DALLAS (BP) — On the day before Southern Baptists convene, Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee (EC) members elected new leaders and passed several recommendations for final approval by messengers.

Tony Dockery, senior pastor of St. Stephen Missionary Baptist Church in La Puente, Calif., was the lone nominee for the chair position. He was elected vice chair in 2023, when Philip Robertson, pastor of Philadelphia Baptist Church in Deville, La., became chair for the first of his two terms. Dockery will officially assume the role after this year’s SBC annual meeting.

Adam Wyatt, senior pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Monticello, Miss., was elected vice-chair, and Nancy Spalding, a CPA and member of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Roseville, Mich., was elected for a second term as secretary.

Trustees also elected chairs for the four EC subcommittees:

• Convention Events and Strategic Planning — Corey Cain, lead pastor, Seymour First Baptist Church in Seymour, Tenn.
• Convention Finances and Stewardship Development — David Twiddy, an engineer and member of Mission Hill Church in Temple Terrace, Fla.
• Convention Missions and Ministry — Sarah Rogers, women’s ministry leader, Christ Fellowship Church in Greenville, S.C
• Southern Baptist Relations — Todd Stiles, founding pastor, First Family Church in Ankeny, Iowa.

Executive Committee members approved several recommendations to be presented before messengers. Those included a 2025-26 Comprehensive Budget with $3 million earmarked for anticipated legal costs and an updated Business and Financial Plan.

EC President and CEO Jeff Iorg told trustees that Jeff Dalrymple, the EC’s national director for Sexual Abuse Prevention and Response, is leading the way in “a series of new initiatives” that will be presented to messengers. Those will include:

• Translating the Essentials abuse prevention and response curriculum into multiple languages
• Hosting a summit for state and national leaders in sexual abuse prevention
• Launching a virtual training institute at sbcabuseprevention.com featuring national experts
• Enhancing abuse prevention training for all students at SBC seminaries

“In all these efforts, we are implementing reasonable and purposeful solutions to help churches, entities and denominational partners address sexual abuse prevention and response across the life of Southern Baptists,” said Iorg.

Those steps accompany others that have been completed or are in process, such as enhancements to sbcabuseprevention.com, assisting the Credentials Committee in sexual abuse cases and evaluating existing hotline services.

Iorg addressed the EC’s responsibilities in “litigation management” among two categories.

The first alleges direct liability for actions or inactions by the SBC, the EC, convention officers or an SBC committee, he explained. These include the since-concluded Department of Justice investigation and three separate lawsuits that are in various stages of the litigation process. The second category is cases that originate with local churches and typically may also name an association, state convention, the SBC or the SBC Executive Committee.

“In some cases, this happens because attorneys do not understand our polity,” said Iorg. “In other cases, attorneys understand our polity, but they sue us anyway in attempts to damage our reputation or drain us financially.”

Lawsuits in the first category will be resolved. Those in the second “will likely continue indefinitely, and we will continue to manage them and respond to them as part of our role at the Executive Committee,” Iorg said.

He encouraged trustees that as messengers approach microphones in the coming days to “engage fully” and deliver “measured responses leading to informed votes and good results.”

“In every aspect of our convention sessions, we must do everything in our power to magnify God’s eternal mission,” said Iorg. “We are here at the Southern Baptist Convention, perhaps more than any other reason, because we want every person in the world to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“Over the next two days, you’ll hear songs and stories and sermons and reports and statistics which represent God’s activity among us to fulfill that mission. Those are going to be our best moments and the part of the convention that many of us look forward to the most.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.