SBC

“Membership declined for the 17th straight year… the less than 2 percent decline was the smallest in recent years. Additionally, Southern Baptist-affiliated congregations experienced increases in baptisms, average weekly worship attendance and average small group attendance.” - Baptist Press

“In this time when Baptists in our tradition are thinking more about who is and is not in friendly cooperation, Baptist associations must have a proactive, positive response.” - The Baptist Paper

“Four recommendations released today are designed to ‘prioritize and emphasize the authority of messengers in defining the boundaries of our cooperation while clarifying and refining our structure,’ said a statement from the SBC’s Cooperation Group.” - Baptist Press

“other individuals expected to be nominated for SBC president include: Clint Pressley, the lead pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina; Mike Keahbone, the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lawton, Oklahoma; and Jared Moore, pastor of Cumberland Homesteads Baptist Church in Crossville, Tennessee.” - CPost

“A Lifeway Research study finds Southern Baptists broadly embrace conservative political ideology but also support religious liberty for all Americans and a government that does not favor any specific religion.” - Lifeway

“The debate concerns a proposed amendment to the SBC constitution referred to as the ‘Law amendment’ (named after Michael Law, who proposed the amendment)” -TGC

“According to Lifeway Research’s analysis of the 2022 Annual Church Profile of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1,253 congregations that were part of the Convention in 2021 were no longer connected in 2022.” - Lifeway

The four candidates “addressed issues such as sexual abuse reforms… a constitutional amendment calling for only males to serve as pastors of any kind, what is ‘friendly cooperation’ in the SBC and transparency among entities.” - Baptist Press

“now comes Wingfield’s report that The North American Mission Board, the International Mission Board, and Guidestone may divvy up the Executive Committee. A new covenant between the churches and the Convention, combined with the removal of the ‘ad interim’ SBC, would be the end of the Southern Baptist Convention system.” - Christ Over All

“Southern Baptists initiated the work of sexual abuse reform not in response to criminal inquiries or threats of lawsuits but due to an increasing burden and awareness that vulnerable people were suffering harm in many of our churches and institutions, which were vastly under resourced to care for and protect them.” - BPNews