Sunday, September 27, 2026
The new SBC president used his first Executive Committee meeting to propose a new article on gender and marriage for the Baptist Faith & Message, while the committee cut its own budget 12% and removed a church over its handling of abuse. The same week, a long investigation named a small circle of Reformed pastors and influencers selling segregationist theology to angry young men, and Lifeway found more churchgoers saying parts of Scripture have outlived their relevance. A week about what a confession can say, and what it cannot do for a church that stops believing it.
Annual meeting, entities, ERLC, resolutions, denominational politics.
Willy Rice proposes a Baptist Faith & Message article on gender and marriage. Addressing the SBC Executive Committee for the first time on Sept. 21 in Nashville, the SBC president asked that a new article on human sexuality be added to the BF&M 2000, pointing to First Baptist Jacksonville’s 2022 statement as a model: God creates people in His image “as either male or female,” and marriage is between one man and one woman. “Southern Baptists believe there is only one definition of marriage, and there are only two genders,” Rice said. The process is long by design: the EC decides in February whether to recommend it to messengers in Indianapolis in 2027, and a confessional amendment needs a two-thirds vote in two consecutive annual meetings. Few SBC churches will disagree with the substance; the live questions are the wording, and whether adding to the confession addresses a problem that membership and discipline in the local church should already be handling. The Pathway (Kentucky Today) Baptist Standard
The Executive Committee cuts its budget 12% and disfellowships a Georgia church. Meeting Sept. 21–22, the EC approved a 2026–27 SBC and EC operating budget of $10,919,000 after president Jeff Iorg reported a 12% reduction in operating expenses, about $660,000, through reduced compensation and benefits, curtailed ministry efforts, higher service fees, and efficiencies. “Our work should be done without notoriety or unnecessary controversy,” Iorg said. Baptist Standard reports the committee also found The Link Church in Macon, Georgia, not in friendly cooperation over its handling of sexual abuse concerns related to pastoral qualifications, and declined messenger motions to amend Bylaw 15 and Article III of the SBC constitution. The legal costs of the last several years are still being paid down in staff and programs. Baptist Standard
Rice points to the convention’s abuse-prevention record. In the same address, Rice, who once dismissed abuse investigations as a “snipe hunt,” highlighted progress instead: MinistrySafe reports that more than 5,200 Baptist churches have trained over 250,000 staff, volunteers, and parents since 2021, and Jeff Dalrymple now directs the convention’s abuse prevention and response work. “You do not have to navigate this alone. We are ready to help,” Rice told churches. If your church is not among the 5,200, that is a concrete item for your next elders’ meeting. The Baptist Paper
Evan Lenow installed as ERLC president. Lenow was installed Sept. 15 at Mississippi Christian University, where he chaired the Christian Studies department. Jeff Iorg charged him to “become the most trusted voice for Southern Baptists on these issues.” That word “trusted” carries the weight after several years in which the ERLC’s future was on the annual meeting floor. The Baptist Paper (The Baptist Record)
Midwestern Seminary announces an endowed chair of biblical counseling. The First Baptist Jacksonville Endowed Chair of Biblical Counseling will train counselors for local-church ministry; the first holder has not been named. An announcement, not news, but a sign of where the convention’s seminaries are investing. The Pathway (MBTS)
Reformed Baptist, Presbyterian (PCA/OPC), confessional churches and networks.
An investigation of the “Jim Crow theobros” names Reformed pastors preaching racial hierarchy to young men. RNS national reporter Bob Smietana profiles a small but growing online circle, including Texas pastor Joel Webbon, Arizona pastor Dale Partridge, YouTuber Joshua Haymes, and Michael Spangler of Piedmont Presbyterian Church in Winston-Salem, who mix segregationist theology with manosphere aesthetics and monetize it through subscriptions, merchandise, and memberships. The report quotes Spangler saying God “did not make races equal,” and documents claims from the group that Black Americans should not be citizens and that women should not vote. Spangler was removed from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 2024, and the report notes Reformed Presbyterian discipline of his co-founder in the new “Southern Presbytery.” Webbon responded that his content is “explicitly Christian” and denied promoting white supremacy. Do not dismiss this as fringe: the audience it targets is the same restless young man drifting toward Orthodoxy that last week’s issue described. Our tradition’s own courts have already disciplined some of these men, and elders should know the names before a young member brings them up. RNS The Roys Report
One year since Voddie Baucham’s death. Baucham died Sept. 25, 2025, at 56, shortly before he was to become founding president of Founders Seminary. On The Sword & the Trowel, Tom Ascol and Graham Gunden reflect on how his teaching continues to reach people a year later, and Founders has resurfaced his sermon “Be Careful How You Talk About Christ’s Bride.” A memorial, not news. Founders Baptist Press (2025)
The PCA takes its 2027 General Assembly to Milwaukee. The 2027 assembly meets June 14–18 in Milwaukee under the theme “Come and See” (John 1:46). It will be only the 11th assembly held outside the Southeast and the first in the Upper Midwest since 1987, hosted by four presbyteries including Wisconsin, which particularized 17 churches between 2012 and 2024. Registration opens in January. An announcement worth noting for Midwestern Presbyterian neighbors. byFaith
Grimké Seminary was checked directly and showed no new dated announcements beyond its 2026 men’s conference page. The Heidelblog was reachable this week but carried teaching and podcasts rather than news.
