--- type: newsletter-issue title: State of the Church Today — Issue 18 issue: 18 date: 2026-09-20 audience: Pastors & Elders status: draft created: 2026-09-20T07:05 updated: 2026-09-20T07:05 --- # State of the Church Today *A weekly digest of Southern Baptist, Reformed, and broader theological news — curated for pastors and elders.* **Issue 18 · Sunday, September 20, 2026** > Al Mohler said three words this week that most public theologians never say — "I blew it" — and withdrew the blasphemy provision from his hypothetical Christian nationalist constitution. Meanwhile the ACNA's archbishop trial closed with no verdict before December, a new book argues women are now leaving church faster than men, and forty-six missionaries were sent to places where some of them could not show their faces. A week about what we ask the state to enforce, and what only the church can. --- ## ⛪ SBC & Convention Watch *Annual meeting, entities, ERLC, resolutions, denominational politics.* **Mohler retracts the blasphemy law: "I think I blew it."** In his chapter for Canon Press's *Five Views on Christian Nationalism* — framed as drafting a constitution for a fractured America in 2099 — the Southern Seminary president had proposed criminalizing blasphemy and requiring an acknowledgment of the nation's Christian foundation, including the Trinity, for citizenship and public office. After criticism, notably from former ERLC president Richard Land, who argued the requirement was un-Baptist and would have disqualified Jefferson, Mohler published a Sept. 14 op-ed recanting the blasphemy proposal: he had used "an old word in a new context," and doctrinal judgments belong to "the believing church," not the magistrate. He added, "As a Baptist, I would never want to coerce religious belief — period." He did not retract the underlying claim that the Constitution erred by not acknowledging the nation's Christian foundation, nor the acknowledgment requirement for office. Worth reading in full before your next conversation about Christian nationalism, and worth noting that a public retraction is itself a pastoral example. — [The Pathway (BP)](https://mbcpathway.com/2026/09/15/i-blew-it-on-blasphemy-mohler-admits-of-his-hypothetical-christian-nationalism/) · [RNS](https://religionnews.com/2026/09/14/al-mohler-reverses-course-rejects-blasphemy-laws-after-controversy/) · [Baptist Standard](https://baptiststandard.com/news/baptists/mohler-pulls-back-reference-to-blasphemy/) **Forty-six new IMB missionaries sent — some without showing their faces.** At the IMB's third Sending Celebration of 2026, held Sept. 16 at The Heights Baptist Church in South Chesterfield, Virginia, 46 missionaries were appointed, plus three Canadians not present. Executive vice president Todd Lafferty noted that several gave their testimonies without appearing on camera because they are headed where the gospel is illegal or dangerous to share. Assignments named included Spain, the Philippines, and Zambia. The next celebration is Nov. 9 at First Baptist Church in Kettering, Ohio — close enough that an Ohio church could send a carload. — [The Pathway (BP)](https://mbcpathway.com/2026/09/17/southern-baptists-celebrate-new-imb-missionaries-appointed-for-service-among-the-nations/) **A state executive asks churches to reconsider Cooperative Program giving — with the numbers attached.** Missouri Baptist Convention executive director Wes Fowler published an appeal citing figures worth knowing wherever you are: among the MBC's 1,700-plus affiliated churches, 29.4% give between 0 and 2% of undesignated receipts, 46.8% give 4% or less, and 22.7% give 8% or more. The proposed 2027 budget sends 40% to the SBC and 36.8% to Missouri missions. Fowler frames CP as an "ecosystem of generosity" while insisting the program is secondary to the mission. If your church has quietly drifted down on cooperative giving, this is the week to put the actual percentage in front of your deacons. — [The Pathway](https://mbcpathway.com/2026/09/16/reconsidering-the-cooperative-program/) **Missouri Baptists set a $15.3 million CP goal and head to St. Charles.** The MBC Executive Board approved a 2027 Cooperative Program goal of $15.3 million ahead of the convention's 192nd annual meeting, Oct. 26–27 in St. Charles, themed "When God's Presence Falls." The board also advanced a plan for the Missouri Baptist Children's Home to acquire two Baptist Homes facilities, pending messenger approval. State convention season is starting; watch your own. — [The Pathway](https://mbcpathway.com/2026/09/18/missouri-baptist-executive-board-sets-2027-cp-goal-at-15-3-million/) · [The Pathway](https://mbcpathway.com/2026/09/18/mbch-to-acquire-two-baptist-homes-facilities-pending-messenger-approval/) --- ## 📖 Reformed & Confessional *Reformed Baptist, Presbyterian (PCA/OPC), confessional churches and networks.* **Founders takes up Eastern Orthodoxy — and the young men drawn to it.** On The Sword & the Trowel, Tom Ascol and Graham Gunden talk with Jacob Trotter, assistant professor of historical theology at Founders Seminary, about Orthodoxy's weaknesses and what Founders calls the danger of its growing influence among evangelical young men. An argument and a resource, not a news item — but if you have a twenty-something in your congregation reading about icons and fasting, this is a thirty-minute orientation to the questions he is asking. — [Founders](https://founders.org/podcasts/tstt-the-dangers-of-eastern-orthodoxy/) **Founders conference dates are set for January.** The 2027 National Founders Conference, "The Law and the Gospel," meets Jan. 21–23, 2027 in Southwest Florida. Registration planning belongs on fall calendars. An announcement, not news. — [Founders](https://founders.org/) *Grimké Seminary was checked directly again this week and showed no new dated announcements beyond its 2026 Churchman men's conference page. The Heidelblog would not serve to us this week; no Reformed items are drawn from it.* --- ## 🕊️ Theology & Doctrine *Major debates, books, controversies, council and committee statements.* **A new book argues women are now leaving the church faster than men — and it deserves a hearing, not a dismissal.