Unity, cooperation reign at IBSA Annual Meeting
By Eric Reed/Illinois Baptist
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – If 1925 was a year to remember, with the birth of a unified missions funding system and the denomination’s first official statement of faith, then 2025 was also a year to remember.
Southern Baptists celebrated the centennial anniversaries of the Cooperative Program and the Baptist Faith and Message. Illinois Baptists marked the coming 20th anniversary of Nate Adams’ service as executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association, and his planned retirement April 1, 2026. And 413 messengers (with 120 guests) at the 119th Annual Meeting of the Illinois Baptist State Association approved plans for increased ministry on college campuses, as evidence grows that younger people are becoming more open to the Gospel.
Better connections
With the meeting theme of “Unity and Cooperation,” IBSA President Doug Munton called for intentional connections around three things: theology, mission and relationships. “Our pastors, our people and our churches would benefit greatly by better connections,” Munton said. “We are made for connection, (but) we tend towards disconnecting.”
To a room filled with pastors, Munton said, “There’s a tendency for pastors – and men – to say we don’t need connections, but we do. … Not just for your benefit, but for the benefit of others.”
As pastor of 30 years at First Baptist Church of O’Fallon, a top missions-giving and sending church in Illinois, Munton pointed to support for Cooperative Program and the Baptist Faith and Message as Baptists’ main means of theological and missional connection. But it was his stories of pastors who became his friends through IBSA service that were most moving.
100 and counting
Two sessions in the two-day meeting focused on the 100-year-old pillars of Southern Baptist work. Several speakers held them up as key to effective Gospel advance.
Adams pointed to the rise of liberalism in the culture in the early 1900s, and the reclamation needed that made 1925 “a year to remember.” Southern Baptists responded with their first statement of faith, and with a system for funding missions that was unified and reliable.
“It had never happened before, but a convention that had moved to the theological left, moved back to its conservative roots,” said guest speaker Chuck Kelley, president emeritus of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
“Southern Baptists have one foundation – God’s holy Word,” Kelley said. The statement of faith serves as a roadmap to that Word, not a replacement.
Kelley’s successor at New Orleans Seminary, Jamie Dew, challenged Illinois Baptists to be their best version rather than their worst version. Dew told about his own journey from failure to success to pride – and finally to seeing Jesus as his example for humility.
He drew from Paul’s Christological Hymn in Philippians 2, which describes Jesus as fully God and yet poured out for the sake of his mission.
Paul’s call for believers to be like-minded in Philippians 2:5 is hard. “Paul, I love ya buddy, but it just doesn’t seem possible,” Dew said. But God makes it possible.
Business
Messengers approved a $6 million CP budget for 2026, the same as last year. The budget includes a renewed focus on campus ministry in the state.
The CP ratio remains at 56.5 percent for Illinois and 43.5 percent forwarded for national and international missions and ministry.
Messengers approved one round of constitutional changes and prepared for another. The changes are designed to bring further clarification on the relationship between the IBSA and its partner entities.
All four IBSA officers were reelected for second one-year terms. Doug Munton, pastor of First Baptist Church of O’Fallon, returned as president. He was joined by Vice President Jeff Logsdon, pastor of Island City Baptist Church in Wilmington; Recording Secretary Matt Philbrick, associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Ramsey; and Assistant Recording Secretary Nate Mason, pastor of First Baptist Church of Effingham. All four officers were reelected without opposition.
Messengers also heard reports from Woman’s Missionary Union Executive Director Sandy Wisdom Martin; IBSA missions director Shannon Ford; John Yi, Qusai Mahmoud and Scott Nichols from the Send Relief Ministry Center in Chicago; and Jeff Dalrymple, director of the SBC Executive Committee’s Office of Abuse Prevention and Response.
The 120th IBSA Annual Meeting will be held at Metro Church in Edwardsville, Nov. 3-4, 2026.
