NASHVILLE (BP) — In a landmark address to SBC Executive Committee members, SBC EC President Jeff Iorg outlined plans for continued sexual abuse prevention and response, presented findings from the SBC’s sexual abuse hotline that clarify the incidence of abuse in Southern Baptist churches and shared steps for responding to calls for greater financial clarity from SBC entities.

His comments came Monday evening in the Executive Committee’s first plenary session of its February meeting at the Hilton BNA Nashville Airport and 11 months after Iorg was elected to the role in a special-called meeting.

Iorg told trustees he intended to address three issues of “general interest” for Southern Baptists.

Sexual abuse reform

Jeff Dalrymple, new director of Sexual Abuse Prevention and Response, is focusing on six initiatives to be finalized before the annual meeting, Iorg said, with additional plans forthcoming.

Those initiatives are:

• Enhancing the free Essentials curriculum for all Southern Baptist churches.

• Appointing an advisory committee on sexual abuse prevention and response strategies.

• The EC’s assuming control and responsibility of sbcabuseprevention.com.

• Improving the SBC abuse hotline.

• Formalizing a network of state convention abuse prevention and response leaders.

• Hosting “Safeguarding the Next Generation” – a training event to take place at the annual meeting in Dallas.

“In all of these things the Executive Committee is taking measured, intentional, proactive steps toward establishing sexual abuse prevention and response as a ministry responsibility,” Iorg said.

Those steps build upon work by groups such as the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force and the creation of the Essentials curriculum. Input from Southern Baptists, such as those who will serve on the advisory committee and state Baptist conventions that will work directly with churches, will continue to be crucial, Iorg said.

Hotline results – 7 churches

Iorg shared statistics discovered through the May 2022 establishment of a hotline to report cases of sexual abuse. Though not the only data source, it is the primary one providing independently-verified information.

Since its launch, the hotline has received 1,008 contacts. One-third (334) of those were requests for information, opinions or spam. The rest of the contacts reported alleged abuse.

Of those reporting abuse, 68 percent were among Southern Baptists. From that group, 41 percent were incidents among adults and 59 percent between an adult and a minor.

Notably, Iorg said, more than half (51 percent) of the contacts came within the first four months of the hotline’s opening. The other 24 months – from January 2023 through December 2024 – the hotline averaged 13 contacts a month. When the percentages from the first four months are applied to those more recent figures, it points to about four people requesting information and nine reporting alleged cases of abuse per month. Of those nine, two would likely not be Southern Baptist churches.

The 24-month period of 2023 and 2024 saw 128 cases – just over five per month – referred to the SBC Credentials Committee for it to consider whether a church was in friendly cooperation with the SBC.

The process has resulted in seven churches being declared not in friendly cooperation and removed from the SBC based on their responses related to sexual abuse, he said.

“When we look past the surge at the beginning and isolate the data over the last 24 months,” Iorg said, “it provides a better picture of the ongoing reporting we are receiving.”

The process reveals two broad conclusions, he maintained, while stressing that even one case of abuse is one too many.

“First, sexual abuse is a serious and real problem. And when it happens, it is devastating for the survivors, the church, the community and every person who is involved,” Iorg said. “Survivor stories, particularly, are gut-wrenching and … every church must make every reasonable effort to prevent sexual abuse and respond proactively when it happens.”

The second speaks to alleged complacency or even coverups among SBC leadership.

“Abuse is not frequently being reported in Southern Baptist churches,” Iorg told trustees. “We have widely publicized this issue for the past five years and encouraged people to come forward with information and allegations. We now have verified, third-party data.”

Because of this, he said, “we reject the false narrative Southern Baptist churches are dangerous places for children. That Southern Baptists are protecting predators. And that Southern Baptists are uncaring in responding to survivors.”

He added how “with seven rare exceptions” among 47,000, Southern Baptist churches “are cooperating to prevent abuse and address these [abuse] allegations.”

