In the weeks leading up to the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention, calls for greater financial transparency, drastic changes in the direction and leadership of the ERLC, as well as the adoption of the Law Amendment were building momentum. Numerous articles were written in favor of these measures, podcasts proliferated with commentary, and entity leaders spoke out on their behalf — something that only occurs in the most consequential of moments.
But thousands of Southern Baptists who went to Dallas with high hopes for change in the convention left without their realization. Calls for financial transparency were stillborn, the ERLC narrowly escaped abolition, and the Law Amendment suffered a last-minute disinformation campaign from the President and CEO of the Executive Committee — a parliamentary snafu that should have never happened but that cannot be reversed.
In the wake of these disappointing results, many Southern Baptists will choose to end their cooperation with the convention, believing that efforts to reform are futile at this point. While there are a variety of reasons for the SBC’s decline in recent years, its leftward drift — or more accurately described leftward steering — remains a key contributing factor.
In recent years, hundreds if not thousands of Southern Baptist pastors have returned from the convention, only to field questions from their church members who are frustrated with the convention’s direction. Many of these everyday Southern Baptists are concerned about how their tithes are being stewarded at the national level of the denomination and wonder how long they can, in good conscience, support the efforts of the Southern Baptist Convention as it continues to provide cover for entities receiving funding from leftist political activists.
Many churches have already left the convention, and many more are feeling demoralized and are planning on leaving. It is probably not an overstatement to assert that for every church executive leadership is nervous to lose for employing female pastors, there are 100 churches who are poised to leave for the convention’s toleration of such unbiblical practices. Under these circumstances, the convention’s financial stress will only increase.
But I want to address those Southern Baptists who are considering leaving the convention. I hope that the following points will help them to pause, to consider the consequences of leaving and what it may look like to stay, and see the convention through these challenging times. I would like to argue that, with a renewed resolve and by the grace of our Lord, the best days of the Southern Baptist Convention may lie ahead.
1. Southern Baptists need to think about what they are leaving.
Churches that choose to separate from the convention will be leaving a rich legacy of cooperation that has led to the salvation of millions of souls across the world, the education of thousands of pastors and gospel ministers, and countless acts of mercy.
As a convention of churches, we enjoy a vast number of resources, from publishing, research, education, finance, church planting, international missions, and more. On each of these fronts, our cooperation multiplies the efforts of each individual congregation, exemplifying the truism, “We can do more together.”
According to the most recent book of reports, the IMB currently deploys more than 3,500 international missionaries, whose work led to 116,000 baptisms in 2023. The NAMB planted more than 700 churches last year, supports 3,200 church planters nationally, and, through SEND Relief, organized 32,500 volunteers to serve struggling communities across the nation.
Our six seminaries are among the finest in the world and currently train more than 12,000 FTE (full-time equivalent) students who represent future generations of pastors, scholars and church leaders.
Despite our recent decline, Southern Baptists continue to represent the second largest church body in America. Understandably frustrated churches that decide to call it quits will sever themselves from these abundant ministry resources and the countless benefits of kingdom-focused cooperation.
2. Southern Baptists need to think about how difficult it is to rebuild.
Given the size and scope of our shared ministries, Southern Baptists should not underestimate the difficulty of rebuilding or replicating the entities that enable us to partner in the gospel. Over the course of nearly 180 years, countless Southern Baptists have tirelessly served and made immense sacrifices to build and develop the organizations that resource our churches to make disciples of all the nations.
While the SBC is not indispensable to God’s kingdom, Southern Baptists must count the cost of giving up our work together, recognizing the immensity of the task required to rebuild comparable institutions.
3. Southern Baptists need to remember the Conservative Resurgence.
When, in the 1960s and ’70s, our seminaries were occupied by theological liberals who denied the historicity of Genesis, the inerrancy and authority of Scripture, and who advocated for female ordination, the churches rose up and brought the convention back from the brink. Had it not been for these leaders and messengers, the Southern Baptist Convention would simply be another chapter in the ever-growing book of theological liberalism.
But the Conservative Resurgence, as it became known, did not occur overnight. The recovery of the convention entailed a protracted process that required widespread coordination and continued commitment on the part of the churches and the movement’s leaders.
For more than a decade, beginning with the election of Paige Patterson in 1979, conservative Southern Baptists showed up in droves to vote for conservative presidents, who would in turn appoint conservatives to fill the committees that would populate the entity trustee boards. It was not until the 1990s that conservatives would begin to see the fruit of such strenuous, dedicated efforts.
But without their dedication and perseverance, men such as R. Albert Mohler Jr. would have never been given an opportunity to lead Southern Seminary to be the place where I received a world-class theological education with which to serve Southern Baptist churches. And thanks be to God that such examples could be multiplied by thousands.
Southern Baptists need to remember and become re-inspired by their own history of renewal from within. We have seen similar times before, and by God’s grace we can see better times ahead, so that we may bequeath a Christ-honoring convention to our spiritual children and grandchildren, who will one day thank us as we thank those who fought for the convention before us.
4. Southern Baptists need to think about the consequences of leaving.
If Southern Baptists continue to slowly leave, or suddenly leave en masse, then they will have willingly resigned it to numerical decline and spiritual decay. Let me be clear: The most effective way to ensure the Southern Baptist Convention dies the death of mainline Protestantism is for concerned churches to withdraw. If Southern Baptists wish to consign their convention to this future, then leaving is the best way to achieve that end.
But may I humbly plead with you to consider a better way? Would you, fellow Southern Baptist, resolve to stay and make a difference? Would you resolve to attend the next convention in Orlando as a messenger, to reach out to your trustees and convention leaders, and communicate your concerns to them? Will you commit to finding ways to become involved in efforts for renewal in the convention? Would you make yourself available to serve on a committee when called upon? Most importantly, will you dedicate yourself to praying for the convention, asking God for His favor on our body of churches?
A Matter of Conscience
I do not wish to downplay the genuine concerns of my fellow Southern Baptists, and I realize that the decision to stay or to go is a matter of conscience. We have widespread issues that must be resolved for the health and longevity of our fellowship of churches — and for the sake of the gospel.
But at this point in history, by my humble calculation, we have not been presented with insurmountable challenges. It is still too early to give up on the Southern Baptist Convention. There remains a path to vitality just as in the days of the Conservative Resurgence. The question is not whether the Southern Baptist Convention can recover from its malaise, but whether or not Southern Baptists have the resolve to fight for its recovery and experience revitalization once again.
I believe it does. And I pray it will.
— Jonathan E. Swan is associate pastor of Education and Discipleship at First Baptist Church O’Fallon, Mo.; adjunct instructor at Midwestern Theological Seminar; and executive editor of Eikon: A Journal for Biblical Anthropology.