EDITOR’S NOTE — The Baptist Paper reached out to each of the six individuals who have announced intentions to be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention at the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, June 11–12. To read the responses of the other five other candidates, click here.
Jared Moore
Current position and title: Homesteads Baptist Church, Crossville, Tennessee
What led you to allow your name to be placed in nomination for SBC president?
I was willing to be nominated for SBC president because the two choices that had been announced already were more of the same type of leadership the SBC has had the past six years.
If elected, what are your goals as president?
I’ve served in pastoral ministry in the SBC for almost 24 years now. It was Southern Baptists who loved me to Jesus when I was 17 years of age. It was Southern Baptists who taught me the gospel, biblical doctrine and sound teaching. It was Southern Baptists who taught me to love the local church and my neighbor, to seek the lost with the gospel, and to help those in need. I love the SBC, and I believe our best days are ahead of us. It’s for these reasons that I’m willing to be nominated for SBC president.
If I’m elected, I plan to accomplish much good for the Southern Baptist Convention and her entities by implementing these five points:
1. The Law Amendment
First, the SBC should pass the Law amendment, and if I am elected, I will encourage the credentials committee to enforce the constitution, with the Law amendment added, in defining what is a cooperating Southern Baptist church.
For decades now, Southern Baptists have known what a pastor is. The Bible has not changed. Our confession has not changed. But some Southern Baptists have changed. And the change is so evident that the credentials committee requested clarity for defining what a pastor is.
The Law amendment will add that the only type of cooperating church with the SBC is the one that “affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.” Therefore, the Law amendment answers the committee’s request, and also answers Southern Baptists who have misunderstood the Bible’s and the Baptist Faith and Message’s definition of a pastor. Only men may be pastors according to Scripture and the BF&M2K.
2. Financial Transparency
Second, SBC entities should be financially transparent, submitting at least a 990-level disclosure to Southern Baptists at the annual meeting every year. The main reason is because SBC entities are accountable to the churches that fund their operations with their tithes. But as it stands currently, Southern Baptists do not know how their money is spent, with much detail, at our various entities. For churches to know that they are being good stewards by giving to the Cooperative Program, our entities must show how they spend God’s money.
Each local church is transparent in their financial spending to their members. And SBC entities should be held to the same standard local churches are held to concerning financial transparency. Otherwise, there is no way local church pastors can answer whether or not their church’s gifts are being spent wisely by SBC entities.
3. Biblical ethics
Third, Southern Baptists should be the leading prophetic voice for biblical ethics in America and beyond.
The greatest moral issue in the United States is abortion, the murder of over 1 million babies every year. The only way to end abortion is to treat the unborn with the same dignity and worth as everyone else, like Scripture does. Image-bearers begin living at conception; they’re only small and young. Therefore, every person voluntarily involved in an abortion must be held morally and legally accountable for murder. Otherwise, abortion will never be abolished. Imagine if your mother was killed by a hitman, and the law-makers held everyone accountable except the person who hired the hitman. Do you think you’d ever abolish murder-by-hitman? No. And we’ll never abolish abortion either if we don’t hold everyone involved in murdering the unborn accountable, including the mothers who voluntarily murder their babies through taking pills or through having doctors murder them.
After abortion, the next greatest moral issue in the United States is the idol of LGBTQ+. Over the past several years, we’ve heard SBC presidents, professors and pastors claim that “the Bible whispers about homosexual sin,” and that, “when a ‘homosexual’ is saved, he’s called to be holy not heterosexual.” And a growing number have claimed that same-sex and trans attractions and desires are not sin, which means that attraction and desires for children are not sin either. Instead of compromising with the world, Southern Baptists must clearly preach God’s Word, trusting His law to slay our hearers so that they will run to Christ to be healed eternally. Southern Baptists must preach that same-sex, trans and pedo attractions and desires are sin, and that Christ can save and change any sinner!
4. Reaching rural communities
Fourth, one of the SBC’s strengths is her churches located in rural communities. For more than a decade, the SBC has had a special emphasis on church planting in America’s cities. Amen. We need to plant churches in our cities.
That’s why I’m nominating Michael Clary, an SBC church planter in Cincinnati, for 1st VP of the SBC this year. Yet, in seeking to reach the cities, we must make sure we do not weaken the Southern Baptist presence in rural communities. The hardest-to-reach areas in America are the cities because they are the most pluralistic and the most antagonistic to Christianity. Rural communities often take longer to adopt the idols of the cities, which means they are often more receptive to the gospel. The rural communities in America are the “low-hanging fruit” when compared to the cities. Therefore, we need a renewed emphasis on reaching rural communities in America with the gospel. We should still pursue the cities but should pursue rural communities even more.
5. Biblically Faithful Leadership
Fifth, one of the most important responsibilities of the SBC President is to appoint the committee on committees. (He also appoints the resolutions committee, the registration committee and the tellers, and he moderates the 2025 annual meeting). The committee on committees is extremely important because they nominate the committee on nominations. Then, the committee on nominations is voted on by the SBC. And this committee then nominates all the open trustee positions at all SBC entities. In other words, the SBC president chooses the committee that chooses the committee, with SBC vote, that chooses, with SBC vote, every trustee that controls every SBC entity.
Who will I appoint to this very important committee? I will only appoint Southern Baptists to the committee on committees (and any other committee) who…
1. Affirm and practice the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 in their churches,
2. Believe and practice that only men can be pastors,
3. Believe and teach that LGBTQ+ and pedo attraction and/or desire is sin,
4. Believe and teach the abolition of abortion and equal protection for the unborn,
5. Believe SBC entities should be financially transparent.
6. Believe that the SBC should renew their emphasis on reaching rural communities with the gospel.
To summarize and easily remember this article, remember,
Great Commission unity
Great Commission ethics
Great Commission trust
Great Commission future
In conclusion, I believe our best days are ahead of us. The way to get to these best days is to submit to God’s inerrant and infallible word, without compromise. We must again establish our prophetic voice, speaking truth into the darkness, until all peoples enjoy the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I love you Southern Baptists!
What are some things that can be done to strengthen the SBC’s current relationship with our churches?
Financial transparency. The question is if SBC entities trust Southern Baptists. We trust the trustees. Do SBC entities and SBC leaders trust Southern Baptists?
What do you perceive as the strengths of the SBC?
The greatest strength of the Southern Baptist Convention is her churches and Southern Baptists. The more the SBC encourages local churches to be healthy and biblically faithful, making disciples, being zealous for good works, etc., the better.
I believe Disaster Relief is one of the best things that the SBC does. Christians should be the best at caring for those who are hurting under the curse, healing their temporary wounds so that we may heal their eternal wounds with the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.
What do you perceive as the weaknesses of the SBC?
The biggest weakness in the SBC is that we have grown concerned with what the world thinks. We’ve been taught that the world is watching us, but we must be more concerned with what God thinks rather than the world. The answers to all that ails the SBC are found in the Bible, not in the world. We will never satisfy the world, but we can please our Heavenly Father by being obedient to His Word, by the Spirit through the Son to the Father.
Any other thoughts or comments?
The 11th Commandment is one of the biggest issues in the SBC. The 11th commandment is that you cannot critique anyone to your left in the SBC.
Also, I hope to normalize being SBC president, where any Southern Baptist with a Bible, a backbone and a heart can serve us as SBC president. We need more pastors who have served SBC churches faithfully for decades with no fanfare or praise, to be nominated for SBC president.