Rewritten Business and Financial Plan to address referrals

Iorg acknowledged several referrals at various annual meetings in recent years asking for greater financial transparency by entities. EC leadership, in consultation with other entity leaders, determined the best way to address those was through revising the SBC Business and Financial Plan.

The plan, he explained, outlines general expectations of how entities and the Executive Committee are to operate. A process lasting several months included input from EC staff and officers, entity presidents, entity chief financial officers, entity attorneys, EC attorneys and EC members to produce five goals to create the document.

They are:

• Southern Baptists govern their entities by electing trustees who are expected to fulfill the Business and Financial Plan.

• The plan must emerge from the SBC Constitution and Bylaws.

• The plan must focus on general principles rather than specific methodologies.

• It must call for transparency by entities in business and financial decisions.

• It must use plain language, with technical or legal jargon appearing only where necessary for clarity.

Iorg pointed to what he called Annual Meeting messengers’ greatest responsibility.

“The most important role of messengers is to elect trustees – people they trust – to do the hard work of governing the entities,” he said.

Iorg referred to the original SBC Constitution’s mandate regarding the appointment of “managers” by messengers to “boards,” i.e. trustees over entities, in current terms. Governing them is not designed to take place via pressure applied online or by media, nor even directly by the messengers themselves. The trustee system is also “far superior to the alternative of attempting to run a multi-billion-dollar enterprise on motions, short debates and rushed votes.”

The arrangement doesn’t diminish Southern Baptists’ voices when it comes to entities, though, he said.

“Another important role of messengers is surfacing ideas worth considering, which are then referred to appropriate Boards of Trustees for consideration,” Iorg said. “Any resulting actions can then be taken after reflective deliberation and careful decision-making.”

The plan’s connection to the SBC Constitution and Bylaws dictates that some business practices, like revealing proprietary information, cannot be adopted by entities if they conflict with their legal responsibilities. On that note, the plan includes 15 instances where each entity’s board must report their actions, including CP promotion, presidential compensation, staff compensation and executive expenses.

The recommendation for the plan will come from the Committee on Convention Finances and Stewardship Development Tuesday (Feb. 18). If it is approved, messengers will vote on it at the 2025 SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas.

$3 million earmarked toward potential legal costs

Funding potential legal costs was one of the more controversial aspects of sexual abuse reforms when messengers voted for them in 2021. “Potential” has long since been replaced by “actual.”

Messengers at that meeting voted for an independent, third-party investigation of the SBC EC’s handling of sexual abuse claims. The Executive Committee was instructed to surrender attorney/client privilege related to the investigation. The motion called for the investigation and its aftermath to be paid for with CP funds. The Executive Committee also ultimately indemnified Guidepost Solutions, which conducted the investigation.

As a result, $13 million in EC financial reserves through December 2024 has gone toward legal bills. For the current fiscal year, Iorg told trustees, the Executive Committee is working to secure a $3 million loan to meet financial obligations.

A “good faith effort” was made by the Executive Committee early on to avoid using Cooperative Program funds for legal costs by paying out of reserves, Iorg said. That is no longer an option.

“Decisions were made by the messengers in 2021. Those decisions have consequences. Those consequences have costs. And those bills must be paid,” he said.

The expected legal tab for the upcoming year also comes to approximately $3 million, he shared. Auditors have “rightly insisted” presenting “a viable funding plan to avoid serious auditing and legal repercussions.”

Though the SBC building in downtown Nashville is for sale, using the proceeds its sale is not an immediate option, he added, due to the unstable timing of real estate. That is why the EC is recommending a $190 million national Cooperative Program budget for 2025-26 with a $3 million priority allocation for legal expenses.

Iorg acknowledged the announcement as “a controversial and difficult recommendation to make. No mission-centered Southern Baptist wants to take this action. I don’t. You don’t. None of us do.”

For pastors who may consider redirecting CP gifts, Iorg delivered some points to consider.

