DALLAS (BP) — Honoring Christ in the pastorate requires faithful preaching and holy living, attendees were told during the final sessions of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Pastors’ Conference in Dallas on June 9.

Speakers at the Monday afternoon and evening sessions included Juan Sanchez, Aaron Harvie and Robert Smith. A panel discussion encouraged pastors to mentor other pastors. The conference’s closing session included worship led by Christian recording artists Shane and Shane as well as an extended prayer time.

Florida pastor Aaron Burgner was elected president of the 2026 SBC Pastors’ Conference in Orlando, Fla. In nominating Burgner, fellow Florida pastor Jimmy Scroggins said he is “a gospel preacher, a pastor’s pastor and a friend to many of us across the country. He’s got a soul winner’s fire, a shepherd’s heart and a preacher’s voice.”

Burgner, pastor of Lakes Church in Lakeland, Fla., said, “I am deeply humbled and profoundly grateful to have been entrusted with the privilege of serving as president of the 2026 Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference. This honor is not one I take lightly, nor is it one I claim for myself — it belongs to the Lord who has graciously allowed me to serve His people in this capacity.”

Juan Sanchez

To protect God’s flock, pastors must identify and avoid evil men who seek church leadership, said Sanchez, pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas.

“Paul reminds us that the presence of ungodly people in the church who oppose the truth is to be expected,” Sanchez said, preaching from 2 Timothy 3:1-9. “But he doesn’t leave us paralyzed with fear. He equips us to protect the church with discernment and courage.”

Identifying ungodly men in the church requires looking for character unlike Christ’s and patterns of leadership unlike a shepherd, he said. Sanchez added that leaders who prey on God’s people are a wicked aberration from God’s plan for pastors.

“We have a real responsibility, brothers, to shepherd the flock of God among us,” he said, and not “take advantage of the sheep.”

The first way to avoid having ungodly people in the church is not to be ungodly people, Sanchez said. As leaders maintain their own character, they also must “ground the church in sound doctrine” so it does not fall prey to false teachers.

Through a slow, deliberate process of developing new pastors, churches must “recognize only faithful men for pastoral leadership,” he said. Churches also must “remove ungodly men from church leadership and teaching,” trusting that judgment for wicked leaders is certain.

Sanchez asked ministers, “Do you have your radar up” for sinful men creeping into leadership? “Have you taught your church to have their radar up?”

Panel Discussion

A panel discussion on pastors mentoring pastors included Scroggins, pastor of Family Church in West Palm Beach, Fla.; Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.; and Dwayne Milioni, pastor of Open Door Church in Raleigh, N.C. 

Scroggins said he looks for young men who want to learn what he can teach about ministry.

“I’ve got to invite them into my home. I’ve got to put them in my truck and take them where I’m going,” Scroggins said. “… I’ve got to let them into my study so they can see how I prepare a message. I’ve got to take them on a hospital visit so they can see how I pray for the sick.”

Dever said ever since Jesus gave the Great Commission, it has been “basically fulfilled by a local church producing more preachers than it needs.” Churches should be praying for God to raise up more pastors within their congregations, he said.

“Find those little country churches that need preachers and get those preachers out there,” Dever said. 

Milioni said 2 Timothy 2:2 doesn’t give pastors an option. 

“The only way for the church to continue on generation after generation is for us to equip and train future pastors and then they do the same,” Milioni said, adding that he looks for “the guys stacking chairs” to find those with servant hearts who have potential in his church.

“God wants all pastors to look into the eyes of the men in our congregations and call something out of them that they don’t even know is there,” Scroggins said. 

Pastors living now will be dead soon, Dever said. “You want people who can reach a land you can never go to — the future — and they’re sitting in front of you in your churches.”

Aaron Harvie

Pastors must keep themselves spiritually fit to be good soldiers for Christ, said Harvie, pastor of Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.

“Men of God, are we fit with the gospel? Are we ready with the gospel?” he said, preaching from 2 Timothy 3:10-17. Spiritual fitness is essential for pastors because “the Lord is sending us out into a broken world.”

One mark of spiritual fitness is being changed by Christ, Harvie said. For Paul, that included being changed in what he taught, how he acted and his aims in life.

“Is my life about Jesus?” Harvie said. “It should be. Our Lord gives us a great testimony in our lives through experience. He walks with us. He forms us. He shapes us.”

Sometimes God uses persecution to shape believers, Harvie said. Like Paul “learned the power and presence of Jesus” through persecution, pastors will be formed spiritually in moments when ministry feels “almost impossible.”

“If you’ve been in ministry long enough, you’ve had that moment in your office or in your home where you have felt really alone and isolated, and you begin to ask yourself: Is this really worth it?” he said. “May I be honest with you? No, it’s not worth it. But He is.”

Being shaped by God’s Word is another mark of spiritual fitness, Harvie said. God “reminds us that through Him and through His Word, we lack nothing. We are fully equipped” for “anything He places in front of us.”

Robert Smith

Smith encouraged pastors to finish the race of ministry well, preaching from 2 Timothy 4:1-8.

As the apostle Paul’s execution loomed, he gave his protégé Timothy “a word of serious oath-giving, charging and commanding” him how to pastor God’s people, said Smith, distinguished professor of divinity at Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School. Paul’s instructions apply to today’s pastors too.

Preaching the Word faithfully is essential because Jesus is returning as king to judge all people, Smith said.

Jesus “is the only king who will not need to be nominated,” he said. “He is the only king who will not need to be elected. He is the only king who cannot be impeached.”

Faithful preaching includes critiquing the wayward with gentleness, rebuking with grace and encouraging “with complete patience,” Smith said. He urged pastors to continue preaching God’s Word even when other ministers “say what people want to hear” and draw larger crowds.

“You preach the truth,” Smith said, but “somebody down the street who is not preaching anything at all” sees the parking lot filled every Sunday. “Every Sunday there are people joining their church. And you’re standing and preaching the gospel, and it seems like the baptistry stays dry. I want to tell you: Preach.”

Smith appeared to conclude his message early, stating, “I feel rather poor” and exiting the platform. He received medical attention, SBC annual meeting administrators reported.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — David Roach is a writer in Mobile, Ala.)