SBC Executive Committee deals with budget woes, leadership challenges

Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee members were hit with another disappointment during the final plenary session of their fall meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 19. EC Chairman and Louisiana pastor Philip Robertson announced that Dan Summerlin, the recently retired Kentucky pastor who had been announced the day before as a candidate for the role of transitional […]

SBC EC eliminates staff positions

The SBC Executive Committee made staff adjustments on Sept. 13 that eliminated five staff positions and two contractor positions, according to a statement. “Over the past few weeks, our current leadership and officers met at length to determine various ways to most effectively steward the resources provided to us by Southern Baptist churches,” said Jonathan […]

Adkins to lead GCR Evaluation Task Force study

Louisiana pastor and SBC First Vice President Jay Adkins will chair a task force that will study the impact of recommendations brought about by the Great Commission Resurgence Report and adopted by Southern Baptists in 2010. The task force was called for in a motion at the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting in New Orleans to […]

Three South Carolinians to serve on Cooperation Group named by Barber

Addressing “things we have never done before” in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention will permeate discussions of those who will present a report next June that could reassert or redefine what constitutes a church to be in friendly cooperation with the SBC, said President Bart Barber. “These declarations that churches are not in […]

The Charleston Way: The First Southern Baptist Confession of Faith

Northerners have been moving south for centuries. They come seeking a new life and new opportunities. Such was the case with a group of Baptists from Maine more than 300 years ago. Pastor William Screven and some of his congregants, looking to cash in on a strong shipbuilding economy, arrived in Charleston in 1696. As […]

How Narrow Should the Confession Be?

I did a double-take when I read the sign in front of a small white church beside a two-lane blacktop that snaked through the hills of western North Carolina. I stopped and backed up my SUV to get a second look. The weathered 12-by-18 sign read: “Welcome to Trinity Baptist Church. We are an Independent, […]

6 Ways Confessions of Faith Promote Church Health

Particular Baptist churches planted in the tumultuous soil of 17th century England grew up and bore fruit under a nasty set of doctrinal and methodological accusations, including that they subscribed to libertarian free will, denied original sin, that their pastors baptized women in the nude, and were opponents of church and crown. Perhaps their most […]

UPDATE: EC conducting internal investigation related to McLaurin

The SBC Executive Committee has begun an investigation into the circumstances leading to the resignation of Willie McLaurin. McLaurin resigned on Aug. 17 after confessing to falsifying his education background. He was serving as the interim president and CEO and was thought to be the leading candidate for the permanent role. He had served the EC […]