Paying legal bills with CP funds is not new. All SBC entities and state conventions retain attorneys and law firms. “We have always paid and we will continue to pay indefinitely into the future legal costs of doing business in this culture, and those payments will be made from Cooperative Program funds,” he said.

In addition, the ethical dilemma isn’t about where the funds come from, but paying debts. Messengers who made the decision that led to this point may not have been aware of unintended financial consequences, he pointed out. Most Southern Baptists were not in the room in 2021 when the vote passed.

The truth remains, he said, that “the resulting bills must now be paid.”

He went on to point out that the legal costs are going to defend the SBC, not for punitive reasons. Also, for comparison’s sake, Iorg noted that more than $10 billion is expected to be given in Southern Baptist churches in 2025.

A ‘resolute focus’

“Southern Baptist pastors do not run from trouble. They walk toward it,” Iorg said. “They specialize in holding steady in messy situations – especially those caused by the choices of others.”

The Convention has faced financial challenges before, he added such as both mission boards experiencing embezzlement in the 1920s that surpassed $18 million in today’s dollars.

Just like then, the SBC is more than capable of unwavering attention to the Gospel.

“I am still being asked if we can push through this challenge and return to a more resolute focus on our eternal mission,” Iorg said.

His response: “an unequivocal yes.”

Just over a year ago, Iorg was preparing for retirement. Standing before the EC as its president Monday night, addressing these issues and responding to SBC critics – including those who are Southern Baptist – was nowhere near the plan, he said.

His devotion to the role is fueled by seeing the work of Southern Baptists through churches, colleges, hospitals, camps, Vacation Bible Schools and the largest missionary-sending force and domestic church-planting movement in the United States, to name a few.

“My friends, I said it last time [and] I’ll say it again tonight,” Iorg said, “Southern Baptists are still a force for good.”

Critics claiming the SBC should be dismantled are wrong, he added.

“I signed on to guide us through these current challenges,” he said. “… My hope is the leaders in this room, thousands of pastors who will hear this speech and millions of Southern Baptists will resolve to go through this together.

NASHVILLE (BP) — Southern Baptists wishing to provide direct input on issues addressed by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission may do so over the next six months through a survey released by the entity.

“The ERLC exists to serve pastors and churches as a voice in the public square on issues important to Southern Baptists. We are excited about the opportunities before us with the Trump administration and a new Congress and want to amplify the voice of our churches before lawmakers and throughout our culture,” said Dan Darling, the church engagement strategist and a research fellow for the ERLC.

A flurry of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump dealing with sexual identity, abortion, men competing in women’s sports, immigration and more has necessitated the call for help to focus on key issues.

“This research is part of a larger effort to listen to our faithful Southern Baptists pastors and stand with them in our work,” said Darling, who also serves as director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Seminary and assistant professor of faith and culture at Texas Baptist College.

Participants can ask the ERLC to focus on issues such as artificial intelligence, combating antisemitism, advocating for pro-family tax structures and supporting conscience protections for believers in the workplace.

ERLC President Brent Leatherwood recently met with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson to discuss the ERLC’s federal policy agenda released in January. Johnson is a Southern Baptist and a former ERLC trustee.

Leatherwood told Baptist Press he is encouraged by “how the Lord is using him (Johnson) in such a critical role and at such a pivotal time for our country.”

“There are a number of competing challenges in our nation’s Capitol right now, and Southern Baptists should be encouraged that a man who lives by and shares their principles is leading the U.S. House of Representatives,” said Leatherwood.

At the Feb. 6 National Prayer Breakfast, Pres. Trump announced a new presidential commission on faith and religious liberty. The president he said, “will work tirelessly to uphold this most fundamental right.”

In a First Person last week, Darling pointed out how Trump’s executive orders have already impacted local hospitals.

“We can be grateful that he kept his campaign promise to bring more moral sanity to this very important issue. This is a welcome companion to an earlier executive order banning transgender surgeries for minors. In response, several major hospitals have discontinued this practice,” he said.

