ORLANDO, Fla. (BP) – The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee reelected Anthony (Tony) Dockery as chairman June 8, along with a full slate of officers and committee chairs in a meeting focused on God and aimed at serving the Convention with accountability and a streamlined budget.
Dockery, pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church in La Puente, Calif., was elected to a second term along with Vice Chairman Adam Wyatt, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Monticello, Miss., both uncontested. Kathryn (Katie) Creery, children’s director at Central Baptist Church in Warner Robins, Ga., was elected secretary, stepping into the role Nancy Spalding fulfilled for the maximum two years.
Newly elected standing committee chairs, all uncontested and promoted from vice chair in their respective committees, are Dean Inserra, lead pastor of the City Church in Tallahassee, chair of the Committee on Southern Baptist Relations; Corey Cain, lead pastor of Seymour First Baptist Church in Seymour, Tenn., chair of the Committee on Convention Events and Strategic Planning; Sarah Rogers of Greenville, South Carolina, women’s ministry coordinator for the Pillar Network, chair of the Committee on Convention Missions and Ministry; and David Twiddy, a Florida civil engineer, chair of the Committee on Convention Finance and Stewardship.
EC members approved all items unanimously, including a vote to recommend to 2026 SBC Annual Meeting messengers a 2026-2027 SBC comprehensive budget that will grant to the International Mission Board 51 percent of Cooperative Program national receipts.
EC President’s Report
“The recommendation is significantly different than last year’s budget in two ways,” Iorg told the EC in his president’s report. “First, the new budget does not contain any priority allocation to the Executive Committee for legal or operational expenses. Second, the new budget allocates 51 percent of our national Cooperative Program budget to the International Mission Board. These two changes will shift more than $2 million in new funding to the International Mission Board beginning in October 2026.”
The changes will lead the EC in particular to consider cost-cutting measures, Iorg said, while praising all entities for making sacrifices to achieve the budget mandate benefitting IMB that messengers approved more than a decade ago.
“These changes are only possible because entity presidents came together to make them happen. Every SBC entity that receives Cooperative Program funding, the ERLC (Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission), North American Mission Board and all six seminaries agreed to reduce their allocation so more money can be sent to the IMB,” Iorg said. “The Executive Committee is making the largest contribution, both foregoing any further priority allocation and reducing our standard CP allocation by about $660,000, or about 12 percent of our previous allocation.”
With special priority allocation funds and decreased legal fees, the SBC and EC budgets are fully funded, Iorg said, adding that the changes have implications for the EC.
“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,” Iorg told trustees. “The Convention has mandated these changes as reflected in their decisions over the past five years related to minimizing the influence of the Executive Committee. In response, we must streamline operations and focus more narrowly on our core functions.”
Trustees approved an EC accountability letter, required in the new Business and Financial Plan messengers approved in 2025. Iorg described the letter, drafted by the Committee on Convention Finance and Stewardship Development, as a “thorough description of how the Executive Committee has complied with the expectations of the Convention for its business, financial and legal operations.”
SBC President Clint Pressley greeted trustees upon completing his second and final consecutive term.
“One of the great honors and the privileges you have as a Southern Baptist Convention president is to see the entities and their leaders up close and personal,” Pressley said, “to find out that the men and women actually do love the Gospel like you hope they do, actually do believe in the mission like you hope they would.
“The closer you get to the leaders of our various entities, the closer and more confident you are in the direction of the Southern Baptist Convention and all of the things that we actually claim we do.”
The EC commended incoming entity leaders including ERLC President Evan Lenow, Lifeway Christian Resources President Ryan Blackwell, Southeastern Baptist Theological President Scott Pace (SEBTS) and retiring SEBTS President Danny Akin.
In other business, the EC:
- received as information the 2025-26 SBC cooperative program allocation budget report ending March 31 and showing receipts of $95,156,447, a 0.16 percent increase over the same period in 2025;
- received as information the 2025-2026 EC and SBC operating budget report, showing a total and positive change in net assets of $2,547,926.
- approved the Committee on Convention Missions and Ministry’s recommendation to nominate Janine Sanchez to serve a three-year term on the SBC Credentials Committee.
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