--- type: newsletter-issue title: State of the Church Today — Issue 16 issue: 16 date: 2026-09-06 audience: Pastors & Elders status: draft created: 2026-09-06T07:05 updated: 2026-09-06T07:05 --- # State of the Church Today *A weekly digest of Southern Baptist, Reformed, and broader theological news — curated for pastors and elders.* **Issue 16 · Sunday, September 6, 2026** > Tomorrow the Anglican Church in North America puts its own sitting archbishop on trial — the first time in its short history — while the PCA and OPC both call their churches to fast and pray this month for renewal and for laborers. One communion is testing whether its discipline works; two others are admitting that structure alone will not fill their pulpits. --- ## ⛪ SBC & Convention Watch *Annual meeting, entities, ERLC, resolutions, denominational politics.* **The Rice commission has names — and they lean toward the boundary-keepers.** Last week's item asked who would be appointed; now we know. Juan Sanchez (High Pointe, Austin; Southwestern professor) chairs, joined by Denny Burk, H.B. Charles, Ryan Fullerton, Aaron Menikoff, Adrian Taylor, Ben Lacey, Josh Powell, and two pastors' wives, Donna Gaines and Betsey Gomez. Sanchez publicly advocated for a constitutional amendment on the office of pastor, and several members are known complementarian voices — which reads as a signal that the commission is more likely to clarify how the Truth and Unity Amendment will be enforced than to soften it. Rice says the messengers, not the commission, will have the final word in Indianapolis. — [The Pathway (BP)](https://mbcpathway.com/2026/08/28/rice-announces-formation-of-commission-on-women-serving-in-pastoral-ministry/) · [ChurchLeaders](https://churchleaders.com/news/2222056-sbc-president-willy-rice-forms-commission-to-explore-how-amendment-banning-women-pastors-will-be-applied-and-enforced.html) **Lifeway Research: pews are fuller, but fewer newcomers are new to church.** A Lifeway study sponsored by the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center finds 54% of Protestant pastors report attendance up at least 4% since 2023 (Baptists among the likeliest to be growing, at 57%). The sobering number is underneath: new commitments per 100 attendees fell from 16 in 2016 to 11 in 2025, and the share of new attendees who were previously unchurched dropped from 27% to 20%. In Scott McConnell's words, more people are attending because the people already there attend more often. Worth asking your elders: is our growth conversion or consolidation? — [The Pathway (Lifeway Research)](https://mbcpathway.com/2026/09/03/pastors-report-growing-attendance-but-fewer-unchurched-newcomers-according-to-lifeway-research/) **Baptist Press's editor heads back to the local association.** Brandon Porter, the Executive Committee's vice president for convention communications and the man who has run Baptist Press day-to-day since 2021, was called Aug. 30 as associational mission strategist for South Central Baptist Association in Bowling Green, Ky. A quiet story, but Baptist Press shapes what most Southern Baptists know about their own convention, and who runs it matters. — [The Pathway (BP)](https://mbcpathway.com/2026/09/01/bp-editor-accepts-role-to-lead-kentucky-baptist-association/) **A cross-affiliation "Baptist Network" is set to launch this month.** Announced in June with conveners including Fuller Seminary president David Goatley and Arlington pastor Dwight McKissic, the network says it is not a new denomination but a fellowship for churches "weary" of denominational dysfunction and unwilling to let a national body settle the question of women pastors. It has said September is the launch. Treat this as an announcement rather than news until the launch actually happens — but note the direction of travel: as the SBC draws its line sharper, alternative homes are forming for churches on the other side of it. — [Baptist Standard](https://baptiststandard.com/news/baptists/the-baptist-network-forms-as-a-new-national-connection/) --- ## 📖 Reformed & Confessional *Reformed Baptist, Presbyterian (PCA/OPC), confessional churches and networks.* **The PCA and the OPC both call for fasting and prayer in September.** PCA General Assembly moderator Melton Duncan on Wednesday urged every presbytery to set aside a day this month for prayer and fasting, closing with a worship service and including repentance for personal and corporate sin, prayer for the conversion of the lost, and for faithful church plants — and explicitly invited sister NAPARC churches to join. The OPC's General Assembly had already called its congregations to prayer and fasting the week of Sept. 13–19, asking the Lord of the harvest for laborers; roughly one in ten OPC congregations is currently without a pastor. Baptist elders should not let the Presbyterians pray alone on this. — [WORLD](https://wng.org/sift/pca-to-hold-day-of-fasting-prayer-for-church-renewal-1788440179) · [OPC](https://opc.org/feature.html?feature_id=711) **Founders: the 1689 devotionally, and a warning about young women.