** Sarah Stankorb's *Damned If She Does: Why Women Quit Church and What It Means for the Future of Religion* (Broadleaf, September 2026) contends that the long-standing gap in which women were more religious than men has reversed among millennials and Gen Z. Her diagnosis — sexism, abuse patterns, and Christian nationalism's political entanglements — will not persuade every reader, and her own path ran from Methodism to agnosticism. But two of her observations are hard to argue with: many of these women keep a personal faith while rejecting the institution, and others land in astrology, paganism, and other spiritualities rather than in nothing at all. Ask whether the women in your church would say they are known and heard by your elders, and whether anyone would notice for six months if one stopped coming. — [RNS](https://religionnews.com/2026/09/17/why-are-women-leaving-churches-and-where-are-they-going-instead-a-journalist-explains/) **The Orthodoxy question keeps its numbers in perspective.** Reporting on young men converting to Eastern Orthodoxy continues across mainstream and Christian outlets, and the demographic contrast is real: surveys find more than 60% of U.S. Orthodox adherents are men, against 46% of evangelicals, with a notably younger age profile. The caution worth repeating from analysts including TGC's Trevin Wax is that more Orthodox adherents still move to evangelical churches than the reverse, and that the coverage is heavy on anecdote and light on statistics. The pastoral question is not the trend line; it is what a demanding, embodied, historically rooted practice offers that your Sunday does not. — [The Gospel Coalition](https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/eastern-orthodoxy-young-men/) · [Christ Over All](https://christoverall.com/article/longform/the-challenge-of-eastern-orthodoxy-comparing-evangelical-and-eastern-orthodox-theology/) --- ## 🏛️ Culture & Church-State *Religious liberty, ethics, politics affecting the church, cultural engagement.* **Cissie Graham Lynch nominated as ambassador at large for international religious freedom.** President Trump has tapped the granddaughter of Billy Graham and daughter of Franklin Graham, currently communications director for Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, for a post that has sat vacant since the start of the administration. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom welcomed the nomination; the Freedom from Religion Foundation Action Fund questioned whether she would advocate for religious minorities broadly, citing a 2017 commentary defending the first-term travel ban. Senate confirmation is next. The office matters to any church with workers overseas — including, this week, forty-six of them. — [RNS](https://religionnews.com/2026/09/17/cissie-graham-lynch-granddaughter-of-billy-graham-tapped-for-religious-freedom-ambassador/) · [The Baptist Paper](https://thebaptistpaper.org/billy-grahams-granddaughter-tapped-for-religious-freedom-ambassador/) **Missouri's Amendment 3 goes to voters Nov. 3.** Pathway editor Benjamin Hawkins makes the case for the constitutional amendment that would reverse the 2024 measure enshrining abortion rights in the Missouri constitution — a measure that passed with 51.742% — and add parental-rights protections. Missouri pastors should know where their members stand and how their state convention is speaking; pastors elsewhere should note that abortion is now fought state by state, in consecutive referendums, and a loss is not final in either direction. — [The Pathway](https://mbcpathway.com/2026/09/15/nov-3-election-brings-chance-to-save-the-unborn/) **Five hundred years of English Scripture.** WORLD reported that the Getty Sing! Conference marked the 500th anniversary of Tyndale's English New Testament. WORLD's site is gated to us, so this is noted from the headline only — but the anniversary itself is worth a mention from your pulpit this fall, along with what Tyndale paid for it. — [WORLD](https://wng.org/sift/sing-conference-marks-500-years-of-tyndale-bible-translation-1788966438) --- ## 🔥 Also Worth Noting *Notable controversy and media shake-ups — reported with discernment, not appetite.* **The ACNA archbishop trial is over; the verdict may not come until December 21.** The trial of Archbishop Steve Wood concluded Friday, Sept. 11, after five days of testimony from 38 witnesses in Charleston — the first trial of a sitting archbishop in ACNA's history. The three charges stand: violation of ordination vows, abuse of ecclesiastical power, and sexual immorality, all of which Wood denies. He has been inhibited from ministry since November 2025, with Bishop Julian Dobbs carrying the archbishop's canonical duties. The court has a 101-day deliberation window and declined to speculate on timing; Dec. 21 is the outer limit. The court asked for prayer. Give it, and resist the urge to litigate the case in your church's group chat while good men and women wait. — [VirtueOnline](https://www.virtueonline.org/post/wood-trial-concludes-verdict-could-take-until-december-21) · [RNS](https://religionnews.com/2026/09/03/church-tiral-of-anglican-archbishop-steve-wood-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-begins-monday/) --- ## 🧭 For the Elder's Desk *A pastoral takeaway for your leadership team this week.* > Set this week's two biggest items side by side. Mohler withdrew a proposal to have the state punish blasphemy, saying doctrinal judgment belongs to the believing church. Stankorb reports that women are walking out of the believing church faster than men. The second is the harder problem, and no legislature can touch it. A church that has the state's protection and not its own people's trust has won the wrong argument. So ask your board a plain question this week: **who in this congregation would tell an elder if something were wrong, and how do we know?** Not whether your doctrine of church discipline is correct — whether anyone believes they would be heard. Then pick three people who have gone quiet in the last six months and have someone call them by Wednesday. "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock" (Acts 20:28). The flock, not the statehouse. --- *State of the Church Today · Compiled September 20, 2026. Reply with corrections or tips. Forward to a fellow elder.*