October 1, 2026
ORLANDO, Fla. — Newly elected Southern Baptist Convention President Willy Rice said Wednesday that messengers leave Orlando having reaffirmed the Convention’s doctrinal convictions, but he urged Southern Baptists to keep the Great Commission central while continuing to address institutional, legal, and transparency concerns.
Rice, senior pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Florida, spoke to reporters after messengers elected him Tuesday to succeed outgoing SBC President Clint Pressley. He said the Orlando meeting demonstrated that Southern Baptists remain committed to biblical conviction and cooperation.
“I think for anyone that may be concerned about a left or undertow, a woke riptide in the SBC, I think we leave Orlando with that firmly dispelled,” Rice said. “The Southern Baptist Convention is not eroding. The Southern Baptist Convention is not equivocating.”
Rice said Southern Baptists remain “convictional, cheerful Baptists” who are grateful for their heritage and confident in what they believe.
“I think we’ve reaffirmed that this week with a couple of decisions,” he said.
Those decisions included messengers’ approval Wednesday of the “Truth and Unity” amendment proposed by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler. The amendment, which addresses the office and function of pastor, elder, and overseer, received more than the required two-thirds support but must be approved again next year before becoming part of the SBC Constitution.
Rice said he plans to advocate for the amendment before next year’s annual meeting.
“I’ll do everything I can from the position of the presidency to advocate for it, to speak for it,” Rice said.
At the same time, Rice said Southern Baptists need to make clear what the amendment does and does not mean. He said the amendment should not be interpreted as dismissing women who serve in vocational ministry in Southern Baptist churches, entities, and mission boards.
“We have women serving in vocational ministry, many of our churches, our entities, our mission boards, and they serve a very valuable role,” Rice said. “And I think one of the messages that needs to come forth out of this convention is that we see them and we value them.”
Rice said the amendment is intended to draw a clear line regarding the office of pastor, elder, and overseer.
“What we were trying to do is make a very clear line concerning the office of what most Baptists just call 'the pastor,'” Rice said. “We equate the office of pastor, elder, overseer in the New Testament.”
He said the issue comes down to biblical authority.
“We just think that when the Bible speaks on those offices, it speaks with authority,” Rice said.
Rice also said his election reflects the importance of local churches in SBC life. He said Southern Baptists are not a top-down denomination directed by entities or institutions.
“The Southern Baptist Convention is the best when it is led by local churches and pastors,” Rice said.
He said institutions naturally drift toward maintenance and preservation, making it important for churches and pastors to lead.
“Headquarters is the local church,” Rice said. “Baptist people are in charge, and they’ve made their sentiments known through the amendment, the election. I’m grateful for that.”
Rice said he looks forward to working with SBC entity leaders and does not intend to approach that relationship in an adversarial way. But he said the president is elected by messengers and should represent the churches that send them.
“The job of the president is representative of people,” Rice said. “He’s not elected by entities. He’s not elected by a committee. He’s elected by the people directly.”
Rice said he wants pastors of small churches and others without national recognition to know the SBC president will speak for them. “They want to know the president will be their voice,” Rice said.
Asked how Southern Baptists can remain focused on reaching the lost while also addressing political, theological, legal, and institutional matters, Rice said the Convention must be able to do both.
“We keep the mission always at the forefront,” Rice said. “This is what we’re trying to work on, to get the gospel to the nations, to our country, and to the nations.”
Rice compared the Convention’s internal work to maintaining an airplane. The goal is to reach the destination, he said, but necessary maintenance cannot be ignored.
“There are theological issues, there are institutional issues, financial issues, and other issues,” Rice said. “We’ve got to work on that. But you never lose sight of the fact that the reason you’re working on the plane is because you have a mission.”
Rice said he hopes Southern Baptists will begin rallying around what he called “Great Commission 2000,” a possible conventionwide emphasis tied to the approaching 2,000th anniversary of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and the giving of the Great Commission. He said most scholars place that anniversary around 2033.
“I would love that within a year and certainly within two years every Southern Baptist is talking about Great Commission 2000,” Rice said. “What are we going to do around the 2,000th anniversary of the Great Commission?”
Rice said he hopes the milestone can become a generational push for evangelism and missions. “I think it could be a great movement for the gospel of Christ,” he said.
Rice was also asked about sexual abuse prevention and response in Southern Baptist churches. He said any mishandling of abuse by churches or institutions "absolutely damages our witness.”
He said Southern Baptists have worked in recent years to provide churches with better tools and training, while also acknowledging that churches and institutions have not always handled abuse properly.
Rice said churches must report abuse allegations involving criminality to law enforcement and should not attempt to investigate such matters internally.
“The first thing is, we need to let law enforcement do the investigation,” Rice said. “This is not for Baptist churches to do. We’re not investigators. We’re not law enforcement.”
He also said allegations of abuse must not be covered up.
“It needs to be known,” Rice said. “And it needs to be known as widely as possible, obviously, because if something else has been done, you want to uncover that. And you want people to be encouraged to report it as well.”
Rice also responded to questions about past SBC abuse reform efforts, saying he believes some accusations about widespread cover-up at the highest levels were not supported by evidence. But he said he does not want his comments to minimize survivors’ pain.
“We need to be very careful when we talk about sexual abuse, that we are mindful that there are people for whom this is life’s greatest wound,” Rice said. “They have been hurt, and they’ve been hurt badly.”
Rice said he would work with anyone whose aim is to protect children, stop predators, and equip churches.
Rice also addressed calls for greater transparency among SBC entities. He said he believes Southern Baptists have strong entity leaders and faithful trustees, but said leaders should not ignore repeated questions from messengers and churches.
“If you ignore the whispers, eventually you’re going to hear the roar,” Rice said.
Rice said he wants to work with entity leaders to ensure trustees have the information they need to fulfill their responsibilities.
Southern Baptist churches, he stated, are the ultimate authority in the Convention’s cooperative work.
“Baptist people are the boss,” Rice said. “And when Baptist people start asking questions, we need our entity leaders and our president to listen to the boss.”
Rice also expressed gratitude for Florida Baptists, saying he has been part of Florida Baptist life for decades and was thankful for their support during the annual meeting in Orlando. He also spoke warmly of Josh Powell, pastor of Taylors First Baptist Church in South Carolina, who was also nominated for president.
“What an outstanding person he is,” Rice said. “We didn’t want any negativism or acrimony in this whole thing. I just wanted to talk about ideas.”
Rice said he hopes the Convention can move beyond internal disputes and rally around evangelism, missions, and the work of local churches.
“There will be no greater joy for me, no greater vision than I have than to talk about the Great Commission task,” Rice said.
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