** This week's Sword & the Trowel welcomes Joey Tomlinson to discuss his new book *Those Things Most Surely Believed* and how to read the Second London Confession as devotional literature, not just a doctrinal fence. The site's lead article, David Mitzenmacher's "We Need to Talk About the Radicalization of Young Women," argues that many young women have absorbed an anthropology that treats feelings as authority — a provocative frame, and one your women's ministry leaders may want to read and push on. Founders has also posted its January 2027 pre-conference alongside the National Conference ("The Law and the Gospel," Jan. 21–23, Fort Myers). Announcements and resources, not news. — [Founders: TS&TT](https://founders.org/podcasts/tstt-what-should-we-believe/) · [Founders: Mitzenmacher](https://founders.org/articles/we-need-to-talk-about-the-radicalization-of-young-women/) **Heidelblog on the two kingdoms — via a murder trial.** OPC pastor Jim Cassidy used the Lindsay Clancy case (a Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three children; the jury deadlocked and a mistrial was declared Sept. 4) to make a compact argument for two-kingdoms theology: the magistrate must hear the blood of Abel, the church must speak the better word of Christ's blood, and a Christian can say both "the magistrate is acting justly" and "today you will be with Christ" without contradiction. Whether or not you share his conclusions on capital punishment, it is a clear, pastorally useful statement of why sword and keys are not interchangeable. — [Heidelblog](https://heidelblog.net/2026/09/lindsay-clancy-and-the-two-kingdoms/) *Grimké Seminary was checked directly this week; no new announcements since the July Churchman men's conference.* --- ## 🕊️ Theology & Doctrine *Major debates, books, controversies, council and committee statements.* **TGC pulls its independent blogs under one editorial standard — and will delete some content.** In a Sept. 4 staff notice, The Gospel Coalition said its board has directed a phased review of its "historically independent" blog content (Justin Taylor, Trevin Wax, Ray Ortlund, Thomas Kidd, and others have long published there) to decide what to keep and what to remove as "dated, irrelevant, or misaligned with TGC's missional focus," ahead of a rebuilt site in early 2027. TGC cites AI-assisted search as part of the reason. The practical concern for pastors: fifteen years of frequently linked, frequently cited posts may quietly disappear. If there is a TGC blog piece you rely on for teaching, save a copy now. — [The Gospel Coalition](https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/update-content-editorial-standards/) **Is praise and worship music a new evangelical sacrament?** A Heidelblog post this week asks, by its title, whether contemporary worship music has come to function as the means by which many evangelicals expect to encounter God — the role the Reformed tradition assigns to Word and sacrament. Read it with the usual Heidelblog polemic in mind, but the question names something real about how members describe a "good" service. — [Heidelblog](https://heidelblog.net/2026/09/is-praise-worship-music-a-new-evangelical-sacrament/) --- ## 🏛️ Culture & Church-State *Religious liberty, ethics, politics affecting the church, cultural engagement.* **Samaritan's Purse turns down $300 million in federal aid money.** Three weeks after the State Department announced $2 billion for faith-based groups to replace parts of the dismantled USAID, Franklin Graham said Aug. 28 that after "prayer and discussion" Samaritan's Purse has withdrawn from receiving its $300 million share, offering no further reason beyond a stated preference to rely on God and private donors. Government grants were under 5% of the ministry's budget in 2020–24; World Vision, by contrast, draws roughly 30% of its budget from government funds and says its $238 million allocation stands. The story raises two questions elders should be able to answer for their people: what does a Christian ministry owe the state that funds it, and what happens to the poor when the money is refused on principle? Christianity Today's Emily Belz reports from Kenya and Zambia on what the cuts already look like on the ground. — [RNS](https://religionnews.com/2026/08/31/samaritans-purse-turns-down-300m-from-state-department-for-humanitarian-relief/) · [Christianity Today](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/09/hiv-usaid-pepfar-africa-foreign-aid-cuts-mission-hospitals/) **A Baptist pastor executed by Myanmar's military.