Changing the Name of the Southern Baptist Convention by Heath Lambert

Time for A Name Change?

In June, the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) will gather in Orlando, Florida, for their annual meeting. They will approve budgets, make resolutions, send missionaries, and choose their next president. I wonder if the convention should also consider changing its name. Perhaps I will make the motion myself on the convention floor.

I’m not talking about another effort at an unofficial name change like in 2012, when 53% of Southern Baptists kept their legal name but said people could, if they wanted, refer to the convention informally as Great Commission Baptists. No, I am talking about a bona fide new name for the SBC.

Such an action makes sense because names mean something. We all know the importance of a name to communicate meaning. This importance goes all the way back to the Bible, where the names of key leaders are often selected for the role they will serve. Abraham’s name is important because it means “father of many.” Jesus’s name is important because it means “the Lord saves.”

Because names communicate meaning, Southern Baptists might consider changing their name to Baptists Debating the Existence of Women Pastors. We could call it BDEWP for short. I admit it is not the most exciting name, but it does have the virtue of telling the truth. There is nothing particularly exciting about the name of my church, First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, but every word in it is important. It is the same for BDEWP. What it loses in style, it gains in honesty about what we do every year when we get together.

The SBC started its contemporary debate about the issue of women preachers in Anaheim, California, in 2022. The issue has drawn massive attention every year since. It is certain to come up again in 2026, creating a five-year stretch of distraction on a straightforward issue.

How did we get here?

A Brief History of the Contemporary Debate

The SBC believes local churches are independent and cannot be controlled by the convention. But the SBC reserves the same freedom for itself that it confesses for local churches. That means the SBC is free to say which independent local churches it will cooperate with and which ones it will not. For years, Southern Baptists have operated under the assumption that our confessional statement, the Baptist Faith and Message (BFM), controls which churches can be in friendly cooperation with our convention and which ones cannot.

In 2022, the committee Southern Baptists use to determine the churches considered to be in good standing raised a question about this established practice. In response to several churches in the convention who had female pastors, they wondered whether the prohibition against female pastors in the BFM was intended to create a standard for convention membership. They asked Southern Baptists to give them guidance.

Most Southern Baptists were immediately alarmed that a crucial convention committee did not believe our very clear confessional document provided enough guidance. In every meeting since, Southern Baptists have been trying to supply the requested guidance.

Huge numbers of Southern Baptists have voted every year to remove member churches with female pastors. In 2023, the convention amended the BFM to make clear that the Bible forbids women serving in any pastoral roles, regardless of the terminology that is used for that role. Southern Baptists have also sought repeatedly to change our constitution to make clear that the statements in the BFM on female pastors are meant to control which churches can participate in convention work.

None of the efforts to amend the constitution have succeeded, even though they have had the support of most Southern Baptists. Each year, large majorities vote for these amendments. But each year, the amendments have failed to reach the supermajority required to pass. The reason for this has been because just enough Southern Baptists listen to loud voices in the convention who say the amendment isn’t necessary.

It is ironic that every time these influencers succeed in persuading just enough people to believe the amendment is unnecessary for clarity, we are always back in another conflict over clarity in a few short months.

That gets us to 2026

Female Pastors in 2026

In the last year, a controversy has arisen between the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC) and Fielder Church in Arlington, Texas, affiliated with SBTC, Texas Baptists, and the SBC. Jason Paredes, the lead pastor of Fielder Church, has been clear that their congregation believes the role of pastor is open to women, and several women on their website were described as serving in that role.

When this became an issue in Texas, Fielder Church refused to change their position, but they did change their language. Now, instead of using the title of pastor or elder to describe those in spiritual authority in their church, they use the language of shepherd for both men and women serving in the pastoral office.

This change means that Southern Baptists now face two problems, instead of only one. We have the convictional issue of what Baptists must believe regarding women in pastoral roles. Now we have the added problem of whether Southern Baptists can have this

conversation honestly, or whether we will play linguistic shell games with the clear teaching of Scripture.

