DALLAS (BP) — Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Pastors’ Conference President DJ Horton will occupy a spot on a special committee alongside former Send Relief President Bryant Wright and Ted Traylor, longtime pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., to study the future of the event that precedes the SBC annual meeting.
“I’ve asked these trusted leaders to join me in helping the new president study the financial sustainability of the current model used to plan and fund the pastor’s conference,” Horton said in a statement to Baptist Press. “Our task is not to make any decisions, but rather to study and offer the 2026 president some options to be considered for presentation in Orlando at next summer’s conference.
“There will always be a place and need to bring pastors together under the dynamic preaching of our most gifted and faithful leaders. How we do this, however, needs to be reexamined due to rising venue costs.”
Horton, senior pastor of Church at The Mill in Spartanburg, S.C., announced the upcoming formation of the group in May while discussing the Pastors’ Conference, scheduled for June 8-9 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas.
The committee will serve alongside the incoming president. Aaron Burgner, senior pastor of Lakes Church in Lakeland, Fla., remains the only announced candidate.
Although it meets at the same facilities as the annual meeting, the conference raises its funds through a blend of sponsorships and private donations and not through the Cooperative Program.
Wright founded Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., and served as its pastor until 2019. During that time, he served as president of the Pastors’ Conference in 2006 and as SBC president from 2010-2012. Traylor served as president of the Florida Baptist Convention from 1995-1996 and as president of the SBC Pastors’ Conference in 2004.
The 2025 SBC Pastors’ Conference begins on Sunday evening, June 8, at 6:30 p.m. Doors open at 4 p.m.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.
