ORLANDO (BP) – Even after leading his first SBC Annual Meeting, President Clint Pressley says he’s still watching previous meetings to learn how he can best serve messengers when they gather June 9-10.
“Without skimping or cheating anyone, I want to be as efficient as possible and to do the business as joyfully as possible,” Pressley told Laura Erlanson in a recent “SBC This Week” podcast interview.
He says he know there will tough issues to discuss but he hopes messengers will “remember we’re a family.”
It’s not possible to know every issue that will be discussed as messengers have several opportunities to make motions that will be addressed before the meeting is adjourned.
Some of the known issues at hand are a new Cooperative Program Allocation Budget that would send 51 percent of CP dollars to the International Mission Board, the election of a new slate of officers, a group of 11 resolutions that deal with wide-ranging issues such as a clarification on the office of pastor/elder/overseer in the local church, political violence, a call for ministry leaders to finish well and more.
Pressley says the resolutions are important to him because he knows Southern Baptists like to speak clearly on issues.
“We want to be able to walk away saying, ‘Yes, we agree on this, this and this, and the Convention said this,’” he said.
While Pressley knows the proposed CP Allocation Budget will put a strain on the Executive Committee, he says this budget change will communicate, “This is why we exist. This is what the Southern Baptist Convention does.”
“Our whole heartbeat missions and this is sort of putting your money where your mouth is in some regard,” he said.
Pressley pastors Hickory Groves Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C. He said his presidency “has gone by fast” but there have been occasions when he wondered “how long can this last.”
He was first elected by messengers at the 2024 Annual Meeting in New Orleans.
Looking without, looking within
As Pressley looks out on a culture that seems to continue to become more secular, he encourages Southern Baptists to remember that people who don’t value what Christians value “are not our enemies.” Instead, he said, “They are those that need Christ.”
He encourages Southern Baptists to hold tightly the genuine convictions they possess “with genuine compassion,” and “renewing our whole heart of evangelism, and seeing people won to Christ.”
A recent Lifeway Research study of the 2025 Annual Church Profile data showed that while baptisms and church attendance are up among Southern Baptist churches, membership is down.
Pressley isn’t convinced that this is the bad news some make it out to be. In fact, he believes it could be a sign of health in the Convention.
“Look, our church, 15 years ago, had 17,000 people on the roll and we now have 4,000 people on roll,” he said.
“So, if you take 13,000 people in the last 10 years away from our church, I am solely responsible for the decline in membership,” he said.
He says membership is not his primary indicator of the church’s health. He believes an accurate membership roll comprised of those who are active in the church makes for a healthier local church.
“Attendance and baptisms are how we measure the success of the church and membership should follow it,” he said. “Not the other way around.”
An Annual Meeting ahead
Before his sole ministry focus can return to his church in North Carolina, he must once again complete the task of leading what parliamentarians say is the world’s largest business meeting.
“I am looking forward to it,” he said. “I hope that it’ll be a convention we can walk away from and think, ‘You know what, I’m glad I’m Southern Baptist.’”
He acknowledges there may be tense moments, but “once everybody gets in the room together, it just gets better.”
Related posts:
Proposed CP budget makes missions top priority 
9Marks at 9 examines ‘movement-driven’ vs. ‘church-centered’ mission paradigms 
National Hispanic Baptist Network workshops focus on women’s ministry, missions, evangelism 
‘Post-Gospel’ Indy friendly, slow to embrace Church, association rep says 
Hispanic pastors discuss leading a church out of COVID 
National African American Fellowship continues five-year Vision 2030 
2024 Committee on Committees 
Ezell shares about the people behind NAMB’s work in report to the convention