This is a moment that requires honesty. The truth is that this is not the way a healthy convention of churches behaves. Healthy conventions don’t reject the clear and repeated teachings of Scripture because those teachings are politically incorrect or unpopular. Healthy conventions don’t seek to resolve obvious convictional disagreement with dishonest euphemisms. And healthy conventions don’t insist on having the same foolish and distracting debates every single year.

Something simply must change. Key leaders in the convention know this.

Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has addressed the issue of conviction, saying, “The Southern Baptist Convention will not survive ambiguity on the question of female pastors, whatever they are called.” Clint Pressley, president of the SBC, has said that the practice of Fielder Church is “in clear violation” of the BFM.

Southern Baptists need to get ready to address this in 2026.

What Next?

What will Southern Baptists do?

Votes to remove churches with female pastors from the convention never get less than 90% of the vote. That likely means that Fielder Church does not have a bright future in the SBC while they persist in their present course. The larger matter is what the SBC will do to avoid having this issue be a distraction at every convention meeting until the return of Jesus Christ.

Some will want to reintroduce another amendment to the SBC constitution. With the majority of Southern Baptists, I have favored the previous amendment attempts. Such an approach would guarantee that the SBC will be talking about this issue until at least 2027, since it takes two years of supermajorities to approve a constitutional amendment. An amendment would finally bring a conclusion to this persistent debate, but without a change of heart from influencers who continually deprive the measure of the required supermajority, it could turn into another waste of time.

Willy Rice is the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, has supported the previous constitutional amendments, is running for SBC president in 2026, and has proposed a potential solution. He is calling for a special SBC task force to make specific recommendations stipulating that, to be in friendly cooperation, churches must embrace the biblical teaching that only qualified men can serve as pastors. Such a report should pass easily since it would only require a simple majority for approval.

This approach is a convictional and practical one that could bring an end to a half-decade of arguments on what the vast majority of Southern Baptists believe is an uncomplicated matter.

Of course, if it doesn’t work, we could always change the name.

SBC or BDEWP? Perhaps we will all get to decide in June.

The Line between Keller and Kirk

The heartbreaking violence in Minnesota is expanding with little evidence that it will soon decrease. It is only one example of the explosive political divisions happening right now in the United States. Such intense division leads to tension among Christians about how to address political issues. 

Many believers look at the desperation in our culture and demand increased Christian engagement to try and stem the troubling tide. Other believers observe the same cultural desperation and believe that a focus on political matters weakens our most potent weapon for societal transformation, namely, the proclamation that Jesus has died and risen to save sinners. 

This disagreement is not new. It is one that existed between two Christian men who are both now in heaven: Tim Keller and Charlie Kirk. The two men had nearly opposite dispositions regarding political engagement. Tim Keller was a minister of the gospel known for his reluctance to address political issues in order to avoid distractions from his proclamation of Jesus Christ. Charlie Kirk was a political activist who insisted on proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ in the public square believing such proclamation was the only hope for America.

Like Keller, I have given my life to the ministry of the Lord Jesus and have no interest in a vocational pursuit of politics. But, like Kirk, I believe Christians must speak into the pressing political issues of our day, and that avoiding them is to fail in our calling as gospel preachers.

Here are three reasons why pastors must increase our political engagement in these days of cultural division.

Proclaiming Christ Requires Application

The calling of gospel ministers is to preach the good news of Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 9:16, the Apostle Paul said, “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.” Obviously, pastors who do not preach the gospel have no business in ministry at all. And yet, we need to say more.

The work of Jesus to save sinners is a historical reality that demands declaration and a theological reality that demands conviction. But the work of Jesus is also an ethical reality that demands application. Preachers of the gospel cannot unpack the historical and theological elements of the work of Jesus and ignore the practical applications of what he has done. 

