches, and the task of implementing it belongs to us all. Praise God for recent data that reveal our increasing faithfulness to do so.”

Barber was referring to the recent release of statistics showing an uptick in church attendance and baptisms in the SBC.

Adkins, the group’s chairman, posted May 12 on X that their work had been a “monumental task.”

“I pray this report would be taken as seriously as we took our responsibility to produce it and that ultimately, God would be glorified and our convention be unified as we move forward together,” he wrote.

Southern Baptist messengers voted to move forward with the original Great Commission Resurgence Task Force’s recommendations in 2010 after much debate.

Major changes adopted included a change in terminology about giving to Southern Baptist causes that fell short of expectations, as well as a fundamental change in the mission of the North American Mission Board, with the steps to get there fracturing many relationships that remain strained to this day.

Recommendations based on the current task force’s report will be released no later than a week before the upcoming annual meeting, the group said. In addition to Adkins, the other members appointed by Barber to serve on the task force were Robin Foster, Adam Groza, Luke Holmes, Chris Shaffer and Jeremy Westbrook.

Original task force recommendations

The 2010 Great Commission Resurgence Task Force placed seven recommendations, based on seven components of the group’s report, before the convention:

• Adopt a mission statement to present the gospel and make disciples throughout the world.
• Adopt a set of core values for that work.
• Encourage Cooperative Program giving and other Great Commission giving.
• Consider revising the ministry assignment of NAMB.
• Consider revising the International Mission Board’s ministry assignment to remove geographical limitations in its mission.
• Promote the Cooperative Program and elevate stewardship.
• Decrease the SBC Executive Committee’s Cooperation Program allocation by 1 percentage point, which would be given to the IMB.

From the evaluation task force’s perspective, only two of the recommendations “were ever fully implemented.” Those are No. 4 regarding NAMB’s ministry assignment and No. 5 calling for NAMB and the IMB to work together toward reaching underserved people groups in North America.

To accomplish its work, the evaluation group took steps such as studying the final report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force from June 16, 2010, reviewing nearly 150 Baptist Press articles and conducting formal and informal interviews. Additional research was conducted at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives in Nashville.

Permission was sought to have “limited and confidential access” to sealed materials about the Great Commission Resurgence housed at the archives—documents scheduled to be opened on June 16, 2025. That request ultimately was denied.

A primary way of checking through the implementation of Great Commission Resurgence recommendations was looking through subsequent SBC annuals. This showed that many of the points from the Great Commission Resurgence were forgotten quickly.

For instance, Component Two called for the implementation of eight core values—Christ-likeness, truth, unity, relationships, trust, future, local church and kingdom.

The evaluation task force found not only were these not implemented, but that no further discussion of them could be documented. There was “no significant emphasis placed on platforming these core values.”

While acknowledging that the SBC has “an army of humble, Christ-following servants” working and volunteering in all aspects of church life, both in the United States and internationally, the overall tenor in the convention has taken a downward turn.

‘Erosion of trust, transparency and truth’

Component Two’s objective was to promote a healthy culture in the SBC and cool down from discussions that precipitated the Great Commission Resurgence. The task force concluded the temperature has actually moved in the other direction, with “all discernable evidence [pointing] to the contrary.”

“Current objective evidence” points to “a clear erosion of ‘trust, transparency and truth’ from within our convention,” the task force wrote. Such erosion has been observed, the group said, in Executive Committee “overreach” and through cases of “dereliction of duty.”

“Notable and numerous moral failures” have plagued pastors and other leaders, not to mention “varying sorts of examples of dishonest and bereft leadership in the SBC at large leading to terminations and resignations.”

The growth of social media hasn’t helped, as the task force noted “uncharitable and unChristlike behavior” on those platforms.

“Great Commission Giving was poorly defined and never fully adopted by the broader Southern Baptist family,” the task force said.

Decline in giving

Most of the interviews conducted by the task force reflected that the category of Great Commission Giving, those financial gifts toward Southern Baptist causes outside of the Cooperative Program, came about because of low Cooperative Program giving percentages among some large churches.

Higher percentages reflected through Great Commission Giving would be published in Baptist Press, the report said, adding that the pastors of some large churches wanted a number “more palatable” associated with them in case they were nominated to Convention office or elected as an entity head.

After a “robust beginning,” Great Commission Giving had a steady decline alongside Cooperative Program giving.

A call for local churches to make the Cooperative Program a priority led to a bump in support from associations and eventually state conventions.

As more state conventions moved toward a 50-50 split, where half of their gifts were forwarded to the SBC national allocation budget, Cooperative Program figures began to increase.

From the 2010-2011 fiscal year through 2022-2023, the average percentage states forward directly to national CP increased from 38.2 percent to 41.98 percent.

Meanwhile, a call also went out to give sacrificially to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. With annual goals of $100 million to the former and $200 million to the latter, both offerings experienced increased giving even if the goal was met only once—the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering in 2022.

Ultimately, both the Cooperative Program and Great Commission Giving continue to experience decline.

“While Great Commission giving did not necessarily hurt the Cooperative Program in any discernably measurable way,” the task force said, “it certainly did not help it in any measurable way.”

‘Bloated bureaucracy’ at NAMB

By 2010, a church planting movement was well underway, but Southern Baptists largely were absent from the conversation. This was partly due, the task force said, to a lack of a “homogenous strategy” that would train, track, assess and report Southern Baptist church plants.

The task force report pointed to the difficulty prior to 2010 in getting actual church planting statistics due to each state convention’s keeping its own records. At one point, 42 different assessments existed for church planters with variables dependent on where one chose to plant. Pre-2010, Annual Church Profile statistics were as varied as the number of state conventions reporting them to NAMB.

