Sunday, June 14, 2026
Orlando has adjourned: Willy Rice is the new SBC president, Mohler’s “Truth & Unity Amendment” cleared its first two-thirds vote, and missions giving hit a long-sought milestone — but the new president’s press-conference claim that the abuse crisis was “weaponized” has reopened the wound the convention spent the week trying to close.
Annual meeting, entities, ERLC, resolutions, denominational politics.
Willy Rice elected president. Clearwater, Florida pastor Willy Rice (Calvary Baptist Church) won the SBC presidency on the first ballot June 9, taking 5,217 votes (57.56%) to Josh Powell’s 3,821 (42.16%). Rice framed the office as representing the churches rather than an entity or committee — but his record as a skeptic of the convention’s abuse response made the win immediately contested. Baptist Press TN Baptist
The “Truth & Unity Amendment” clears its first vote. Al Mohler’s amendment — barring churches that affirm, appoint, or endorse a woman as pastor, and naming the act of preaching as reserved to the office — passed 6,028 to 2,026 (76.66%), comfortably over the two-thirds bar. Because it is a constitutional amendment, it must clear a confirming vote at the 2027 meeting in Indianapolis before taking effect. Baptist Press Christian Post
Missions giving crosses the 51% line. Messengers approved a Cooperative Program budget directing 51% of national receipts — roughly $94.86M — to the International Mission Board, completing a reallocation Southern Baptists first voted to pursue in 2010. A floor amendment from Benjamin Cole seeking an additional $8M priority allocation was rejected. The shift redirects more than $2M to the IMB beginning October 2026. Baptist Press
Eight resolutions pass. Messengers adopted resolutions June 10 on disability ministry, assisted suicide, political violence, antisemitism, and immigration, among others. The immigration resolution affirmed the dignity of every person regardless of national origin while backing “lawful immigration enforcement carried out justly, humanely, and according to due process” — and, as in recent years, omitted the older path-to-status language. TN Baptist Baptist Press
“Tired of task forces.” Of 30 motions from the floor, roughly a third asked for new task forces or study committees — and messengers declined nine of them. It is a telling mood: after the abuse-reform implementation effort was disbanded without delivering the long-promised database of credibly accused ministers, the convention is wary of referring hard problems to yet another committee. Baptist Press
Reformed Baptist, Presbyterian (PCA/OPC), confessional churches and networks.
PCA heads to Louisville with the nationalism report in hand. The Presbyterian Church in America’s 53rd General Assembly convenes June 22–26 at the Kentucky International Convention Center. The Ad-Interim Committee on Christian Nationalism — chaired by David Strain (First Presbyterian, Jackson, MS) — has released a partial report carrying two recommendations, anchored by a set of Affirmations and Denials meant to mark the bounds of acceptable opinion in the denomination. Whether the Assembly adopts, amends, or recommits it will signal how the PCA intends to handle the theonomy-and-nationalism conversation. byFaith AIC Report (PDF)
Major debates, books, controversies, council and committee statements.
What “tier” is the pastorate? The Truth & Unity Amendment does more than restate the Baptist Faith & Message; it makes a church’s view of women in the pastoral office a test of cooperation, and names preaching itself as part of that office. That forces the old intramural question back to the surface: is complementarianism a first-order, fellowship-defining conviction, or a second- or third-order matter on which the faithful may differ? It is a question every confessional eldership eventually has to answer for itself — and the SBC has now answered it at the level of its constitution. The Gospel Coalition ChurchLeaders
Religious liberty, ethics, politics affecting the church, cultural engagement.
A narrow win for pastors on Social Security. In the ERLC’s report to messengers June 9, the entity highlighted the Clergy Act — bipartisan legislation, recently passed by the House, that would open a two-year window for ministers who previously opted out of Social Security and Medicare to opt back in. It is a small, concrete piece of relief for pastors who made an irrevocable-seeming decision early in ministry, and worth flagging to any clergy in your church who may qualify. Baptist Press
The pulpit-endorsement question is still unsettled. A federal judge in Texas declined this spring to approve the IRS settlement that would have exempted “traditional religious communications” from the Johnson Amendment’s ban on candidate endorsements, ruling he lacked jurisdiction; the National Religious Broadcasters has said it will appeal. Until the courts resolve it, the safest counsel for churches remains unchanged — the law on the books still bars partisan endorsements from the pulpit. Episcopal News Service
Notable controversy and media shake-ups — reported with discernment, not appetite.
The new president’s first storm. At his June 10 press conference, Willy Rice said the abuse crisis “absolutely was weaponized, just like the Me Too movement,” and denied there had ever been a “systematic” cover-up by denominational leaders. Survivors and advocates reacted sharply — abuse survivor Tiffany Thigpen said those who “place institution and platform above the vulnerable” had worked to ensure no reform moved forward. The exchange means Rice’s tenure begins with the very fight the convention’s “force for good” messaging was meant to move past. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette The Roys Report Baptist Standard
A pastoral takeaway for your leadership team this week.
The convention spent its energy on a boundary it could draw cleanly — who may stand in the pulpit — and then, almost in the same breath, stumbled over the boundary it has never managed to keep: protecting the vulnerable from those already in the pulpit. The first is easier to legislate than the second is to live. A question for your elders this week: When a credible accusation reaches us, will our instinct be to protect the flock or to protect the name of the church? The amendment we are quickest to pass is rarely the test that actually comes for us.
State of the Church Today · Compiled June 14, 2026. Reply with corrections or tips. Forward to a fellow elder.