The survey also asks questions related to how Southern Baptists would like to the ERLC to connect with them. It is scheduled to be online through the end of February.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump issued an executive order Tuesday, Jan. 28, stating that “the United States … will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another. …”

The order, called “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” seeks to strip federal funding from medical institutions that provide so-called “gender affirming care” to those 18 and younger. Such treatment typically involves puberty blockers, hormones and even surgical procedures that alter or remove body parts.

“Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding,” the order says. “Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.” [Read more…]

FORT WORTH – The loss of a rule that prevented officials from entering churches to arrest immigrants accused of being in the U.S. illegally has hurt the Church’s witness, the National Hispanic Baptist Network (NHBN) said Jan. 29 in calling for the rule’s reinstatement.

The NHBN, a group representing more than 3,300 Southern Baptist churches, released its statement in Spanish and English nine days after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) overturned a 14-year-old rule that had prevented such arrests at and near sensitive locations including churches and schools.

Attendance at Hispanic congregations has already declined since the DHS revoked the protections Jan. 20, NHBN Executive Director Bruno Molina said in releasing the statement to Baptist Press. [Read more…]

NASHVILLE — The Cooperative Program stands at a crossroads as its 100th birthday approaches.

Messengers to the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s Summit felt that reality this fall. They voted reluctantly to decrease the SBC percentage of the Tennessee convention’s CP allocation from 47.5 to 45 and retain 55 percent for Tennessee ministries.

“When we started moving toward 50/50 distribution of Cooperative Program giving, that was overwhelmingly approved by our messengers,” said Randy C. Davis, president and executive treasure of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. But CP “giving over the past decade has remained flat” in Tennessee. “When you couple that with an inflation rate over the last decade of 24 percent, you can see the dilemma we’re in” to fund Tennessee ministries.

Originally, the TBMB recommended allocating 40 percent of the 2025 CP budget for SBC causes, 55 percent for Tennessee ministries and 5 percent directly to the International Mission Board (IMB). The proposal was intended to funnel the same percentage of CP dollars to the IMB that it would have received through a 50/50 split of receipts. But Tennessee messengers amended the distribution to a straight 45/55 split over fears that giving 5 percent directly to IMB would hurt other SBC entities by decreasing their allocations.

Tennessee isn’t the only state Baptist convention facing a funding dilemma. Multiple state and regional conventions this fall sought to cope with a stark reality: they cannot keep giving more to SBC causes when they are receiving less from churches.

“Giving to the Cooperative Program is impacted by many factors – including economic pressures on churches and conventions – as well as competing funding requests from many other Christian organizations,” said Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee. “Southern Baptists still believe in cooperation, and a new generation must decide how to prioritize Cooperative Program giving to assure the long-term stability and fiscal health of our global efforts.”

Budget cuts

CP is Southern Baptists’ unified mechanism for funding missions and ministries in North America and around the world. A local church gives through CP by sending money to its state Baptist convention. That convention, in turn, decides a percentage of CP receipts to use for in-state ministries and a percentage to forward to the Executive Committee for distribution among SBC causes.

All appears well with CP when considering funds forwarded from state conventions to the SBC. Twenty years ago, state conventions forwarded $175.5 million to SBC ministries. Ten years ago, the figure climbed to $183.4 million. For 2022-23, the most recent year for which complete statistics are available, it was $187.4 million.

But state conventions have been forwarding more money to the SBC even as they receive less from churches. Twenty years ago, churches gave a total of just over $501 million through CP. It dropped to $482 million 10 years ago and $449 million last year. The bottom line: state conventions forwarded $12 million more to CP last year than they did two decades ago even though they received $52 million less.

Southern Baptist leaders have wondered for years how long that trajectory can be sustained. For some state conventions, the answer is not any longer.

