As we got on the road from the 2026 SBC Annual Meeting, heading north out of Orlando back towards home in South Carolina, I started reflecting on what I witnessed and participated in over the last few days. I shared these reflections in six miniature “threads” on X, which you can find on my timeline here.

In the interest of (hopefully) encouraging others in our Convention to both rejoice in what we accomplished in Orlando and to strive to do even more in the years to come, here are my top six reflections from SBC 2026.

Reflection #1: The Local Church is the Heart of the SBC

This is our group of messengers from First Baptist Church, Travelers Rest. They matter more to me than anything that happens with the SBC. This is our 3rd consecutive year attending the annual meeting together.

They care about the health of the SBC enough to take vacation days, walk a mile and a half to the convention center, slog through long meetings, pay attention, and vote in accordance with the Bible and sound judgment. I’m truly grateful for them.

If the positive changes begun in Orlando are to be sustained and bear fruit, it will be because of faithful and committed Baptists like our messengers. But whatever the future of the SBC will or won’t be, I’m glad I get to go back to SC with these guys and serve Jesus with them for another year.

It’s been said many times, but it’s true, and we actually believe it: The local church is both the heart and the headquarters of the SBC.

Reflection #2: Leadership Matters

Pastor Willy Rice was elected president, and the headline below captures just how momentous an election it was. For the first time in a long time, an institutional favorite did not win. His message of doctrinal clarity and denominational accountability won the day, and thankfully so.

I’ve had several conversations with Pastor Willy over the last year regarding my advocacy for greater transparency and accountability within SBC institutions. I’ve found him to be clear, kind, courageous, and wise. I was proud to support him, and I’m hopeful his presidency will yield greater trust, stronger cooperation, and an advance of the Great Commission for Southern Baptist churches.

My support for Pastor Willy says nothing about my opinion of the other candidate, Josh Powell, a fellow pastor in our local association. Pastor Josh is a good man and a faithful pastor. We have some disagreements about the problems in the SBC and how to address them, which led me to support Willy. But if Josh is elected president in the future, I will not be disappointed.

Reflection #3: God Bless Mike Law

This year, Southern Baptists rightly passed the Truth & Unity Amendment, moved by Dr. Al Mohler. This amendment to our constitution makes clear that the office and function of a pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

Almost 75% of the messengers approved this amendment in Orlando, but it will require 2/3 approval next year in Indianapolis as well before it is adopted into the constitution.

This has been a 4-year battle to address the growing problem of women pastors in the SBC, which is really a battle for the Bible—its authority and sufficiency.

The Mohler amendment was the latest iteration of the Law Amendment, so named for Pastor Mike Law, who brought the original motion for a constitutional amendment in 2022. Mike is a good man and a faithful pastor. He worked tirelessly for two years to name the problem and advocate a solution. For his troubles, he was maligned, slandered, and scorned.

But he endured, kept the faith, and kept the fight. Others picked up the torch, Dr. Mohler most recently, and thank God for them, but Mike Law lit the fire and fanned the flames.

Southern Baptists owe him a debt of gratitude. As my friend Sam Webb has said, “Mike Law deserves to be the most applauded man in the SBC.”

The SBC is healthiest when it is led by pastors and local churches. Mike Law represents the best of our pastors. I’m grateful to call him a friend.

Reflection #4: The Importance of Friends

Speaking of friends, as everyone knows, one of the highlights of attending the SBC Annual Meeting every year is seeing friends, both old and new. This year was no exception. So, let me brag on a few of my friends just a bit.

Jeff Wright remembered and asked me about a personal hardship I shared with him nearly two years ago. He is tenacious in contending for the truth online, but he is also a model of pastoral humility and kindness.

William Wolfe left it all on the field, again. Never doubt his political instincts. Ever. He has sacrificed much to labor for the health of the SBC, and instead of lying about him, folks would do better to have a conversation with him.

Erik Smith is a bi-vocational pastor who took vacation days from his secular job to drive from GA because he loves the SBC and wants to see it preserved faithful for generations. He has a steel spine. He’s also the rare Georgian who recognizes South Carolina’s peach supremacy.

