Sometimes I believe Southern Baptists are mining the wrong thing.
Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention overwhelmingly voted in the affirmative two weeks ago to amend the SBC’s Constitution by adding a sixth enumerated item under Article III, Paragraph 1. The amendment makes clear that a Southern Baptist church in “friendly cooperation” with the convention is one that “does not act to affirm, appoint, or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation.”
The amendment must receive a second affirmative vote by messengers to next year’s annual meeting in Indianapolis to finalize the change.
Article III, Paragraph 1, Enumeration 1 defines “friendly cooperation” as a church having “a faith and practice which closely identifies with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith.” That statement of faith is, of course, the Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M).
If you’ve gotten this far and are thinking how convoluted all this is, you’re right. As I listened to the discussion on the “Truth and Unity Amendment” — if you can even call it a discussion since it was prematurely cut off almost immediately after beginning — a question came to mind: “I wonder how many people here have read the Baptist Faith and Message?”
I assumed most have since most of the 11,000-plus messengers were pastors and ministers. I’m sure far fewer have ever fully read the SBC’s Constitution and Bylaws.
My next thought was, “I wonder how many Southern Baptists have actually read the Baptist Faith and Message?”
I’m certain that percentage is significantly lower given that only about 33% of the 12.3 million Southern Baptists who are members of SBC churches regularly attend church, according to the 2025 Annual Church Profile. The irony is that Southern Baptists have now spent years arguing over the office of the pastor but likely have a lesser understanding of the broader BF&M or the doctrines outlined therein.
According to the 2025 State of Theology study, sponsored by Ligonier Ministries and conducted by Lifeway Research, a significant number of Protestant Evangelicals lack clear understanding of basic doctrines. On the doctrine of God, 47% believe “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.”
On the doctrine of sin, 64% believe that “everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God” while 53% agree that “everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.” The statistics are equally dismal for the remaining tenets that support our theology.
Ironically, 100% indicated that “the Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.”
While the survey sample is broader than our denomination, Southern Baptists fall within its demographic. And without becoming defensive about it, the findings should at least raise concern about how deeply embedded sound doctrine really is within our own congregations. The BF&M systematically explains key doctrines for Southern Baptists, if we’d only read it.
Some people don’t like the word or idea of doctrine and have associated it with certain theological views with which they disagree, or they may simply embrace a mindset of “Jesus and nothing else.” However, I recently heard a pastor correctly say, “Doctrinal problems lead to faith problems, and then it leads to a soul problem.”
The fact that 100% of those polled in the survey above said that the Bible is the highest authority for what they believe yet are often so far wide of the mark doctrinally should sound a very loud alarm.
Apologist J.P. Moreland argues in his book “Love Your God With All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul” that when doctrine is evacuated from Christian formation, therapeutic, consumer-driven “empty self” fills the vacuum and a person is defined by felt needs, emotional comfort, and cultural conformity rather than theological conviction.
There is also a corporate consequence. A church that cannot articulate what it believes and why cannot persuade anyone of anything. The church loses its prophetic voice culturally. There is no ability to reason with spiritually lost people because there is no systematic substance from which to reason. Evangelism collapses into sentimentality that elicits emotional responses to the gospel based on feeling.
We have a deeper, more urgent need in our Southern Baptist Convention of churches than parsing words in our Constitution. We have a discipleship crisis that must be addressed. Younger generations who haven’t walked away from religion and the church yearn for biblical depth and meaning — doctrine that anchors them in a rapidly decaying world. We all need that.
This is why the Baptist Faith and Message must be more than a document that guides policy conversations or is referenced while policing people and churches. It is the readily accessible reference manual that can systematically guide Southern Baptists through Scripture and a deeper, discipled, more anchored faith.
No, the BF&M isn’t infallible, and it isn’t the Bible. However, it is a pickaxe that can help us mine the gold found within the Bible’s pages. B&R