ORLANDO, Fla. (BP) – Capping a 16-year process, the International Mission Board (IMB) will begin receiving 51 percent of national Cooperative Program receipts annually in the 2026-2027 fiscal year, messengers to the 2026 SBC Annual Meeting in Orlando voted June 10.
The SBC Executive Committee’s Disability Ministry Task Force also presented its report to messengers as part of the EC’s Wednesday report. (See related story.)
Messengers rejected a proposed amendment to the Cooperative Program budget for an $8 million priority allocation to IMB, brought to the floor by Benjamin Cole, a messenger from North Lexington Baptist Church in Lexington, N.C. Cole’s reasoning was the 16-year delay in getting the IMB’s CP allocation to 51 percent.
EC President Jeff Iorg took issue with Cole’s reasoning.
“This priority allocation would have a dramatic impact in that it would give significant additional resources to the International Mission Board,” Iorg said. “But the way our allocation budget works, if you do this it will have a significant negative impact on the North American Mission Board, all six seminaries, ERLC (the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission), and of course the Executive Committee.
“I am in favor of working hard to find more ways to give more money to the International Mission Board,” Iorg said. “I caution you about this kind of dramatic shock to our financial system and the impact it might make throughout the rest of the entities, as well as what it might do for the International Mission Board. So for that reason, I would speak against the motion.”
After limited debate, messengers rejected Cole’s proposal and approved the 2026-2026 Cooperative Program Allocation Budget. As approved, the budget gives $94,860,000 to the IMB (51 percent of receipts), $42,110,400 or 22.64 percent to the North American Mission Board, forwarding to missions the overwhelming majority of national CP contributions.
Iorg, in his address to messengers June 9, affirmed the EC’s commitment to missions, despite financial sacrifices the inherent cut to the EC budget requires.
“Reducing our Cooperative Program allocation by $660,000 has implications for the Executive Committee,” Iorg told messengers the previous day. “We will be considering options like reducing compensation and benefits, curtailing some ministry efforts, increasing fees for services, and looking for efficiencies in every department. We know you want us to make these changes because of the decisions you have made over the past five years, which mandate a streamlined Executive Committee focused more narrowly on its core functions. We hear you and we are responding accordingly.”
Messengers approved all 12 of the EC’s recommendations, rejecting motions by some messengers against two annual meeting dates, 2032 and 2037, slated for Anaheim, Calif. Two separate motions sought to cancel the Anaheim dates and replace them with meetings closer to the bulk of Southern Baptist churches in the Southeast. Conversely, other messengers from New England and the Midwest contended that many pastors make financial sacrifices to attend the meetings in the south, including this year’s meeting in Orlando.
Iorg directed messengers the EC would be happy to abide by their wishes, but those rejecting West Coast meetings were in the minority. Anaheim meeting dates are June 8-9, 2032, and June 16-17, 2037.
In other action recommended by the EC, recorded on pages 45-49 of the 2026 Book of Reports, messengers:
- Added Disability Ministry Sunday to the SBC Calendar of Activities, falling on the second Sunday in July and beginning in 2027, with the upcoming dates of July 11, 2027; July 9, 2028; July 8, 2029; July 14, 2030, and July 13, 2031.
- Approved the 2026-2027 SBC Executive Committee and SBC operating budget. Totaling $10,919,000, the budget anticipates $8,919,000 in revenue and utilizes $2 million in reserves and loan proceeds.
- Amended Article XIV of the SBC Constitution to allow alterations “in the Convention’s adopted statement of faith,” by the same process of amendments to Article XIV that requires, at any meeting of the Convention, a vote of two-thirds of the messengers present and voting at the time the vote is taken, provided that an amendment shall be so approved by two consecutive annual meetings of the Convention. The amendment to the article was first approved in 2025.
- Amended Bylaw 19, Committee on Committees, expanding the required time from 45 days prior to the convention, to 60 days prior to the convention, that the SBC president must notify members of their selection and submit the names of committee members in writing to Baptist Press.
- Amended Bylaw 21, Committee on Order of Business, increasing the size of the committee from seven to nine members, composed of the SBC president and eight others. Among those eight, messengers amended Bylaw 21 to specify that two members shall be elected each year for terms of four years, an increase from the previous three-year term; increased from two to three the number of committee members who cannot be employed fulltime by a church or denominational entity, and mandated that the committee elect its own chair.
- In addition to approving Anaheim, Calif., as the convention site in 2032 and 2037, messengers approved future convention sites and locations of Houston, Texas, June 11-12, 2030; New Orleans, June 13-14, 2034, and Indianapolis, Ind., June 12-13, 2035. Sites are contingent upon satisfactory contract negotiations with the convention center and area hotels in each respective location.
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