Major debates, books, controversies, council and committee statements.
Lifeway: more churchgoers say parts of Scripture have lost their relevance. In new Lifeway Research data on U.S. Protestant churchgoers, 91% say they can understand how a biblical passage applies to them, but 56% find it hard to interpret Scripture on their own. Those who accept only some of the Bible’s truths rose to 34% from 30% in 2019, and 28% now say some of its truths have become obsolete as culture changes, up from 24%. Eighty-two percent say God’s Word can mean different things to different people. These are the people in our pews, not unbelievers outside. Set this beside the Rice proposal: a confession can only state what a church believes, and a congregation that is not taught to read the Bible will not believe the confession for long. The Baptist Paper
J.D. Greear explains why he is not a Christian nationalist. Writing from his church’s rezoning fight with Chatham County, North Carolina, the former SBC president argues that handing the state power to enforce religion, even Christian religion, only arms the next magistrate with a different theology: “Giving the government religious power doesn’t guarantee a Christian government. It merely guarantees a more powerful government.” He grounds the case in eschatology and calls the church to gospel proclamation rather than coercion. Coming one week after Mohler’s retraction on blasphemy laws, it is a clear statement of the historic Baptist position and worth giving to anyone in your church drawn to the other side. The Gospel Coalition
Religious liberty, ethics, politics affecting the church, cultural engagement.
A federal judge clears the way for a religious charter school in Oklahoma. On Sept. 24, U.S. District Judge David L. Russell ruled that Oklahoma’s “nonsectarian provision” likely violates the Free Exercise Clause by excluding otherwise eligible schools “solely because of their religious character,” allowing the Ben Gamla Jewish charter school to proceed while the lawsuit continues. The ruling follows the Supreme Court’s 4–4 deadlock in 2025 over St. Isidore Catholic Virtual School. The state has 30 days to appeal, and the school could open for 2027–28. Whatever you think of religious charters, the logic of Carson and Espinoza is still moving through the lower courts, and the case may yet return to a full Supreme Court. Biblical Recorder WORLD
WORLD revisits the FBI’s withdrawn “radical traditionalist Catholic” memo. A WORLD opinion piece reviews how the FBI’s Richmond field office built a warning of a national threat from two subjects, one of them mentally ill, with no First Amendment objection raised internally, including from its own lawyer, before headquarters withdrew it for failing tradecraft standards. WORLD’s site is gated to us, so this is noted from what is publicly visible. The lesson for Protestants is that vague categories like “extremist” can be applied to any congregation that holds unpopular convictions. WORLD
Twelve Christians arrested at a worship service in Algeria. Police raided a Sept. 4 gathering at the House of Refuge shelter near Oran, arresting all 12 worshipers on suspicion of holding an unauthorized non-Muslim service and seizing literature, phones, and IDs. All were released within about a day, but they could face charges under Ordinance 06-03, which criminalizes worship not approved by the state. Algeria ranks 20th on Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List. The Baptist Paper (Morning Star News)
A convert pastor was detained, then released, in post-Assad Syria. Christianity Today reports that Kurdish pastor Nehad Hasan, who pastors a church in Lebanon, was arrested in late July in the Afrin region on charges including apostasy over a 2021 interview about his 2008 conversion from Islam. He was released after two weeks with the charges dropped, but has since received anonymous threats. Pray for converts in Syria, whose safety depends less on official policy than on local officials. Christianity Today
Notable controversy and media shake-ups — reported with discernment, not appetite.
Meryl Streep will voice Aslan, and the internet has opinions. Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew for Netflix, due in February 2027, has cast Streep as the voice of Lewis’s Christ figure, prompting boycott calls and charges of “blasphemy” on social media. Phil Vischer said he was puzzled rather than angry and would withhold judgment until he saw the film. Expect questions from families this winter. A reasonable answer is that Lewis wrote Aslan as “he” for a reason, and that the books are still available to read aloud. The Roys Report
A pastoral takeaway for your leadership team this week.
The SBC may add an article to its confession, and Lifeway reports that more than a quarter of churchgoers already think parts of the Bible are out of date. Both are true, and the second decides whether the first matters. A confession states what a church believes. It cannot make a congregation believe it. Meanwhile, men with beards and ring lights are teaching the young men in your church what “Reformed” means, and they are not teaching the Second London Confession. So this week, ask your board two things. First: when did we last teach our people how to read the Bible, not just what it says? Second: which young men in this church are we discipling, and who is discipling the ones we are not? Put a name beside each answer. “Hold fast the pattern of sound words” (2 Tim. 1:13): pass it on yourself before someone else does.