Sunday, October 4, 2026
On Cooperative Program Sunday, a new compensation study found Southern Baptist pastor pay falling for the first time since 2008, with nearly two in three churches giving their pastor no health insurance, while Congress sent the Clergy Act to the president’s desk. A federal judge narrowed the long-running Sills lawsuit, the Pentagon moved its chaplains under a new Office of Religious Affairs, and the Supreme Court opens a term that includes another Colorado religious liberty case. A week for elders to look at how the church cares for the men it asks to shepherd it.
Annual meeting, entities, ERLC, resolutions, denominational politics.
Southern Baptist pastor pay falls for the first time on record. The 2026 Southern Baptist Church Compensation Study, from the state conventions, GuideStone, and Lifeway Research, found senior pastor compensation down 1.5% since 2024 while consumer prices rose 6.3% over the same span, the first decline since the survey began in 2008. Sixty-three percent of congregations provide no medical insurance for their senior pastor; in 2008, 65% did. Only about one in five churches provides life, dental, or disability coverage. October is Pastor Appreciation Month, and this is the place to start: an elder board that has not reviewed its pastor’s salary and benefits against these numbers should put it on the next agenda, and a church that cannot afford insurance should at least say so openly and plan toward it. The Pathway (Lifeway Research)
Congress passes the Clergy Act. The Senate passed the bill Sept. 30 after House passage in April; it now goes to the president. It gives ministers who opted out of Social Security a temporary election period, beginning in 2029, to elect into the program for the future. GuideStone and the ERLC both applauded it. Many pastors made that opt-out decision young and without much counsel; if your pastor is one of them, help him get good advice before the window opens. The Pathway
Judge narrows the Sills lawsuit and orders a settlement conference. In a Sept. 29 ruling in Middle Tennessee, Chief Judge William Campbell Jr. dismissed former Southern Seminary professor David Sills’s defamation claims against former SBC presidents Bart Barber and Ed Litton, former EC chairman Rolland Slade, and former interim EC president Willie McLaurin, along with all of Mary Sills’s claims and the conspiracy, negligence, and emotional-distress counts. Defamation claims against Guidepost Solutions, the SBC, the Executive Committee, Southern Seminary, and Al Mohler continue. The judge called the Mohler claim “an even closer call,” noting that Sills “admitted an inappropriate relationship” and chose to resign rather than face investigation. The suit was filed in November 2022; it is one more legal bill tied to the Guidepost report that the convention is still paying. The Pathway (Baptist Press)
Cooperative Program Sunday. Executive Committee president Jeff Iorg marked Oct. 4 as Cooperative Program Sunday with a note of thanks to churches for the giving that sends missionaries across several continents. Last week’s 12% cut to the EC’s own operating budget is the backdrop. Biblical Recorder
Midwestern’s For the Church conference centers on the Word. Meeting Sept. 28–29 in Kansas City under the theme “The Work of the Word,” speakers including H.B. Charles Jr., Jason Allen, Clint Pressley, Jared Wilson, and Kevin DeYoung preached on Scripture’s power. “You love your people? Give them the Word,” Allen said. A conference report, not news, but a fitting answer to last week’s Lifeway data on churchgoers who find the Bible hard to read. The Pathway (MBTS)
Reformed Baptist, Presbyterian (PCA/OPC), confessional churches and networks.
A festschrift for R. Scott Clark. The Heidelberg Reformation Association has published Remembering the Reformed Confession: Essays on Theology, Piety, and Practice, edited by Harrison Perkins, honoring Clark’s retirement after more than thirty years teaching church history at Westminster Seminary California. Fifteen contributors, among them W. Robert Godfrey, Michael Horton, and D.G. Hart, write on ecclesiology, worship, covenant theology, and theological education. Clark’s long argument has been that Reformed identity is defined by the confessions, not by a handful of soteriological points, which is the same argument this newsletter keeps returning to. An announcement from the publisher. Heidelblog
Founders takes up the “war on women.” On The Sword & the Trowel, David Mitzenmacher and Graham Gunden discuss feminism and how pastors should respond. Teaching, not news, and the episode is undated on the site. Founders
Grimké Seminary was checked directly and again showed no new dated announcements beyond its 2026 men’s conference page. byFaith carried no new PCA news dated this week, and The Aquila Report blocked our fetch.
Major debates, books, controversies, council and committee statements.
