Baptist & Reflector

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Messengers voted June 15 to continue funding the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

North Carolina messenger Joshua Scruggs made a motion June 14 to “abolish the ERLC, with the first of the two necessary votes taking place during the 2022 annual meeting and, upon an affirmative vote, the second vote be automatically added to the 2023 SBC annual meeting’s Order of Business.”

Scruggs spoke on his motion the following day. Abolishing the ERLC will remove an entity that has “caused division among Southern Baptists and will continue to do so,” he said.

A current and former leader both spoke against the motion. [Read more…]

By Scott Barkley

Baptist Press

ANAHEIM, Calif.  — Southern Baptists dealt with a variety of motions presented at the annual meeting ranging from sexual abuse care and prevention to the Baptist Faith and Message and more.

One required extended discussion by messengers. That motion, brought by Joshua Scruggs of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Jacksonville, N.C., to abolish the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, was defeated by a sizable margin. See story here.

The Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force, yet to be formed by new SBC President Bart Barber, was cited by the Committee on Order of Business to address a motion from Greg Davidson, of Trinity Church in Vacaville, Calif., that the Convention fully support the care of the sexually abused. [Read more…]

By Scott Barkley
Baptist Press

ANAHEIM, Calif.  — A motion regarding the North American Mission Board’s ministry assignments dominated the SBC Executive Committee’s report of its recommendations during the June 15 morning session of the SBC annual meeting.

Last year, messengers to the annual meeting in Nashville rejected a request for collegiate ministry to be moved from Lifeway’s ministry assignment to NAMB’s. Lifeway trustees approved the revisions in January 2021, with NAMB trustees making a formal request for the change at their spring meeting.

Messengers at this year’s annual meeting asked for clarity on NAMB’s relationship with collegiate ministry prior to the motion’s approval, which ended up going forward by a sizeable margin. 

J.P. Williams, pastor of First Baptist Church in Stonewall, Okla., asked one of those clarifying questions about Baptist Collegiate Ministries, also known as Baptist Student Unions or other names in different states.  [Read more…]

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Southern Baptist Convention messengers took a “good first step” in dealing with sexual abuse issues within the denomination, said Bruce Frank, pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church, Arden, North Carolina, chair of the Sexual Abuse Task Force.

During the June 14 session of the SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim, messengers overwhelming approved the two recommendations (read full text here) proposed by the task force to appoint an Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force and develop a “Ministry Check” database of the “credibly accused.” The approval came after lengthy discussion and one amendment to tweak the wording to change “Guidepost recommendations” to “best practices.”

“The first step is the hardest,” Frank acknowledged during a press conference following the vote. “This was an opportunity for messengers to take a step down the right road. I am proud of them for doing it,” he said.

Responding to a question on how history will view what happened, Frank said, “You could sense in the room (messengers) wanted to do the right thing. It was not even close.” [Read more…]

By Leslie Peacock Caldwell
IMB news office

ANAHEIM, Calif. — International Mission Board president Paul Chitwood began IMB’s report to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting with recent good news from the mission field. He recounted a message he received the previous night from a pastor whose daughter serves overseas. Chitwood shared that three Muslim women had accepted Christ as Savior. These salvations were the first the IMB missionary team had seen among this people group.

Chitwood brought greetings and thanks from IMB’s 3,600 missionaries and their 2,850 children. These children were on his mind, he said, as he thanked messengers for the significant steps they approved to prevent sexual abuse. 

“At the IMB, we have made sweeping changes,” Chitwood said. “Just as we have seen the Lord honor transparency, humility and repentance in this area at the IMB, I believe we will see Him honor these things in our denominational family.” Information about IMB’s response can be found at imb.org/abuseresponse. [Read more…]

The Baptist Paper

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church Farmersville, Texas, and active denominational leader, was elected 64th president of the Southern Baptist Convention on June 14 during the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California.

Barber received 3,401 votes on a second runoff ballot, garnering 60.87 percent of the 5,587 total votes cast in the runoff. In a four-way presidential bid that included Florida Baptist pastor Tom Ascol, senior professor of missions at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Robin Hadaway and pastor of Georgia’s North Metro Baptist Church, Frank Cox, Barber and Ascol claimed the top two spots for the runoff. Ascol received 2,172 votes for 38.88 percent of the votes in the runoff. At the time of the presidential runoff election, 8,098 messengers were registered.

On the first ballot, Barber received 3,258 (47.58 percent) of the 6,847 votes cast. Ascol received 2,332 (34.06 percent) votes, Cox received 887 (12.95 percent) votes and Hadaway received 340 (4.97 percent) votes. At the time of the first ballot for the presidential election, 8.095 messengers were registered. [Read more…]