Jesus calls his people to walk out their Christianity in practical issues of life. Ephesians 4:1 says Christians must “Walk in a manner worthy of the calling we have received.” Pastors committed to preaching Jesus must apply the work of Christ as clearly on political issues as on any other realm of life. In a politically charged atmosphere like ours, this mandate is misunderstood by many. 

A few years ago, a measure was on the ballot in my home state of Florida to outlaw abortion. On the Sunday before the election, I encouraged the members of First Baptist Church to vote for the very important initiative. After the announcement, I learned that a married couple who had been visiting our church for months left the service, promising never to return. They thought myappeal to vote for an anti-abortion amendment was inappropriate. They said they didn’t want to come to a church where the pastor “preached politics.”

This couple misunderstood my calling as a preacher and, therefore, misunderstood what I did that day. In fact, I was not preaching politics. I was just preaching. I took a stand for God, who creates life, who loves life, and who calls his people to defend life. The issue of life has obvious political implications, but it is primarily a spiritual issue that transcends politics. God addressed it authoritatively in the pages of Scripture long before it got confused by political debates in contemporary American society. Pastors have no option to avoid preaching biblical truth because those issues are matters of controversy in contemporary debates. The opposite is true. The call to be faithful preachers requires us to apply the Word of God and the Work of Christ to political issues. 

That leads to the second reason for increased pastoral engagement on politics.

Political Chaos Requires Divine Truth

Everyone knows that American society is in trouble. Christians know why. The diagnosis of the problem comes in the clear teaching of Proverbs 14:31, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” The reason our society is in a mess is because our culture embracessin and calls it righteousness. We embrace foolishness and call it wisdom. We embrace error andvice and call them truth and virtue.

Just one example of this is the widespread cultural confusion on gender, sexuality, and marriage. Loud voices pronounce that people of the same gender can be married, and, alternatively, that individuals have the power to choose the gender they want to be. Faithful preachers know a few important things about this effort. 

They know, first of all, that these positions are insane from the standpoint of Scripture. They also know that the same corrupt voices who advocate these positions are committed to using the political process to normalize and institutionalize their corruption.

Most importantly, faithful preachers know they must proclaim with bold conviction and broken hearts the truth that a culture at war with God’s Word will be visited by God’s wrath. Such proclamation is not the least bit controversial from the standpoint of Scripture.

Isaiah preached that God would soon execute his anger against Babylon (Isaiah 13:1-3). Ezekiel preached to Egypt that God was opposed to them because of their sin (Ezekiel 29:1-3). Jonah preached to the Assyrians that Ninevah would be destroyed for their unrighteousness (Jonah 3:5). Jesus Christ proclaimed “Woe” over Chorazin and Bethsaida because of their rejection of him as Messiah (Matthew 11:21-24). Literally hundreds of other examples exist. 

In Ezekiel 3:17-18, God said, “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.”

Gospel preachers are alive in a day when our culture is publicly celebrating sin in ways unheard of since the dawn of time. Preaching Christ in this environment requires honesty about our corporate sins that make the redemption of Jesus necessary. If preachers of the gospel do not say this to our society, no one will. God’s word to Ezekiel reminds every preacher that a refusal to be honest about God’s judgment on our culture will lead to God’s judgment on us.

Ignoring Politics Leads Nowhere Good

At the end of the day, there are only three logical options available to Christians regarding political engagement. We could ignore politics, we could address political issues incorrectly, or we could engage them faithfully. When you think about it like that, there is only one real path for Christians to take. 

Consider the current unrest in Minneapolis. Everyone in our society is talking about the issues of illegal immigration, the ethics of protest, the rules of engagement for the use of deadly force, the nature of the relationship between federal and local governments, and many other issues. If preachers try to avoid these crucial topics, the net result will be that God’s voice in Scripture will be the only voice not heard on these crucial matters. Such silence will make things worse and is not an option available to Christians.

