For the last three years (2023–25), Christ Over All has given itself to the task of seeking denominational reform in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).[1] As I explained two summers ago, when many left the annual convention deflated by the rejection of the Law Amendment, we devoted a month to the SBC because our board includes two current SBC professors, one SBC vocational pastor, and six SBC alums. In fact, all but one of the team at Christ Over All is a member of a church that stands in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention. In other words, Christ Over All doesn’t want to simply do theology in the abstract; we want to help make a difference in the place God has put us. And because the SBC, with all of its warts, is our family of faith we have tried to do good for the convention that has done so much good for us.
1. As it will be apparent, I use the terms denomination and convention interchangeably. For while the SBC is by definition a convention of independent churches, it functions as a denomination. And denying its denominational activities with the technicalities of Baptist polity is usually unhelpful when discussing thousands of churches that move as a herd.
That said, there are abiding and even rising challenges. Those of us who prize doctrinal clarity (consider our February 2026 month), confessional association (see our March 2024 SBC edition), and strong Baptist ecclesiology (a future month that still needs to be written) often feel at odds with the decisions that are made in the convention. As one SBC pastor has put it, his church remains in “unfriendly cooperation” with the SBC. And for good reason.
In addition to the inability for our convention to come to terms with female pastors, there is the stigma of the SBC’s infamous 2019 Resolution 9 and its DEI measures that hang over the convention. Likewise, the damage done by former ERLC-president Russell Moore and those who followed his lead to waive attorney-client privilege and to launch an investigation against Southern Baptist leaders turned out to be a disaster. Not only did it reveal that denominational leaders were steered by toxic empathy, but in the process it cost the convention millions of dollars to discover what fair-minded Southern Baptists already knew: Southern Baptist Churches “are statistically MUCH safer places for women and children than secular entities like the public school system.”[2]
2. For a full examination on the findings of the SATF, see Jon Whitehead, “U.S. Justice Department Rejects Russell Moore’s Slanderous SBC ‘Criminal Conspiracy’ Claim,” March 16, 2025.
Just the same, there are legal problems related to the North American Mission Board and its defamation of Will McRaney. And before that in 2020, there was LifeWay suing its previous president, Thom Rainer, before reversing course. And most recently, with Southern Baptists nauseated by all the legal fees and lawyer talk, Jeff Iorg, Executive Committee President, stood in Dallas to oppose the Law Amendment 2.0 with spurious threats of litigation.
The Law Amendment rightly called the convention to uphold what is already in the SBC’s Baptist Faith and Message, namely, that only qualified men can serve as pastors within the SBC. After three years of discussion and debate on this amendment, Iorg introduced a previously unheard of argument for rejecting this constitutional change: “legal risk.” He spoke from the platform in his role as Executive Committee President that it was his “responsibility to caution you about voting for this amendment, because you are taking on this additional possible risk”— a risk that would allegedly open the SBC to further litigation. Of course, with Iorg’s stark warning ringing in the messengers’ ears as the final word, his uncontested argument won the day. And now, “Baptists Debating the Existence of Women Pastors”—or BEDWP (as Heath Lambert framed it)—continues.
Put all this together, and it doesn’t take long before one wonders: Will the center hold? Will the Cooperative Program that began 100 years ago in 1925 continue to be the funding mechanism for the Southern Baptist Convention?[3] Already, there are signs that churches are not giving to the Cooperative Program like they once did. That is to say, instead of entrusting the SBC and its state conventions with all the Cooperative Program funds to allocate them as they desire, churches are now directing their monies towards one or more preferred SBC entities, so that other disagreeable entities receive none.
3. As many are aware, the Cooperative Program is one of the bedrocks of SBC partnership, it’s a large slush fund that SBC churches give to each year through their state conventions. The state convention keeps around half of that money and then sends on the rest to the various SBC entities, including the SBC’s missions arm (the International Mission Board), the church planting arm (the North American Mission Board), and the six SBC seminaries.
To speak personally, this is what our church did many years ago. When we lost confidence in the ERLC (see our March 2025 theme) and NAMB (for reasons that we will address this month), we directed our giving toward The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the International Mission Board. In speaking with dozens of other SBC pastors, our decision to “defund” certain entities—for that is what designating giving effectively does—is a growing trend. And yet, one wonders if those like Jeff Iorg are aware of why churches are redirecting their funds?
