NOTE: This story could be updated with new information before messengers meet in Orlando.
Southern Baptist families across the country will be making the familiar trek to Orlando this summer for the 2026 SBC Annual Meeting — and probably a stop at Disney. Back in February, SBC Executive Committee president Jeff Iorg was already estimating that this year’s annual meeting is looking to draw more than 20,000 people — and at least 1,000 of them are expected to be kids, which would double the typical number.
Business as usual
Southern Baptists will have plenty of business to do at this year’s event. Among all of it, messengers will elect a new SBC president as North Carolina pastor Clint Pressley finishes up his second term. So far two presidential candidates have declared their intentions to be nominated — Florida pastor Willy Rice and South Carolina pastor Josh Powell. See related Q&As (Rice and Powell) with The Baptist Paper.
Women on church staffs
Once again, the debate over women’s titles and roles on church staffs is expected to surface as messengers line up at the microphones during miscellaneous business sessions. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, announced Monday (May 18) by video plans to propose an amendment to Article III of the SBC Constitution that cooperating churches would not “act to affirm, appoint or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, such as preaching to the assembled congregation.” Mohler said he also would propose that Standing Rule 6 be suspended so that the issue could be addressed at this summer’s annual meeting. This move would help avoid the motion being referred to the SBC Executive Committee to be reviewed and delayed until next year’s meeting.
Last year, Juan Sanchez brought a motion about adding a statement to the SBC constitution stating churches in friendly cooperation with the SBC must affirm, appoint or employ “only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.” The motion failed to receive the needed two-thirds vote (66%). Instead, it only received 60.74% (3,421) in favor and 38.90% (2,191) opposed.
Meanwhile, the SBC Credentials Committee has declared three churches no longer in relationship with the Convention. All three churches’ websites indicate they have female pastors. Among those churches is Houston’s The Fountain of Praise, The Crossing Church in Tampa, Florida, and Zion Temple Baptist Church in O’Fallon, Illinois. As of now, none are expected to challenge that decision, which would put the final call with messengers.
CP budget
Messengers will consider the 2026–27 Cooperative Program allocation budget that will direct 51% of CP gifts to the International Mission Board. The SBC Executive Committee approved the budget during its February meeting. If messengers approve the budget, it will align with a 2010 recommendation from the SBC Great Commission Resurgence Task Force and a 2024 follow-up recommendation from the GCR Evaluation Task Force. Iorg thanked SBC entity leaders for “standing together with the Executive Committee to meet the goal of increasing funding for international missions.”
ERLC
The newly elected leader of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Evan Lenow, will step into the SBC annual meeting spotlight for the first time as ERLC president.
The entity’s board of trustees elected Lenow, 47, in April following the abrupt resignation of Brent Leatherwood last July following two years of calls by messengers to abolish the entity. Russell Moore resigned amid controversy in 2021.
Officer elections
In addition to this year’s two potential SBC presidential candidates (Rice and Powell), other nominees — as of last count — will include the following:
Craig Carlisle
Carlisle will be nominated for first vice president by Charles Smith, president of the University of Mobile. Carlisle is director of missions for Etowah Baptist Association, and he is currently serving as second vice president of the SBC, and wrapped up his two-year term as Alabama Baptist State Convention president this past November. He is the only candidate who has announced intentions to be nominated for that office.
J. Allen Murray
Murray will be nominated for second vice president by Chris Griggs, lead pastor of First Baptist Church Welcome, North Carolina. Murray is the pastor of Mount Pisgah Baptist Church in Supply, North Carolina, and he also is serving as president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
Austin Rouse
Rouse will be nominated for second vice president by pastor Michael Shultz, senior pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Lewisburg, Kentucky. Rouse is the pastor of families and students at Southern Heights Baptist in Russellville.
Don Currence
Current SBC registration secretary Don Currence will be nominated to serve again as registration secretary by Jay Adkins, pastor of First Baptist Church Westwego, Louisiana. Currence is the administrative pastor at First Baptist Church Ozark, Missouri, and he also serves as mayor of Ozark and a police chaplain.
George Schroeder
Following the news that Nathan Finn will not seek to be nominated for SBC recording secretary, Schroeder announced intentions to be nominated by Tallahassee, Florida’s City Church pastor Dean Inserra. Schroeder is pastor at First Baptist Church in Fairfield, Texas
Travis Kerns
Kerns will be nominated for recording secretary by Denny Burk, a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Kerns is a South Carolina associational mission strategist for the Three Rivers Baptist Association in Taylors, and a member of Greer First Baptist Church.
Jonathan Greer
Greer announced intentions to be nominated for recording secretary by Tyler Armstrong, pastor of Woodward Avenue Baptist Church, Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Greer has served as pastor of Franklin Creek Baptist Church in Moss Point, Mississippi, since 2017.
Disability Ministry Task Force
Tom Stolle, chair of the Disability Ministry Task Force, will present a report on how churches can better reach out to those with disabilities. In February, the EC approved Stolle’s report. The task force, he noted, is focused on making recommendations “across the landscape of the SBC” to help churches better connect families with needed resources — and most importantly the gospel. Stolle also is the executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware.
Pastors Conference
This year’s SBC Pastors Conference (June 7–8) will offer micro conferences for “everyone on your ministry team,” said Aaron Burgner, president of the Pastors Conference and pastor of Lakes Church in Lakeland, Florida. He shared the change in a recent promotional video with the SBC Executive Committee. Alongside the Pastors Conference, the four micro-conferences will feature sessions for worship leaders, discipleship and education leaders, student pastors and children’s ministry leaders.
The conference also will elect new officers for the 2027 Pastors Conference. Only one candidate has been announced at this time.
Wayne Bray
Bray will be nominated for president by Ted Traylor, longtime senior pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. Bray is pastor of First Baptist Church Simpsonville/Upstate Church in South Carolina, where he has served since 2015.
Resolutions & motions
For the third year in a row, the Committee on Resolutions will submit a preliminary report 10 days before the convention. The deadline for resolutions to be received by the Committee on Resolutions was May 15. North Greenville University Provost and Dean of Faculty Hunter Baker will serve as this year’s chair of the Committee on Resolutions.
For more information, go to sbc.net/resolutions. A resolution has traditionally been defined, according to sbc.net, “as an expression of opinion or concern, as compared to a motion, which calls for action.”
Regarding motions, they do not have to be submitted ahead of the annual meeting. They are made by messengers and request specific action by the SBC or one or more of its entities, according to sbcannualmeeting.net.
Crossover
Patrick Coats is heading up Crossover for the Florida Baptist Convention. Coats shared in a recent promotional interview with the SBC Executive Committee this year’s area-wide evangelistic effort will draw 1,000 participating churches, 10,000 “gospel conversations” and 1,000 decisions amid block parties, sports camps, community compassion events and prison ministry effort. For more information, go to NAMB.net/Crossover.
