Although the Southern Baptist Convention remains the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, only about 3.6% of the 342 million Americans were members of SBC churches in 2025. Not only has membership in SBC churches been on the decline…
Why did it take 15 years to implement greater funding for IMB?
Editor’s note: This is the first installment in a multi-part analysis BNG will publish over the coming weeks about the work of the SBC Executive Committee. After resisting messenger directives for more than 15 years, the 86-member Southern Baptist…
What 12 Denominations Tell Us About American Christianity
For the last seven or eight years, I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet that has a whole bunch of membership data from every denomination that has a consistent track record of keeping good data and releasing (at least some of it)…
The betrayal of a historic wisdom
For decades, there was a historic wisdom in the connectionalism and autonomy of local churches within Southern Baptist life. That wisdom is evident in the way local churches have related to one another — fostering friendships, camaraderie and mutual support….
SBC leader offers little hope for change on addressing clergy sex abuse
Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee Chair Philip Robertson gives his thoughts on the clergy sex abuse problem within the Southern Baptist Convention in this video. Spoiler: He doesn’t think it’s much of a problem. Robertson attempts to discredit and sow…
Thirty years later, no one has reshaped the SBC more than Albert Mohler
Gallons of ink — physical and digital — have been spilled writing about the transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention at the hands of Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson. While they were, indeed, the architects of the “takeover” of the…
Scripture changed his mind on women in ministry, Rick Warren tells Russell Moore
The Great Commission is one of several scriptural reasons Rick Warren believes women are called by God to leadership in the church, he told Russell Moore in a March 8 podcast. Warren, recently retired pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern…
Guidepost report documents pattern of ignoring, denying and deflecting on sexual abuse claims in SBC
A few key leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee repeatedly worked to stall, deny and control information about sexual abuse within the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination, according to an independent investigation released Sunday, May 22. And almost coincidentally…
The tragic tale of a sexual abuse case, a deacon ordination and the quest for control of the Southern Baptist Convention
We have written three drafts of a news story you’re not going to see published. Instead, I’m going to use this analysis column to explain how exceedingly complicated it is to address the challenges of sexual abuse and politics in…
Has God really ‘staked everything on men’?
If you want to understand how extreme the male-dominance wing of the Southern Baptist Convention has become, consider this March 30 social media post from Owen Strachan: “God has staked everything on men. Strong men are the foundation of a…
Dear Willy Rice and Ed Litton: I will gladly publish your explanation of Voddie Baucham’s theology if you will tell us exactly where we misrepresented him
The TheoBros have reacted with typical bombast this week to two articles we’ve published about Voddie Baucham. In predictable fashion, they have lobbed vitriol at BNG and our writers while accusing us of being vitriolic. This is a classic distraction…
Litton and McLaurin urge SBC Executive Committee toward compassion and Christlikeness
The Southern Baptist Convention must address its “stains” of racism and tolerating sexual abuse, President Ed Litton told members of the SBC Executive Committee Monday night, Feb. 21. He spoke just hours after a group of sexual abuse survivors held…