It doesn’t appear so. Speaking to the Executive Committee in the Fall of 2025, Iorg returned to blame Expressive Individualism among SBC churches as the sinful cause for low Cooperative Program totals. Sidestepping “programmatic and political reasons for these current changes,” he inveighed against Southern Baptists that a spirit of self-centered expression was preventing Cooperative Program giving. Of course, our world is steeped with expressive individualism, and it sounds smart and sophisticated to bring out Robert Bellah’s sociological descriptor, but Rhett Burns’s response is better. Marching through SBC institutions, Pastor Rhett shows how multiple entities have misused SBC funds and thereby invited SBC churches to withhold their giving.
Indeed, one has to ask: could it be that SBC churches are not giving to the Cooperative Program because they are tired of seeing money go to waste? Could it be that they are not giving because they cannot even transparently see how their money is being spent, as Rhett Burns has also pointed out? Indeed, the SBC is a denomination that shares (in some fashion) a common statement of faith. But functionally, it is a denomination that pools its resources to do more together than apart. Yet, as these anecdotes illustrate, cooperation is not holding, trust is waning, and questions are looming.
And so, this month we are going to wade into the mire, look at the concerns, hear from many leaders, and let reliable pastors speak. In short, we are going to consider the question: Can the center hold?
If you are a Southern Baptist pastor, seminarian, or church member, you ought to follow along. Just the same, if you know a Southern Baptist, especially one who is going to the annual convention in Orlando, then be sure to tell them about this month. We will take a look at all the SBC entities and consider if and how Southern Baptists can continue to walk together for the purpose of missions, education, evangelism, and church planting.
Along the way, we will interview the outgoing SBC President Clint Pressley and the two leading candidates for the 2026 presidency, Josh Powell and Willie Rice. Additionally, we will have two longforms that (1) express our gratitude to God for the good we see in the convention and (2) outline our concerns for ongoing partnership. And interspersed between these interviews and essays, we have articles that tackle denominational weaknesses and ways the SBC needs reform.
The God Who Is There: Contemplating the Doctrine of God
While the month of March takes on a contemporary challenge in the SBC, it comes on the heels of a month dedicated to the unchanging glory of our triune God. Be sure to check out these essays, especially Steve Wellum’s longform, which covers the ERAS debate that has raged over the last decade and Chris Bolt’s in-depth response to Kirk Cameron’s denial of Eternal Conscious Torment.
Together, this month provides a rich introduction to the Doctrine of God—both in his immutable attributes and in our ability to speak about God with proper theological precision and trinitarian grammar.
- Protestors Are Coming to Your Church: Are You Ready? Twenty-Five Action Steps Before the Day Comes by Charles Lyons • Concise Article • What will you do when protestors show up at your church? That day’s happening sooner than you realize.
- 5.08 “Protestors Are Coming to Your Church: Are You Ready? Twenty-Five Action Steps Before the Day Comes” by Charles Lyons, Jordan Howe, David Schrock, & Trent Hunter • Podcast Interview • Listen in as David Schrock & Trent Hunter interview Charles Lyons and Jordan Howe on their respective articles for Christ Over All and Center for Baptist Leadership
- God Is Trinity by Robert Letham • Concise Article • What does the Great Commission and the proper place of God’s worship have to do with the Trinity?
- The Sovereignty of God by Jeremy M. Kimble • Concise Article • What does it mean that God is sovereign, how does this relate to other attributes of God? What are misunderstandings of God’s sovereignty, and why does it all matter?
- Axioms of Theology Proper: Guiding Lights for the Doctrine of God by Kyle D. Claunch • Longform Essay • Who is God and what is he like? Take off your sandals and follow the light as we seek to comprehend the incomprehensible!
- 5.09 “Axioms of Theology Proper: Guiding Lights for the Doctrine of God” by Kyle Claunch • Podcast Reading • Who is God and what is he like? Take off your sandals and follow the light as we seek to comprehend the incomprehensible!
- How Modern Culture Has Distorted the Love of God by Gerald Bray • Concise Article • God is Love. But what does that mean in a culture that defines love merely as tolerance?
- “Who Has Been His Counselor?”: The Omniscience of God by Michael Pereira • Concise Article • God’s knowledge is more vast, more comprehensive, and more deep than you can ever imagine.
- God Is Himself: Why God Is More Than His Attributes by Knox Brown • Concise Article • God is so much greater than us, that he can’t be defined by any one attribute, or even the sum of them together. Instead, he defines himself as himself: I AM WHO I AM.
- God’s Eternality by Roberto Martinez • Concise Article • We strain our minds to comprehend that God is eternal before, during, and beyond time. He forever rules it and is not contained by it. Behold your God!