Jon Whitehead is the epitome of an SBC gentleman and statesman. As a former ERLC trustee, Jon showed incredible courage in taking his concerns about that entity public over the last few years, informing SBC churches of the issue and offering solutions. He’s continued to do so on many other issues in SBC life, giving freely of his time and wisdom in the often thankless pursuit of a better and more enduring Baptist system.

Jay Mosser isn’t on social media, but we worked together overseas, and it was so good to catch up with him and his family. He’s doing great work pastoring in TN. Preaches faithfully, coaches local JV basketball team, engaged dad, good husband. He’s everything right in the SBC.

Doug Mize and I disagree on a ton in SBC life. For example, he spoke against the Mohler amendment. We met a few years back because of denominational conflict. But he sought out friendship with me, and he’s never been anything but kind to me.

Teddy Sorrells is one of the most encouraging people you’ll be around. You’ll love Jesus more by being friends with him.

Michael D was our last supervisor overseas. He’s the best of our IMB missionaries: thoughtful, church-centered, theologically-driven, has suffered much for the work, is a great husband and dad, and his love for Jesus is obvious. I loved getting to talk with him at their booth.

The Center for Baptist Leadership event was full of wonderful people to talk with. These are engaged, committed, and accomplished men and women. Grateful to meet so many on Tuesday night. The work CBL has done over two short years to champion and now secure much-needed conservative reforms in the SBC is truly impressive.

There are so many more I could name, but I’m going to leave it here, thankful to the Lord for good friends.

Reflection #5: Getting Down to Business

At its heart, the Annual Meeting is a business meeting. We ought to show up ready and able to do business. But it never seems like messengers really want to do that.

Thousands skip important votes. The ones who do show up vote to cut business or debate short at every opportunity. They get annoyed when anyone wants to press a point.

At one point, a friend remarked, “The laziness of the messengers always wins.” Sadly, it’s true.

But it’s not completely the messengers’ fault. Getting down to business is not incentivized. The exhibit hall, the music, and the programming crowd out actual debate and business. The vibe is “conference,” not “deliberative body.”

Some folks complained online that we took more time to debate future annual meeting locations than we did to debate a constitutional change. I lament that we took more time for the hatless Shane to get teary-eyed on stage than we did to debate future meeting locations. We are not the same.

Speaking of the Shanes, they go way over their time every year. And messengers from churches who gave sacrificially to the CP, who spent thousands of dollars to attend, got left standing at mics as time ran out on the ten minutes allotted for business that session. That’s objectively wrong.

A more mature Convention would separate the “conference” activities from the “deliberative body” activities.

Put all the singing, celebrations, missionary commissioning, sermons, and entity infomercials (reports) on one day, maybe a day and a half. Then, leave two days for motions, debates, questions for entity heads, and other business.

But that would mean we’d have to act like grown-ups. It doesn’t seem like anyone wants that. The denominational machine doesn’t want mature messengers because “children” are easier to control. The messengers don’t want to be “grown-ups” because pep rallies and free swag don’t make any demands upon them.

This isn’t a cynical jab. It has a theological center. We are sons of God, joint heirs with Jesus. We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places, where we rule with Him. We shall judge angels. And we can’t be bothered for a couple of days of debate? Can’t we make it back from lunch in time to vote? With a Bible in one hand and Robert’s Rules in the other, can we not persuade our brothers?

If we are actually going to be serious about winning the world to Jesus, we need to learn to take our business together seriously. Appealing to the lowest common denominator messenger harms our mission.

Instead, we should raise the bar, utilize the schedule to incentivize business, and lead up messengers to greater maturity for the sake of Christ’s church and mission.

SBC Reflection #6: The Importance of Great Men

The SBC is home to many great men (lowercased), but precious few Great Men.

The great men of the SBC are hidden away in local churches and communities. You may or may not know their names. They may or may not speak from a microphone during the annual meeting. They may or may not pastor a large church. They give themselves to the ministry of the Word. They care for souls. They evangelize the lost. They counsel weary sinners. Every Sunday, they lead their flocks to ascend the heavenly Mount Zion to stand before the face of God and drink from the Living Waters. 