Once preachers decide to engage these issues, they obviously must avoid addressing them incorrectly. That means preachers must do the hard work of seeking carefully to understand the issues in our culture and then working vigilantly to understand the way God addresses them in his Word. This will be tricky and delicate work. But our calling to preach Christ requires us to acknowledge that Jesus is not only the world’s exclusive Savior, but also the world’s supreme King. As King, he has a mind on our society’s political discourse, and he has revealed everything he wants us to know about that in his Word. Our calling as preachers requires us to do our part to ensure that God’s people know God’s mind on the pressing political issues of our day. 

Obligation Not Obsession

Our calling to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ is precisely what obligates us to engage politics with Christian truth. That same call to preach Christ will encourage us to pursue much wisdom as we address those issues. Faithful preachers will exert tremendous care to avoid sharing mere opinions that are not informed by the Word of God, to apply caution before becoming overly dogmatic on less-clear areas where faithful Christians disagree, and to avoid a preoccupation with politics that prioritizes it above all matters of Christian living. But just as ministers of the gospel seek to apply the good news of Jesus to every issue in a fallen world—to parenting, money, work, and everything else—so we also must apply the message of Jesus to politics. 

Christians who embrace the message that we must be silent on political issues in order topreserve our witness are in perfect error. This error requires repentance. In a society at the precipice of destruction, Christians are the only ones able to make the mind of Christ known.That is work that they must urgently accomplish.

Truth in Tumultuous Times

Christians are alive in tumultuous and confusing times. One of the enduring marks of every season of tumult is the presence of disagreements about truth.

When you pay attention to almost any debated matter these days, you will discover that most every problem is not only defined by disagreements over how to analyze and solve problems, but also by basic disagreements about the facts of those problems.

An excellent contemporary example of this is the story that has dominated the domestic headlines for most of January. It is the tragic story of a woman in Minneapolis shot and killed in her car by an agent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on January 7. Everyone can agree that the event happened, and that any loss of life is always tragic. But after that, the agreement stops and wild disparities rage about the most basic facts of the event.

Officials from the Trump Administration claim the deceased woman was shot by the agent in a just use of deadly force after she weaponized her car against him and was attempting to run him down. Democratic officials have claimed the Trump Administration is lying and that the driver was murdered by the ICE agent.

On the one hand, such diametrically opposed accounts are maddening. It is very frustrating when elected officials and news outlets provide false reports that cloud the facts. On the other hand, such behavior is typical of all times of tumult and strife. Anytime any society is going through significant season of change and unrest the nature of truth gets debated.

Faithful Christians in these days must be defined by a passion for the truth. We need to be people who tell the truth, who expose lies, and who know how to distinguish truths from lies when listening to the reports of others. In days of dishonesty Christians can start to distinguish truth from lies by knowing what the truth is not.

What The Truth Is Not

In these dishonest days influencers on social media, reporters on cable news, hosts of popular podcasts, protesters in the street, government officials, and even our own families try to pass off lies as truth. Sometimes they do this on purpose and other times they do it because they have been deceived themselves. Living in this world means learning to recognize at least three realities that clarify what the truth is not.

Truth Is Not Whatever You Want It to Be

Your desires don’t make something true. Too many people are tempted to believe truth is established by what they desire. You can see this very clearly with the shooting in Minneapolis. If you want ICE to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, you are likely to be the kind of person who agrees that the agent’s actions were justified. But if you do not want immigrants arrested and deported you are likely the kind of person who thinks the ICE officer is guilty of a crime.

Whether the issue is ICE agents and protestors or a disagreement in your family kitchen, Christians must admit that our desires are not the arbiter of truth. We must learn that the pursuit of truth has nothing to do with the discovery of our personal desires but with an embrace of objective facts.

Truth Is Not What You Most Fear

Sometimes we believe information, not because we want it to do be true, but because we don’t want it to be true. This is the opposite of what I just discussed. Our worst fears never make something true, and a spirit of pessimism cannot be admitted into evidence to establish the facts of a case.