Americans are asking AI about God. An NPR/Ipsos poll of 1,011 adults (Aug. 7–9) found that about three in five Americans have used an AI tool. Among those users, 15% have used it to study Scripture, 13% to generate prayers, and 11% to seek spiritual guidance; nearly seven in ten said they never would. Asked whom they would turn to about a hard personal matter, 26% of all Americans said an AI tool, about the same as the 28% who said a religious leader. That second number should sting more than the first. People will go where they are answered, and the pastor who is not known to be available is competing with a machine that is always awake and never tired. NPR Ipsos
Bible access: 500 million Christians face restrictions. A 2026 Bible Access Initiative study of 106 nations, from Open Doors, Voice of the Martyrs, YouVersion, Biblica, OneHope and others, found more than 500 million Christians living where access to Scripture is restricted and more than 125 million with no access in any format. Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and North Korea top the restricted list; in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fewer than a third of 107 million Christians own a Bible, though nothing prevents it legally. Set beside the AI poll and last week’s Lifeway data, it is a reminder that much of the world’s church would give a great deal for what ours leaves on the shelf. The Pathway (Baptist Press)
Religious liberty, ethics, politics affecting the church, cultural engagement.
The Supreme Court opens its term with another Colorado religious liberty case on the docket. The term begins Oct. 5. In St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, two Denver-area parishes challenge Colorado’s universal preschool program, which requires participating providers to admit families regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. The archdiocese sought an exemption for its 34 preschools to admit only families who accept Catholic teaching on those questions; a district court and a unanimous Tenth Circuit sided with the state. It is the fourth case over Colorado’s antidiscrimination laws to reach the Court in about a decade. The question for Baptist and Reformed churches is the same one: whether a church ministry that takes public money for families can keep its own convictions about the families it serves. CBS News Becket
The Pentagon creates an Office of Religious Affairs. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced at Marine Corps Base Quantico that a new office reporting directly to him will oversee the chaplain corps and the Armed Forces Chaplains Board and sponsor research on “spiritual fitness.” Chaplains will wear religious insignia instead of rank, and the military will recognize 31 religious affiliations, down from more than 200. “The people who actually practice faith and religion, our chaplains, were buried echelons deep, waiting for permission,” Hegseth said. Critics point to his monthly Pentagon Christian prayer services. Many Southern Baptist chaplains serve under NAMB’s endorsement; the question to watch is whether the office protects their freedom to minister by conviction or makes them an arm of an administration’s agenda. Military Times
No sign religious freedom came up with Xi. Ahead of President Trump’s Sept. 25 summit with Xi Jinping in Washington, the ERLC, USCIRF, ChinaAid, Voice of the Martyrs, and senators from both parties urged him to raise the cases of imprisoned Christians, including Pastor John Cao, a U.S. permanent resident with terminal prostate cancer detained in Changsha, and eight imprisoned pastors of Beijing’s Zion Church. ChinaAid’s Bob Fu said they had received no confirmation that Trump raised Cao’s case or religious freedom at all. Pray for these men by name this morning. The Pathway (Baptist Press)
Notable controversy and media shake-ups — reported with discernment, not appetite.
Groeschel and Tebow step away from Life Surge. After an investigation by Mother Jones and podcaster Pablo Torre alleged that Life Surge, a Christian leadership and finance event series drawing about 100,000 people a year, pressured attendees into debt for “SurgeU” courses costing $10,000 to $40,000, Tim Tebow, Life.Church pastor Craig Groeschel, and Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla suspended their involvement. Life Surge denies using faith as a sales tactic and says fewer than 3% of ticket buyers enroll in the advanced training. Whatever the outcome, if people in your church attend events like this, they should hear from their pastor what Scripture says about debt and about those who suppose “that godliness is a means of gain” (1 Tim. 6:5). MinistryWatch RNS
Christian authors Heather Thompson Day and Seth Day charged with child abuse. The couple, a bestselling author and podcaster and a Southwestern Adventist University professor, were arrested Sept. 24 in Johnson County, Texas, after their daughter reported abuse. Both are charged with injury to a child; Seth Day also faces a charge of sexual assault of a child. They are released on bond, and the charges are allegations, not convictions. It is noted here because a child spoke up and was believed. Make sure the children in your church know whom they can tell. Dallas Morning News The Roys Report
A pastoral takeaway for your leadership team this week.
October is Pastor Appreciation Month, and this year the data arrived on time: Southern Baptist pastors are paid less than they were two years ago, and most have no health insurance from their church. Paul told Timothy that elders who labor in preaching and teaching are “worthy of double honor,” and in the next breath, “the laborer deserves his wages” (1 Tim. 5:17–18). A card and a gift basket are kind. They are not the same thing. So this week, ask your board two questions. First: when did we last review our pastor’s salary, insurance, and retirement, and who on this board actually knows the numbers? Second: if he opted out of Social Security, has anyone helped him think through the Clergy Act window before 2029? Put a name and a date beside each answer.