Christmas is here and it seems like a fitting time for me to share what I have seen and heard over the last six months I have been privileged to serve as president of our Southern Baptist Convention.
As I have traveled this fall, hearing from and representing Southern Baptists across our nation, it has confirmed what I already knew to be true: it is good to be a Southern Baptist.
Whether in local churches, associations, state conventions, seminaries, entity board meetings, or auxiliary groups, I have seen up close men and women faithfully committed to what makes our convention of churches great: our confession and cooperation.
If the Southern Baptist Convention were a train, then the twin rails upon which it runs is our confession and cooperation. Our mission demands we prioritize both. Our innovative cooperation has made possible the largest mission sending agency and six of the largest seminaries in history. However, it is our confession that has fueled this cooperation. If we don’t hold fast to God’s inerrant and sufficient Word as the basis for our cooperation, we shouldn’t even be meeting.
How fitting is it that this summer at our 2025 Annual Meeting in Dallas, we will celebrate the 100thanniversary of our Baptist Faith and Message and Cooperative Program? It is good to be a Southern Baptist.
In August, I joined a large group in Dallas preparing for our Annual Meeting and announced our theme for 2025: Hold Fast, from Hebrews 10:23-24, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir one another to love and good works.”
In September, I was privileged to travel to our International Mission Board in Richmond to commission and pray for our newest class of missionaries. It’s difficult to accurately express the feeling of watching Southern Baptists uproot their families and give up so much and go to such dangerous places for the sake of the Gospel. Southern Baptists, your generosity makes this possible.
In late September and October, the southeastern United States was ravaged by Hurricane Helene. Within hours, rank and file Southern Baptists were on the front lines providing disaster relief. I saw this firsthand in my home state of North Carolina, devastated by unprecedented flooding. In every community I visited I saw yellow-shirted heroes ministering to the vulnerable and hurting. Southern Baptists, your generosity makes this possible.
In October and November, I was privileged to share at several state conventions and seminary chapels, as well as on multiple podcasts, panels, and interviews, why I am proud to be a Southern Baptist and why you should be too.
This summer, I look forward to celebrating with thousands of you why it is good to be a Southern Baptist.
This Christmas, I pray you and your churches are strengthened by the good news that Christ came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). Together, as Southern Baptists, let’s make sure every tribe, tongue, and nation hears this!
Merry Christmas!
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