** Rev. William, who pastored Chungcung Baptist Church in Chin State for more than 25 years, was arrested by the 77th Light Infantry Division on May 16 and killed June 4 with another villager, according to reporting confirmed in late August; he had stayed behind when others fled, believing his pastoral ID would protect him. His memorial was held Aug. 26. He leaves a wife and five children. Chin State is one of the most heavily Baptist regions on earth, and its churches have been targets since the 2021 coup. — [WORLD](https://wng.org/sift/myanmar-pastor-1788296860) · [International Christian Concern](https://persecution.org/2026/08/28/baptist-pastor-martyred-in-myanmar-by-military-dictatorship/) **One year since Charlie Kirk's assassination.** Thursday, Sept. 10 marks a year since the shooting at Utah Valley University. Turning Point USA will hold a memorial at UVU that day, and TPUSA Faith is asking Christians to invite a friend to church beginning Sept. 13. Expect the anniversary to be heavily politicized from both directions; a congregation can grieve a death and pray for a widow without adopting either side's narrative. — [Deseret News](https://www.deseret.com/politics/2026/08/21/turning-point-usa-announces-memorial-at-utah-valley-university-on-anniversary-of-charlie-kirk-assassination/) --- ## 🔥 Also Worth Noting *Notable controversy and media shake-ups — reported with discernment, not appetite.* **ACNA Archbishop Steve Wood goes on trial Monday.** The Anglican Church in North America's first trial of a sitting archbishop begins Sept. 7 in Charleston on three charges: sexual immorality, abuse of power, and violation of ordination vows. The presentment grew out of a former children's ministry director's allegations that Wood gave her church money, called her "Claire Bear," and attempted to kiss her in 2024; a second woman's claims, staff bullying, and sermon plagiarism were added later. Wood denies most of it. The trial runs through Sept. 12 (with a reserve week Sept. 21–26), is closed to the public, and a verdict could take up to 101 days. Acting archbishop Julian Dobbs told the province its "unity, fervor, and faith are surely being tested." Do not gossip about this; do watch it. It is the most consequential test of whether a young conservative denomination's discipline can reach the top of its own hierarchy. — [RNS](https://religionnews.com/2026/09/03/church-tiral-of-anglican-archbishop-steve-wood-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-begins-monday/) · [MinistryWatch](https://ministrywatch.com/acna-faces-first-archbishop-trial/) **Attention on "sainting" Charlie Kirk.** In the run-up to the anniversary, RNS published an opinion piece arguing that the memorializing of Kirk serves a movement more than the young women drawn to it; Founders' Tom Ascol published pastoral reflections in the immediate aftermath last year. The two pieces disagree about nearly everything, which is itself the point: your members are reading both. — [RNS (opinion)](https://religionnews.com/2026/09/02/sainting-charlie-kirk-serves-the-maga-movement-it-doesnt-serve-the-girls-who-believe-it/) · [Founders](https://founders.org/articles/pastoral-reflections-on-the-murder-of-charlie-kirk/) --- ## 🧭 For the Elder's Desk *A pastoral takeaway for your leadership team this week.* > Put the Lifeway numbers next to the Presbyterian fast. Fifty-four percent of pastors say their churches are growing, and the conversion rate per hundred attendees has fallen by a third in a decade. That is not a contradiction; it is a diagnosis. We are getting better at gathering Christians and worse at making them. Meanwhile the PCA and OPC — communions with confessions, courts, and a hundred years of polity between them — have concluded that what they lack cannot be produced by any of that, and have called their people to stop eating and pray for laborers and for revival. That is the right instinct, and it is a Baptist instinct too; our forebears kept days of fasting and prayer as a matter of course. So here is the question for your board: **when did our elders last set aside a day, not a prayer-meeting hour, to fast and ask God for the conversion of the lost in our town and for men to be raised up to preach?** If the answer is "not recently," Sept. 13–19 is as good a week as any, and you would not be praying alone. "Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest'" (Matt. 9:37–38). The command is not to recruit. It is to pray. --- *State of the Church Today · Compiled September 6, 2026. Reply with corrections or tips. Forward to a fellow elder.*