- Inexpressible Joy, Incomprehensible Peace, and Indescribable Beauty: The Blessedness of God by Stefan Hartsell • Concise Article • Joy that never fades. Peace that never breaks. Beauty beyond imagination. These are all one attribute glorious of our God—and one glorious hope he promises us
- 5.10 “Axioms of Theology Proper: Guiding Lights for the Doctrine of God” by Kyle Claunch, David Schrock, & Stephen Wellum • Podcast Interview • Listen in as David Schrock & Stephen Wellum interview Kyle Claunch on his COA Longform Essay, “Axioms of Theology Proper: Guiding Lights for the Doctrine of God”
- God’s Burning Affection: Impassibility & Divine Emotion by Knox Brown • Concise Article • God loves—and hates—with an infinite burning affection. But does He have emotions that change? Behold the awesome and terrible wonder of our God!
- Reflections on the Retrieval of Classical Theism in Evangelical Theology by Stephen J. Wellum • Longform Essay • Sometimes an old compass is all you need to make it back home, and so it is with the church’s Nicene doctrine of God.
- 5.11 “Reflections on the Retrieval of Classical Theism in Evangelical Theology” by Stephen J. Wellum • Podcast Reading • Sometimes an old compass is all you need to make it back home, and so it is with the church’s Nicene doctrine of God.
- Speaking of God . . . by Brad Green • Concise Article • Everything we know about God is in limited human words. But how can our finite words describe the infinite God?
- God Is Righteous: Romans 1:17 Tells Me So by Ardel Caneday • Concise Article • Luther was wrong about God’s righteousness in Romans—and so is NT Wright.
- Our Glorious God by Christopher W. Morgan & Christina D. Gonet • Concise Article • We are made to glorify our glorious God. But just what is God’s glory?
- 5.12 “Reflections on the Retrieval of Classical Theism in Evangelical Theology” by Stephen J. Wellum, David Schrock, & Brad Green • Podcast Interview • Listen in as David Schrock and Brad Green interview Stephen Wellum on his COA Longform, “Reflections on the Retrieval of Classical Theism in Evangelical Theology”
- Hell and the Character of God by Chris Bolt • Concise Article • Evangelical actor Kirk Cameron has ignited a firestorm by advocating for annihilationism, the view that non-Christians experience eternal and unconscious nonexistence after final judgment. But how does this view cohere with who God is and what His word says?
News and Notes
First, we now have PDFs available online—half off!
More than half our themes are now available for download. You can find them in the Store Tab. As you will see, every theme is formatted and organized for easy printing. For a sample, you can go to September 2022 or October 2022, where both of those months are free for download. For the rest, the regular price will be $15. But for now, we have them marked off by half.
These PDFs, which have a book’s worth of material in each volume, are intended to help you better read a large section of given subject and to share them in your church as needed. Once you download a PDF, they are there for your use for ministry, teaching, and training. We would ask that you don’t republish them online, but please make use of them freely in your ministries.
Second, come join Christ Over All for lunch in Staunton, Virginia on June 19, 2026.
If you are in or near Virginia, or if you want to make the drive to the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, come join David Schrock at the Reformark Missions Conference happening in Staunton, Virginia on June 19–20.
Christ Over All is helping sponsor this event. And David will be there on Friday, June 19 to share about the mission and vision of COA. If you are able, come to the conference and join him for lunch, where you will receive a couple books and we can talk about how Christ Over All might help you in your local ministry.
A bit more about the conference: Conrad Mbewe, Sean Demars, Zane Pratt, Keith Goad and others will be speaking about ways that local churches can bring the glory of Christ to the nations. If you come, you will be edified and equipped to think about ways to further reach the nations with the Gospel.
Third, be aware of our upcoming months.
If you have interest in one of the following topics in bold and are interested in writing for us (in line with our doctrinal distinctives), feel free to shoot us an e-mail to tell us what you are thinking.
April: The Resurrection in the Old Testament
May: Critiquing Eastern Orthodoxy
June: Opposing Islam
July: Celebrating America’s 250th Anniversary
August: A Sabbath Rest: A Collection of COA’s Best Essays . . . So Far
September: The Ten Commandments
October: Pastor, Be Political: A Guide to Glorifying God in the Midterms
November: Economics 101
December: Christmas Carols to the Glory of God
December is a short story (~5000 words) contest. Submit a Christmas themed story, and enter a chance to win a cash prize.
That’s all for this month. Until next time, let’s remember that because Christ is Lord over all, we ought exalt Christ in all things.