You may be one of millions that are fearful that illegal immigrants will overrun our country unless they are apprehended and deported by federal agents. Or you may be one of other millions that are fearful that the tragic shooting in Minneapolis is the first of many deaths to come if law enforcement officials are not reigned in.

Regardless of the side you are on, the presence of your fears is not enough to establish a fact. Christians must never allow our fears to deter us from an embrace of the truth.

Truth Is Not Who You Love

Sometimes we believe information, not because we know it is true, not because of what we want to be true, or even because of what we fear, but because we love the source of information that shared it with us.

With the tragedy in Minneapolis, the vast majority of people who listen exclusively to officials from the Trump Administration or who heard about the shooting on Fox News will believe that the ICE agent engaged in a defensible use of force. It is similarly obvious that people who listen to the Democratic Governor of Minnesota, the Democratic Mayor of Minneapolis, and who get their news about it from MSNBC will believe the ICE agent to be guilty of murder.

Unfortunately increasing numbers of news sources are seeking to drive up views, hits, likes, shares, and votes by telling their audience what they think they want to hear instead of reporting straight facts. This is a dangerous trend that underscores how cautious we must be before assuming we have all the facts after receiving information from only one source.

We cannot construct an understanding of truth built on our desires, or fears, or our loyalties. Instead, we must establish truth on biblical grounds.

The Biblical Nature of Truth

The truth must be defined by what is. Something is true when it conforms to reality. We tell the truth when we make statements that reflect the reality of a situation, and we tell lies when we make statements intentionally at odds with reality.

In the Bible, reality is established by warrant. That is, we believe a statement reflects reality when there is evidence for it. One of the most consistent forms of biblical warrant is eyewitness testimony. Second Corinthians 13:1 says, “Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” This biblical standard is repeated throughout Scripture (Deuteronomy 19:15; Numbers 35:30; Matthew 18:16; 1 Timothy 5:19; Hebrews 10:28). 

The evidence of two or three people establishes the biblical standard of credible eyewitness testimony. The importance of the credibility of eyewitness testimony is crucial since corrupt people can conspire to lie as they did in the trial and execution of Jesus Christ (Matthew 26:60-61).

What Happened in Minneapolis

The Bible demands that we evaluate facts in order to understand what happened in Minneapolis. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, announced on January 18, that the actions of the ICE agent who shot the protester were under review. Because Christians care about the facts, we will want to leave room for any information from that investigation that may alter our conclusions. Having said that, enough facts are available right now to begin to establish reality.

A Just Authority and a Just Cause

First, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a legitimate law enforcement entity in the administration of President Donald Trump, who was duly elected to his office in 2024 by the American people. Those ICE agents are enforcing federal rules passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by the President of the United States. That is the very definition of legal. These facts mean ICE is a legitimate authority engaged in a just cause.

A Justifiable Use of Force

Second, multiple videos of the shooting in Minneapolis detail events in the lead up to and the aftermath of the shooting. It is abundantly clear from multiple angles that the victim of the shooting was engaged in taunting federal officers, in refusing their lawful instructions, and in accelerating her car and slamming it into the agent who ultimately shot her. I have checked with several Christians in federal law enforcement who have told me that everything the ICE agent did is well within the normal rules of engagement for the use of lethal force. He had every reason to fear his life was in danger and was fully justified in defending his life and the life of others.

A Biblical Use of Force

Finally, the Apostle Paul talks about the importance of submitting to the government in Romans 13:4 when he says, “He is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” The Bible makes clear that God establishes governmental power to be an object of wrath for those who do wrong. God allows agents of the government to bear the sword, that is, to use force as they serve the public good.

A Response Controlled by Reality

All the available information gives every indication that the use of force on the part of the ICE agent in Minneapolis, while tragic, was indeed justified. Regardless of what you want, what you fear, your political affiliation, or where you get your news, these facts must control our response.