The phrase “bloated bureaucracy” was used quite often in discussions about the need for a Great Commission Resurgence, with that moniker applied most directly to the North American Mission Board.

The 1997 restructuring, Covenant for a New Century, folded the Radio and Television Commission, Brotherhood Commission and Home Mission Board together into NAMB, with the agency swelling to more than 450 employees, the task force report said.

The 2006 SBC Annual described its ministries as including evangelism, church planting, collegiate ministries, disaster relief, men’s ministry revivals, ethnic ministries, volunteer missions, missions education, communication technologies and strengthening associations.

“As a result of these varied concentrations, NAMB lacked focus and direction,” the report said, adding a comparison by someone that it had become “an octopus with all tentacles and no head.”

The task force also reported that NAMB experienced “poor leadership at the highest levels, lacking united direction and focus,” leading up to 2010.

A February 2006 analysis by The Christian Index, Georgia Baptists’ newspaper, dug into criticisms of NAMB’s first president Bob Reccord, before doing so again in November 2008 for Reccord’s successor, Geoff Hammond. Both resigned shortly after those articles.

The implementation of Component Four to “consider any revision to the ministry assignment” of NAMB has “been a major point of contention,” today’s report said, with many pointing out the decline “in certain numerical categories since 2010.”

While acknowledging “disappointing numbers,” the current task force report noted positives such as record levels of giving through the Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong offerings, not to mention the robust effort toward Southern Baptist church planting efforts.

Relationships with state conventions disrupted

A desire to focus more on church planting led to the phasing out of long-standing “Cooperative Agreements” between NAMB and state Baptist conventions. In those arrangements, NAMB funded positions such as directors of missions, Baptist Collegiate Ministry directors, secretaries on convention staffs, and in one case, seven urban strategists in Nebraska, the report said.

“Among those we interviewed, there was near unanimous agreement that NAMB desperately needed reorganization and refocusing on its primary tasks,” it said. “In addition, most everyone agreed that Cooperative Agreements, in place for at least 40-50 years, needed retooling or replacement, and a new method for dispersing funds was required.”

Later, the report stated, “Following the Covenant for a New Century, [NAMB] had become a bloated, multi-focused organization and needed to be streamlined.”

NAMB’s new ministry direction came about as “a clear mandate” from the messengers. But even as the entity became more streamlined in personnel and focus, the report said, it came at the expense of favor with some pastors and churches, largely due to the phasing out of Cooperative Agreements with state conventions.

Decline in baptisms and church starts

The task force called it a “paradox,” as messengers voted for the change, but then many were left frustrated by the results, including a decrease in baptisms and church starts. Per the GCR report, NAMB would focus at least half of its ministry efforts toward church planting. That part of the entity’s budget eventually grew by $56.4 million.

Prior to 2010, Southern Baptists took note of the resources offered through church planting networks like Acts 29, which led to the development of the Send City Strategy adopted by NAMB that today has about 4,700 churches that self-identify as a supporting or sending church and just over 1,600 endorsed church planters.

Of all baptisms in 2022 in non-South states, 27 percent came from churches started since 2010, the task force noted. More than half of the Southern Baptist churches in Canada have been planted since then, with the Send Network active in new works in Puerto Rico, Canada and New England.

For all those efforts, though, the task force reported the number of church plants actually decreased by 364 when comparing 2011 and 2022. Baptisms decreased as well.

According to an internal review, NAMB reported 90 percent of churches planted by its Send Network survive to at least four years.

“However, there are no published reports about the survivability rates of churches beyond these four years once funding ceases,” the task force report said.

The Great Commission Resurgence solved some problems while creating new ones. Prominent among them was the “dismantling” of an evangelistic network between NAMB and the states that promoted evangelism at the local church level.

“Many of the problems created were also relational in nature, though not all of them,” the report added.

Some success noted

Even so, the report praised NAMB’s recent efforts to shore up those relationships, such as the Who’s Your One evangelism initiative launched in February 2019 and several new hires toward evangelism. Through its planting, replant and revitalization initiatives, NAMB is also focusing again on rural churches throughout the country.

The task force also praised the cooperative work between IMB President Paul Chitwood and NAMB President Kevin Ezell toward Component Five of the 2010 GCR report that called for reaching unreached and underserved people groups in North America.

Calling the partnership “healthy and vibrant,” the task force noted its impact, particularly since 2017. The founding of Send Relief that year has “continued the significant compassion ministry work of Southern Baptists.” Send Relief has reported serving 2.56 million people in 85 countries since then, the task force noted.

The task force stated in its report its objective to be a “healing balm and not a hurtful bomb” while presenting its findings. Due to the spotlight on them, entities and leaders tend to get most of the blame, since those individuals and agencies are trusted with leading Southern Baptists to growth on behalf of the gospel.

However, they are not alone in the culpability, the report said.

“To be sure, there is more than enough blame to go around for this continued downward trend,” it read. “Ultimately, if the SBC has not realized a reverse in the decline in Baptisms, all the folks who make up the SBC are, in some way, culpable. Every Southern Baptist Christ-follower can and should, in the end, take responsibility for the current state of the Southern Baptist Convention.”

That part of the report included comments from Sandy Wisdom-Martin, Woman’s Missionary Union executive director.

“The Great Commission cannot be parceled and assigned to our boards,” she said. “While the efforts of our boards are critical, it is incumbent on every Christ follower to proclaim the gospel. This responsibility cannot be abdicated. … 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.”