[1]ORLANDO (BP) – Southern Baptist Convention messengers voted June 9 to consider Albert Mohler’s “Truth and Unity” amendment [2] to the SBC Constitution at this year’s Annual Meeting. They also effectively killed six motions requesting the appointment of task forces to study a range of issues.
Mohler’s motion was scheduled for debate at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday, June 10.
Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, moved that Article 3 of the SBC Constitution [3] be amended to “make clear that a cooperating Southern Baptist church … does not affirm, appoint or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation.”
He also moved the suspension of SBC Standing Rule 6, stating that all motions to amend the Convention’s governing documents “shall be automatically referred to the Executive Committee for review and report back to the following Convention.”
The SBC Committee on Order of Business recommended that Mohler’s motion be referred to the EC, but the committee also requested that messengers be permitted to vote on suspending Rule 6. The suspension passed on a raised-ballot vote, and the motion was scheduled for consideration.
Messengers seemed to be tired of task forces. Benjamin Cole of North Carolina led a successful charge against referring to the EC five motions requesting task forces. Cole said the EC should not be overloaded with “extraneous tasks and ongoing studies that are far afield from its ministry assignment.”
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“The Executive Committee has become for the Southern Baptist Convention like ancient Israelites, whose quota of bricks has been increased while their ration of straw has been eliminated,” Cole said approximately an hour after EC President Jeff Iorg told messengers the proposed 2026-27 Cooperative Program Allocation Budget decreases the EC’s funding. “Brothers, sisters, let us not demand more bricks while denying them essential straw.”
After voting not to refer the motions to the EC, messengers voted to indefinitely postpone consideration of all five, a parliamentary maneuver effectively killing them.
The five motions were:
- That the Convention ask the EC to appoint a pastors’ wives task force to recommend ways to help ministry wives, submitted by Tiffany Helms of South Carolina.
- That messengers ask the EC and the six seminaries to include in each seminary’s annual report data on students’ vocational plans, submitted by Garrison Griffith of Louisiana.
- That messengers ask the SBC president to appoint a study committee to draft a statement on women’s roles in ministry leadership, submitted by Jared Long of Georgia.
- That messengers direct the SBC president to appoint a task force on biblical arbitration and reconciliation, submitted by Ed Willoughby of Missouri.
- That the SBC president be asked to appoint a committee to review the Baptist Faith and Message and recommend any needed updates, submitted by Casey Williams of South Carolina.
The Committee on Order of Business moved that another motion – that the SBC president appoint a committee to study factors leading some evangelicals to convert to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy – be referred to incoming President Willy Rice. But messengers defeated the motion to refer adopted a motion by the Committee on Order of Business to indefinitely postpone the matter.
Two motions were referred automatically to the EC because they pertained to amending the Convention’s governing documents.
- That Bylaw 8 be amended to adjust Credentials Committee operating procedures, submitted by Jonathan Greer of Mississippi.
- That the Business and Financial Plan be amended to preclude SBC entities from fundraising without advanced approval of the Convention or the EC, submitted by Rhett Burns of South Carolina.
A motion asking the SBC president to appoint a task force on transparency and accountability was referred to all entities and the EC.
[5]Twenty motions made Tuesday afternoon awaited action Wednesday by the Committee on Order of Business. Among them:
- That Bylaw 8 be amended to close online messenger preregistration at 11:59 p.m. the Monday before the SBC Annual Meeting begins, submitted by Gregory Mathis of Kentucky.
- That messengers express a desire for a written explanation of the alcohol policies of SBC mission boards and seminaries, submitted by Jared Long of Georgia.
- That the EC report annually on the extent of participation in the Annual Meeting by messengers who have formal relationships with SBC entities or state conventions, submitted by Josh Abbotoy of Tennessee.
- That Bylaw 15 be amended to preclude from SBC entity trustee service anyone who is employed by any SBC entity or whose spouse is employed by any SBC entity, submitted by Michael Clary of Kentucky.
- That International Mission Board trustees review the board’s vaccination policy to accommodate missionaries choosing not to get vaccines, submitted by Michael Schneider of Missouri.
- That the North American Mission Board publish the 10 largest payments it makes to contractors or vendors each year, by Jonathan Helvoigt of Colorado.
- That NAMB publish the total amount of money it paid annually for outside legal counsel and legal consultants from 2020-25, submitted by Wade Thomas of Kentucky.
- That the IMB be requested to review its vaccine policies and let fulltime missionaries opt out of vaccines that violate their consciences, submitted by John Jones of Missouri.
- That the six seminaries and Lifeway report how they are addressing “widespread theological errors among American evangelicals regarding” the deity of Christ, the personhood of the Holy Spirit and the exclusivity of Christian worship, submitted by Malcolm Yarnell of Texas.
- That the SBC authorize its president to appoint a task force on messenger participation in the annual meetings, submitted by John Knudsen of Missorui.
- That the Convention set standards for music utilized at annual meetings, including a prohibition of songs that profit groups promoting false gospels, submitted by Jeremiah Hayes of Arizona.
- That the EC study offering meeting space to the SBC Pastors’ Conference at no cost or significantly lower costs, submitted by Joseph Dugger of Tennessee.
- That the SBC ask each state convention to provide a remote SBC Annual Meeting site for smaller churches that cannot afford to send messengers to the main annual meeting site, submitted by Jim Cummings of Tennessee.
- That the Committee on Order of Business be instructed to limit music and sermon times during the annual meeting and schedule more time for questions, discussion, motions and debate, submitted by Dean Scoular of Missouri.
- That the SBC expand resources for Deaf churches, Deaf pastors and Deaf leaders, submitted by Brance Long of North Carolina.
- That the SBC condemn the theology known as “Kinism” as contrary to the Gospel, submitted by Juan-Jose Cavallo of Florida.
- That the SBC form a task force to study the Convention’s support of national Israel in light of increasing antisemitism, submitted by Matt Dunn of Missouri.
- That seminary data reports include total expenses and change in net assets, submitted by John Piwetz of Kentucky.
- That the incoming SBC president appoint a task force to study the responsibilities of entity trustees, submitted by Jerry Watts of Mississippi.
- That the SBC Constitution be amended to clarify that only biological males may serve as pastors, submitted by Robbie Gibson of North Carolina.
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