When the facts control our response, it will lead to wisdom. You should never impede law enforcement in the lawful fulfillment of their work. You should never resist the lawful instructions of law enforcement. You should never engage in aggressive uses of force against law enforcement. To do otherwise is lethally foolish. Any American has the right to disagree with the authorities, to register that disagreement in peaceful ways, to try and persuade the government of your position, or to elect a new administration at the next election.

But for too many in Minneapolis, the facts are not controlling their response. Obvious facts are being displaced by fear, hatred, and politics. Instead of wisdom we are seeing escalating foolishness. Protests are expanding, on Sunday, a mob infiltrated a service of Christian worship, and the Trump Administration is considering deploying the National Guard to deter more violence. This is all going in a very bad and very dangerous direction that will only see the increase of violence and death. That will be to the great misfortune, not only of the people of Minnesota, but to our entire society.

The heated situation in Minneapolis is at the crossroads of any number of conflicts related to immigration policy, the leadership of President Trump, the best way to protest, justifiable uses of force, the role Christians should play in our society, and many other realities. But we will not make progress on any of those matters if we can’t agree on the nature of truth itself. In John 14:6, Jesus identifies himself as the very embodiment of truth. We need to ask him to give us his grace and his truth in these days.

The renewed attention on Jeffrey Epstein shows our God-given hunger for truth, the destructive lies of sexual immorality, and the tragic misuse of wealth and power. As Congress demands full disclosure of Epstein’s network, we’re reminded that innocent people long for the light while the guilty fear it. His story exposes a culture that celebrates sinful desire and the devastation that follows, standing in stark contrast to the God who uses His power in love by sending His Son for our salvation.

This week, the longest shutdown in American history finally broke when Democrats were the first to give way. After weeks of hardship on both sides and despite their recent election wins, eight Democratic Senators crossed the aisle to reopen the government. What this moment really reveals is the deep dysfunction of a system that hasn’t passed a true budget since 1997 and has racked up a staggering national debt.

On November 4, 2025, Democrats saw major wins, but the biggest story was New York City electing socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor. His victory highlights the failure of socialism, which tries to fix scarcity by controlling prices rather than letting free exchange determine value. This always leads to shortages because governments can’t know the real costs producers face. While socialists dream of creating heaven on earth, only Christ offers true abundance—life without price.

This week on The Biggest Story of the Week, we’re talking about one of the most astonishing crimes in recent memory, the Paris Jewel Heist. In less than ten minutes, four men disguised as construction workers broke into the Louvre, overpowered security, and escaped with more than $100 million in jewels. As French leaders call it a national disgrace, this story reminds us of something far bigger than missing treasure.

This week, we thank God for the long-awaited return of the final Israeli hostages who were held by Hamas for more than two years. Their release marks a moment of both relief and sorrow. As Christians, we must pray for their healing, for peace in the Middle East, and for wisdom among leaders navigating the fragile road ahead. Most of all, this moment reminds us of the reality of evil in our world and of the God who alone has the power to set captives free through the saving mercy of Jesus Christ.

This week's biggest story is the growing bipartisan concern over the misuse of power within the U.S. Department of Justice. With revelations that the Biden administration investigated Republican senators’ phone records and the Trump administration indicted former FBI Director James Comey, both sides now face accusations of weaponizing the law against political opponents.

This week's biggest story is the tragedy in Michigan. On Sunday, September 28, a man drove his truck into a Mormon congregation in Grand Blanc Township, opened fire on worshippers, and set the building ablaze. Four innocent people were murdered, eight were seriously injured, and the assailant was killed by police. We know what happened. We know who did it. But the question everyone is asking is: why? Scripture teaches that understanding motivation is a moral imperative—essential for pursuing justice and finding peace. While answers about the assailant's motives may bring some comfort to grieving families, no explanation will ever justify this evil. Real, lasting peace comes only from understanding the "why" behind the death of Jesus Christ, who gave His life as a ransom for sinners.