Indiana Baptists’ ‘continuing desire’ to reach the lost
By Karen L. Willoughby
MARTINSVILLE, Ind. – One of the highlights of the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana’s 66th annual summit was the Christ honoring worship led by a praise team from Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio. So says Tom Savage, interim executive director and pastor of Sugar Creek Baptist Church in West Terre Haute.
Savage, who was voted into this leadership role in August after Ryan Strother left for a new ministry role in Ohio, also lauded the four messages preached – from Hebrews 11 by renowned preaching professor Robert Smith and Hebrews 12 by Southern Baptist Convention President Clint Pressley – during the two-day Summit.
“We do the business we need to do at the Annual Summit, but we really focus on the celebration, the worship, the connectivity of the people who gather,” Savage told Baptist Press. “The choir from Cedarville, these are great kids, very talented and very good. To see their energy and love for the Lord really enhanced the attitude of worship that graced both days.”
Smith “shared from his heart about sermon prep and encouraging words for the pastors,” Savage said. Pressley “let us get to know him a lot better. He was very genuine, a sharp dresser, and very personal. It was refreshing to hear him share his heart.”
“Dr. Larry Lewis, our SCBI convention president, nailed the idea of ‘Don’t Just Sit There; Run!” which he came up with early this year,” Savage continued. “Reginald Fletcher brought the convention sermon. We all love him.” Fletcher is pastor of Living Word Baptist Church in Indianapolis. “All these men did a bang-up job that hit home for all those who heard them.”
The scriptural base for the “Don’t just sit there; Run!” theme was 1 Corinthians 9:24-27.
In addition to reports from state leaders and national entity representatives, the business of Indiana’s Summit included a panel discussion of four Baptist Collegiate Ministry directors, approving one bylaw change – removing the Resolutions Committee as a standing committee – electing officers and passage of a $2,910,098 budget for 2026.
“The summit was smooth all the way through,” Savage said, mentioning the unopposed elections, connections and warm fellowship.
“We share this continuous desire: to reach Indiana for Christ, and we have a heart for the lost and people in various situations of need,” Savage said. “Larger and smaller churches being able to pool our resources together is an amazing thing. The Cooperative Program brings us all together to reach our neighbors and our friends for Christ. We love our autonomy and we love our cooperation.”
New officers: President Larry Lewis, pastor of Vann Avenue Baptist Church in Evansville, was re-elected to a second one-year term. First Vice President Don Morris, pastor of Vernon (Ind.) Baptist Church, was elected to his first one-year term, as was Second Vice President Ricky Persons, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in North Vernon, Ind. Steve Taylor, pastor of Northeast Park Baptist Church in Evansville was re-elected recording secretary.
Next year’s budget is down $173,702 from 2025, reflecting an anticipated decline in undesignated receipts from churches. For the second year, the split between state and national CP giving is 63 percent for Indiana and 37 percent for global missions.
“As of the first seven months of 2025, CP giving is $56,000 above the year-to-date budget [as revised earlier this year based on 2024’s year-end receipts, Finance Team Leader Kyle Brennan told Baptist Press] and $64,000 ahead of the same period in 2024,” according to the Finance Report published in the state convention’s 2025 Book of Reports.
Nine churches were started in 2025; five through Send Network Indiana – totaling 25 statewide – plus another four through affiliation with the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana and the Southern Baptist Convention.
“They hear what we are doing,” Savage said, referring to the newly affiliated churches. “They value the connectivity, and the fellowship. This fellowship creates an atmosphere of knowing they have someone to call, knowing they are not alone. Without question, hearing about our autonomy and cooperation is huge. Other than the Lord Jesus Himself, no authority can tell us what to do, what to preach, and when to meet. The Cooperative Program usually is a pleasant surprise to people outside the SBC and SCBI. That we are able to do together what we could not do alone is refreshing.”
Indiana has an ongoing relationship with Tokyo, Japan, and is considering one with Panama as well as other places internationally as they remain focused on the work in Indiana and the United States.
The 2026 annual summit is to be hosted by Harvest Church in Carmel on Oct. 22-23.
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