The California Southern Baptist Convention (CSBC) voted this fall to restructure its formula for distributing CP funds. The convention adopted an in-state CP budget of $3.85 million and a “CP gifts objective” of $5 million. That means from the first $5 million given through CP next year, 2 percent will go to California Baptist University, 1 percent to the Baptist Foundation of California and $3.85 million will be used for budgeted California ministries. The rest will go to SBC causes. All CP receipts over $5 million will go fully to SBC causes.

If California CP receipts come in at $5 million, that would mean 20 percent forwarded to SBC causes. CP receipts of $5.2 million would mean 25 percent to SBC causes, and $5.4 million in receipts would mean 30 percent to SBC causes. The CSBC’s 2024 budget of $6 million allocated 35 percent to SBC causes.

As CP receipts from churches decreased from $5.85 million in 2022 to a projected $5.1 million this year, “we have been doing budget cuts and cutting staff,” CSBC executive director Pete Ramirez said. “Our executive board had been discussing this new [CP] formula for a couple of years. They finally said, ‘We don’t want you to continue to be cutting staff. We want you to be able to continue to do the ministry in California.’”

Leaders of SBC entities have been sympathetic about the CSBC budget adjustment, Ramirez said, because everyone understands the real challenge of CP is inspiring churches to give more.

“We are at a crossroads where the Cooperative Program might not be what it was in the past,” Ramirez said, adding, “The way this younger generation gives to missions is different than the previous generations. We’re going to have to figure out how do we do things different in our states to continue to do the great work we do as Southern Baptists.”

‘We remain confident’

California was one of six state and regional conventions this fall that decreased the percentage of CP receipts allocated to SBC causes. Five state conventions increased their percentage to SBC causes, with the biggest jumps coming in at 1 percent in Indiana and the Baptist Resource Network of Pennsylvania-South Jersey. Twenty-seven conventions kept their SBC allocations the same.

Two state conventions (the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Baptist General Association of Virginia) offer churches various giving plans for supporting out-of-state ministries, with CP being among the options.

Ten years ago, the picture was very different. In 2014, 23 state conventions increased their percentage of CP receipts to SBC causes.

Nevada was among the states to reduce its SBC allocation this fall, going from 50 percent in 2024 to 25 percent in 2025. But Nevada Baptists have a plan to boost giving from local churches and money forwarded to SBC missions and ministries.

“We had a 10-year stint of being a 50/50 state and were proud of that,” said Damian Cirincione, executive director of the Nevada Baptist Convention. But when he assumed his current role three years ago, “we had already been operating in a deficit and pulling out of reserves.”

The 75/25 allocation adopted this year will both fund increased efforts to assist Nevada churches and facilitate the work of a task force to strengthen CP giving. About five years ago, transitions at the state convention and in local churches resulted in hundreds of thousands fewer dollars coming into Nevada CP. Cirincione is optimistic giving can increase again.

“Though we’ve had to pivot slightly, we remain confident,” he said, noting that Nevada Baptists continue to enjoy a warm relationship with all the SBC entities. “We are working with our churches to build out a strategy that will strengthen our giving in the coming days and our generosity in our contributions to CP as we engage and educate.”

‘Cast a vision’

For state convention leaders, the present state of CP giving marks an opportunity rather than a discouragement. Over the past 20 years, undesignated giving to Southern Baptist churches has increased by nearly $3 billion, according to SBC Annuals. That’s a huge pool of potential money that could be given through CP.

“We must cast a vision for what’s needed and the difference 2 or 3 percent could make in Cooperative Program giving,” Davis said.

Iorg agrees. As he attended more than a dozen state convention annual meetings this fall, he witnessed an enthusiasm for Southern Baptist ministries that stands ready to be channeled into CP giving.

“My core message has been ‘Southern Baptists are a force for good,’” Iorg said, “and the response to that message has been very positive, including standing ovations in a few places, which was more about resonating with the message than applauding my presentation.” B&R