I spoke to one church planter who baptized 30 new believers in a small East Texas town over the last five years. Thirty souls that will live forever in the presence of the Almighty because God sent a Southern Baptist to plant a church in his hometown and preach the Gospel (and those were the means that God chose to use).

I spoke to another pastor who hired all young staff because he wanted to pour into young pastors the way his mentor poured into him years ago. The church is running out of room, and people are coming to faith. I know this pastor legitimately loves his people because when I was just out of college and hit my toughest moment in life up to that point, it was on his shoulder that I wept and his counsel that I heeded. One of the highlights of this week was catching up with him in the exhibit hall.

These are the great men of the SBC. There were hundreds, probably thousands, of them in Orlando. Salt of the earth people of whom the world is not worthy.

While remembered in Heaven for all eternity, their names will be lost to history. And gladly so. For they happily take their cues from Count Zinzendorf: “Preach the Gospel, die, and be forgotten.”

The Great Men are those whom history remembers. We tell their stories through the generations. We laud them for their courage, brilliance, or accomplishments.

By definition, there can’t be many of them. The Great Men are always scarce.

Dr. Albert Mohler is the closest we have in the SBC to a Great Man. It’s a fool’s errand to try to slot a living man into the history books, but there is no question he is a consequential leader. He turned the doctrinal tide at our flagship seminary and has been a leading light in our Convention for going on 33 years. He’s a man with gravitas. When he speaks, the Convention listens.

He’s not always used his gravitas for the greatest good. There are chinks in his armor. He’s empowered people he should not have empowered, and he’s stayed silent when he should have spoken. Even the Great Men have a little bit of clay in their feet.

But Dr. Mohler has endured. He has remained faithful. He has remained consequential.

So, when he stood at microphone #2 to offer his Truth & Unity Amendment, the Convention listened. The last two iterations of this amendment failed to secure the required two-thirds approval, but Mohler’s amendment passed with 75% of the vote. Mohler lent the weight of his name and the voice so familiar to listeners of The Briefing to bring the Law Amendment back from the dead.

Of course, the real test of his leadership will be next year. Mike Law got 80% approval for his amendment in New Orleans, but the opposition rallied over the next year to kill it. Dr. Mohler’s Great Man status depends on his ability to fend off the incognito egalitarian opposition and win a decisive victory in Indianapolis.

The Truth & Unity Amendment may be his last battle, which raises the question of who comes next. It’s like the SBC version of the old George Jones song “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes.” It’s not immediately clear.

Willy Rice’s sermon at the Pastor’s Conference had echoes of Adrian Rogers. Perhaps we’ll look back on that as a turning point, but it’s too early to tell.

Great Men are not something you can force. Only God can raise them up.

Until He does, I’m thankful for the Great Men who have gone before us to shape and preserve the Convention for the great men who presently walk among us. God is doing a great work through them—through us—and I don’t think He’s done with us yet.

Conclusion

The lifeblood of the SBC runs through its local churches. And that’s what I am, first and foremost: a local church pastor. So as I headed back to my home church, with my wonderful fellow members and messengers, I was comforted knowing that whatever good or ill is in the future for the SBC, our mission remains the same—to seek and save the lost and to make disciples of Jesus Christ in Travelers Rest, SC.

Yet this comfort is no excuse for complacency. The SBC is the greatest gospel force in the world. It’s worth fighting for. And in that fight, alongside our local churches, I see how leadership matters, a brave servant named Mike Law who deserves our thanks, the importance of good friends, how the SBC needs to take our Baptist business more seriously, and the need for Great Men like Dr. Mohler to help lead us for such a time as this.

The mission of bringing the SBC back to full health isn’t over. Restoring trust through transparency and financial accountability is still absolutely critical. And ratifying the Truth & Unity Amendment in Indianapolis is essential. We cannot rest on the victories of 2026. The time to start planning for 2027 is today.

So, as we scatter from Orlando, back to serve in our local churches and communities, and begin preparing for 2027, join me in thanking God for the Southern Baptist Convention, praying for its renewal, and recommitting ourselves to its well-being both in our time and for future generations.