At the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, SBC President Clint Pressley delivered an impassioned call for unity, biblical conviction and celebration of the denomination’s defining principles that help it “wade through the morass of the moral anarchy of our day.”
Speaking to thousands of messengers gathered in Dallas, Texas, on Tuesday, Pressley recounted his personal testimony, emphasized the ongoing relevance of the Baptist Faith and Message, and rallied churches around the Cooperative Program, urging: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”
The address, anchored in Hebrews 10:23-24, was themed around “Hold Fast,” a nod to both the doctrinal moorings and the cooperative mission strategy he said defined Southern Baptists for 100 years.
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“I didn’t grow up as a Southern Baptist,” Pressley said at the outset, reflecting on his spiritual formation. “I heard the Apostles’ Creed, which is really good, but I never did hear the Gospel until that church made a mistake and hired a man that believed the Gospel, and he shared the Gospel with me.”
Now the pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, Pressley praised God “the Southern Baptist Convention still has a Gospel” at a time when “many historic denominations in America do not have a Gospel anymore.”
The pastor emphasized the clear theological identity found in the SBC’s guiding document, adding: “Our confession is faithful to the Bible. That confession is biblical. That confession is clear. It is not ambiguous. It is Christ-honoring.”
Pressley lauded the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, saying its unflinching clarity is a strength amid growing cultural ambiguity, particularly around human sexuality and gender identity.
“For Southern Baptists, the waters of sexuality are not muddy,” he said. “We see the goodness of God in the masculinity of a man. We see that as something good, not toxic, but good. We also see the goodness of God in the femininity of a woman.”
Without naming contemporary debates explicitly, Pressley affirmed the SBC’s traditional stance on gender and marriage, calling it “joyful clarity” rooted in Scripture and creation.
“We point people to the goodness of God and sexuality,” he said. “That is something we hold dear, and we don’t do so hiding in a corner. … It helps us wade through the morass of the moral anarchy of our day.”
Pressley cautioned against turning orthodoxy into mere paper theology, emphasizing the SBC’s commitment to furthering the Gospel.
“Our confession is not designed to be dead orthodoxy,” he said. “Our confession must lead to doing something. Our confession must lead to orthopraxy.”
He recalled attending evangelism training at a local church event in Dallas before the meeting.
“Remember this is actually what we do, our doctrine leads somewhere,” he said, citing church planting, evangelism and global missions as outflows of confessional belief.
Pressley expressed gratitude for the resurgence of expositional preaching in Southern Baptist life and for seminaries that are “pushing students … to learn how to expose the text to the people in your church.”
“We see the Bible as the very ground that we stand on,” he said.
In contrast to narratives of decline, Pressley also celebrated a year of measurable growth within the SBC.
“Did you know that our baptisms are up this year, my brothers and sisters?” he asked. “It’s all right to be happy about baptisms being up; I mean, it’s in the very name of who we are.”
He also highlighted increased church attendance, church plants and missionary candidates, declaring: “We have a surprising number of things to celebrate this year.”
“It might be good for us to take a breath and be reminded … that we are holding fast to two things that make us and define us as Southern Baptists, our confession of faith and the great cooperative program.”
Pressley called the Cooperative Program “the genius of how we actually do missions together” and challenged churches to remain faithful in giving.
“When you are cooperating with other churches, you are multiplying the mission and mission force,” he said. “Your church could not do that by itself.”
He described the CP as both practical and spiritually unifying. “We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and we do have to act like a family,” he said.
Pressley noted that every SBC seminary, missionary and church planter is vetted for alignment with the Baptist Faith and Message, a key link between doctrine and mission.
“We are pushing one another on toward the ministry of what Southern Baptists actually do,” he said. “We keep turning our attention out to the world that needs the Gospel.”
Pressley also emphasized the essential elements of the Gospel message: Christ’s perfect life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, ascension, enthronement and ongoing intercession.
“There is a man in Heaven that is pleading for me: Jesus,” he said. “He is our hope. That Gospel is our hope.”
Despite internal tensions and public scrutiny in recent years, Pressley’s address often circled back to a positive affirmation of Southern Baptist identity.
“We have faced a lot,” he said. “We still have some things we need to face. But do you know that you can be happy and convictional at the same time.”
“We keep pushing hard for doctrinal faithfulness. We keep pushing for Gospel centrality,” he added. “Let us keep pushing toward missions and evangelism and planting churches. Let us keep believing that it is good to be a Southern Baptist.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
