October 2, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — Freddy Gardner made his way Monday through a crowded Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in downtown New Orleans where Southern Baptists will decide a contested presidential election and determine the fate of a couple of churches that have women serving as pastors.
“I come for those who can’t be here, to be their eyes and ears,” said Gardner, missions strategist in the Tuttnall Evans Baptist Association. “Obviously, this convention has some issues, and a bunch of my churches are very concerned, and I want them to hear the truth instead of relying on social media, which has given a voice to people who probably didn’t need a voice.”
Nearly 10,000 messengers had registered by late afternoon on Monday, a day ahead of the meeting that’s set for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Among the most talked about agenda items involve whether Fern Creek Baptist Church in Kentucky and Saddleback Church in California should be allowed to remain a part of the denomination. The SBC Executive Committee had voted to expel both churches in February.
Both churches opted to appeal directly to messengers to allow them to remain part of the SBC. That has heightened interest in this year’s annual meeting, as has the contested presidential election between incumbent Bart Barber, a Texas pastor who is seeking a second one-year term, and challenger Mike Stone, a Georgia pastor who formerly served as chairman of the SBC Executive Committee.
Barber said he’s seeking a second term as SBC president to finish tasks he began in his first term, which largely focused on the denomination’s widespread sexual abuse scandal. Stone said he got into the race because current leaders “have led us in an unhealthy direction.”
More than 12,000 people, including pastors and other church leaders from across Georgia, had preregistered for the annual meeting that interim SBC Executive Committee President Willie McLauren is pitching as “the largest family reunion in North America.”
Both Fern Creek and Saddleback have taken their cases public in the leadup to the annual meeting, appealing for the right to remain in the SBC even though the Executive Committee deemed they were “not in friendly cooperation” with the denomination based on their acceptance of women being ordained as pastors.
“Our appeal to reverse the Executive Committee ruling is not asking any Baptist to change their theology,” longtime Saddleback Pastor Rick Warren, now retired, said on social media. “We reject the idea that Southern Baptists who disagree are an existential threat to our convention and not true Baptists.”
Southern Baptist messengers are expected to vote on a motion to amend the denomination’s constitution to exclude churches that that affirm, appoint or employ women as pastors.
Members of the SBC Executive Committee agreed Monday to bring the matter for a vote at the annual meeting set for Tuesday and Wednesday, even though they said the Baptist Faith and Message already provides a means for expelling churches that ordain or employ women as pastors.
For that reason, the Executive Committee voiced its opposition to the motion.
“The Executive Committee deems that our beliefs are most appropriately stated in our adopted statement of faith rather than in our constitution and therefore opposes a suggested amendment to SBC Constitution,” members said.
They said changing the constitution is unnecessary because the Baptist Faith and Message already says only men can serve as pastors.
SBC leaders also said Monday that they were phasing out connections with Guidepost Solutions, a New York firm that wrote a blistering report last year about the denomination’s handling of sexual abuse complaints.
The Executive Committee had given Guidepost an additional contract to create and staff a sexual abuse hotline and to develop a public database of abusers, but the firm ran into a storm of criticism from Southern Baptists last year when it posted its support of LGBTQ+ on social media.
Executive Committee interim President Willie McLaurin said a different firm will be hired to develop the database and to take over the hotline.
Share with others
