--- type: newsletter-issue title: State of the Church Today — Issue 07 issue: 7 date: 2026-07-06 audience: Pastors & Elders status: draft created: 2026-07-06T07:00 updated: 2026-07-06T15:47 --- # State of the Church Today *A weekly digest of Southern Baptist, Reformed, and broader theological news — curated for pastors and elders.* **Issue 07 · Monday, July 6, 2026** > A quiet post-convention, post-holiday week turns on transitions and money: Southern Baptists have voted the International Mission Board up to 51% of Cooperative Program dollars, cementing missions as the budget's top priority; Phil Johnson's cancer-driven retirement from Grace to You closes another chapter of the MacArthur era; and the Johnson Amendment fight sharpens as the White House commission's public-comment window closes July 13. --- ## ⛪ SBC & Convention Watch *Annual meeting, entities, ERLC, resolutions, denominational politics.* **The IMB moves to 51% of the Cooperative Program.** Capping a process first set in motion by the 2010 Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, messengers in Orlando voted June 10 to raise the International Mission Board's share of national Cooperative Program receipts to 51% — roughly $94.9 million — with the North American Mission Board at about 22.6%. The IMB's allocation had held near 50.4% since 2014; the bump funds roughly a dozen additional fully-supported missionaries a year. A modest number, but a real statement of priorities: in a tight budget year, Southern Baptists chose to weight the dollars toward the nations. Worth watching whether Cooperative Program giving itself keeps pace with the ambition. — [Baptist Press](https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/messengers-approve-51-percent-of-national-cooperative-program-dollars-for-imb/) · [The Baptist Paper](https://thebaptistpaper.org/imb-grateful-to-receive-51-of-cp-budget-allocation-in-upcoming-fiscal-year/) *Otherwise a genuinely quiet week across the entities — the annual meeting is behind us, Akin's handoff to Scott Pace at Southeastern lands July 31, and most offices are in summer rhythm.* --- ## 📖 Reformed & Confessional *Reformed Baptist, Presbyterian (PCA/OPC), confessional churches and networks.* **Grimké Seminary launches "Churchman," a new men's conference.** The Reformed Baptist / confessional-SBC seminary founded by Doug Logan and Bryan Laughlin will hold its inaugural "Churchman" conference July 27–29 in Richmond, Virginia, with a preaching pre-conference on the 27th. The billed aim is to press men toward faithful, ordinary membership and service in the local church — speakers include Logan, Doug Ponder, Joe Holland, Mark Becton, and others. A useful gauge of where this fast-growing "in, for, and by the church" institution is placing its emphasis: not celebrity platform but churchmanship. — [Grimké Seminary](https://grimkeseminary.org/churchman/) **Founders opens registration for its 2027 National Conference.** Founders Ministries has posted registration for next January's National Founders Conference, themed *The Law and the Gospel* — a perennial Reformed Baptist concern and a fitting follow-on to this year's discipleship theme. Early notice for elders who build continuing-education budgets a year out. — [Founders Ministries](https://founders.org/conference/) --- ## 🕊️ Theology & Doctrine *Major debates, books, controversies, council and committee statements.* **Summer reading: the 2026 Status of Global Christianity.** No single doctrinal controversy dominated the week, but Gordon-Conwell's Center for the Study of Global Christianity has out its annual statistical portrait, and it repays a slow read. Some 2.6 billion people now identify as Christian (32.2% of the world), projected to pass 3 billion before 2050; nearly 7 in 10 believers now live in the global South, with Africa (≈780 million) and Asia (≈415 million) driving growth, even as Europe and North America decline. The pastoral point is not the numbers but the reorientation they demand: the center of gravity of Christ's church has moved, and our missions praying and giving should catch up to where it now sits. — [Lifeway Research](https://research.lifeway.com/2026/04/14/9-encouraging-trends-for-global-christianity-in-2026/) · [Gordon-Conwell CSGC](https://www.gordonconwell.edu/center-for-global-christianity/resources/status-of-global-christianity/) --- ## 🏛️ Culture & Church-State *Religious liberty, ethics, politics affecting the church, cultural engagement.* **The Johnson Amendment fight sharpens — and the comment window is closing.** Last week's White House Religious Liberty Commission draft report (which recommends repealing the Johnson Amendment) is open for public comment only through July 13, and the surrounding legal picture is now the real story. After a Texas judge in March declined jurisdiction over the IRS's proposed settlement that would have let churches endorse candidates, the National Religious Broadcasters have signaled an appeal to the Fifth Circuit, and Treasury has promised formal guidance on political speech "within the context of religious services." Whether by settlement, court, or agency rule, the seventy-year norm against pulpit endorsements is being tested from several directions at once. Elders should decide *now* — before the law forces the question — what they would and would not do with that freedom. — [The Washington Stand](https://washingtonstand.com/article/supreme-court-may-get-case-freeing-churches-in-politics-in-2026-suit-to-watch-) · [Washington Times](https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jul/2/idea-separating-church-state-deep-religious-secular-roots/) --- ## 🔥 Also Worth Noting *Notable controversy and media shake-ups — reported with discernment, not appetite.* **Phil Johnson retires from Grace to You as the MacArthur era turns a page.** Phil Johnson, executive director of Grace to You for 43 years and the longtime editor of John MacArthur's books, announced his retirement effective July 1, citing an incurable multiple myeloma diagnosis and the need for new leadership less than a year after MacArthur's death. Johnson, 73, named no successor; separately, Matt MacArthur signaled "something new" for the ministry's next season. Less a scandal than a marker — one of the most influential Reformed-adjacent teaching ministries of the last half-century is entering an uncertain transition, and its stewardship is worth our prayers rather than our speculation. — [Christian Post](https://www.christianpost.com/news/phil-johnson-announces-retirement-from-grace-to-you.html) · [The Roys Report](https://roysreport.com/phil-johnson-retires-from-grace-to-you-as-matt-macarthur-announces-something-new/) --- ## 🧭 For the Elder's Desk *A pastoral takeaway for your leadership team this week.* > This week is a study in transitions: Phil Johnson stepping down under a terminal diagnosis, the tail end of the MacArthur era, Danny Akin's handoff at Southeastern later this month. Ministries built around a singular voice all eventually face the same test — whether the work was really the Lord's or really the man's. A question for your elders: *If your own most gifted leader were removed tomorrow — by death, illness, or moral failure — what in the life of this church would keep going, and what would quietly collapse? Where have we let a person carry what only the ordinary means of grace and a plurality of shepherds should carry?* --- *State of the Church Today · Compiled July 6, 2026. Reply with corrections or tips. Forward to a fellow elder.*