Jeff Iorg thanks Florida Baptists for gospel focus and generosity/urges Florida Baptists to ‘stand strong’
In a recent one-on-one interview with the Florida Baptist Convention, Jeff Iorg, president and CEO of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, thanked Florida Baptists for their generosity in giving to the Cooperative Program and partnership in sharing the gospel throughout the world, and he further urged Florida Baptists to maintain such gospel focus and “stand strong” even amid current denominational challenges.
Florida Baptists are ‘a beacon’
“Thank you, Florida Baptists. You are a beacon; you’re an example, you’re a model of what can be done when a group of churches decide to give sacrificially to get the gospel to the whole world. Thank you for that,” said Iorg, who became the eighth leader of Southern Baptists’ Executive Committee in May 2024.
“Thank you, Florida Baptists. You are a beacon; you’re an example, you’re a model of what can be done when a group of churches decide to give sacrificially to get the gospel to the whole world. Thank you for that.”
Florida Baptists have been ardent supporters of the Cooperative Program through the years. Since the inception of the Cooperative Program 100 years ago, Florida Baptists have given more than $1.4 billion to this denominational cooperative funding initiative. And, since 2016, Florida Baptists have sent 51% of all undesignated financial receipts to the Cooperative Program while retaining 49% in the Sunshine State.
Today, as the Southern Baptist Convention is experiencing many challenges, including legal and financial difficulties related to the 2022 Guidepost Solutions report regarding sexual abuse allegations in the denomination, some churches and leaders are reconsidering their commitment in giving through the Cooperative Program. In response, Iorg encourages all congregations to “stand strong” in their commitment to the cooperative funding method.
“We are going through a difficult time,” he acknowledged, “but this is a short interlude that we’re going to get through; we’re going to go on together. This is not a time to pull away but instead a time to say, ‘We have to stand strong to get through this difficult time because this is not going to go on forever. We’re going to resolve this and move on.’”
The overarching reason to stay with the Cooperative Program, he said, is “because it works. When you look at what it has accomplished in the past 100 years, there’s no other funding model for any denomination anywhere that even comes close to what Southern Baptists have accomplished with the Cooperative Program.”
New proposed business and financial plan
The Executive Committee recently proposed a new business and financial plan that will be voted on by messengers to the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in June. One motivation for the new plan, Iorg said, was to respond to various motions that have been made relative to updating or improving specific portions of the existing plan. Rather than taking a “piecemeal” approach to addressing these issues, Iorg said it became obvious that the existing plan needed a “significant revision.”
The new proposed plan, at just under 2,000 words, he said, “eliminates a lot of things in the old plan that were archaic” and consistently speaks to “the need for Southern Baptists to have trustees who are robustly engaged in leading the entities and that every bit of the entity is fully transparent to those trustees.” Those trustees, he said, “can then certify that the entity is being operated like Southern Baptists want it to be operated,” which puts into practical action the “philosophical commitment that comes out of the Southern Baptist Convention Constitution and Bylaws—that trustees are our means by which we govern the entities.”
Dalrymple to lead Southern Baptists’ abuse prevention and response initiatives
Florida Baptist Jeff Dalrymple recently was hired as director of the Executive Committee’s Office of Abuse Prevention and Response. Iorg expressed confidence in Dalrymple’s leadership as he takes the helm.
Dalrymple joined the staff of the Executive Committee after serving as executive director of the Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention, which works to set national standards to protect vulnerable groups.
“I’m more pleased every day that he has come to work with us,” Iorg said.
Dalrymple’s work currently is divided into two phases.
The first phase of Dalrymple’s work, Iorg explained, will be focused on several immediate items of urgency, including selecting an advisory committee, formalizing a network of state convention leaders to address this issue, revising and strengthening resources, updating a website and planning an event at the upcoming 2025 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Dallas.
The next phase, Iorg said, will focus on putting together a full framework for abuse prevention and response. After that framework is finalized, “then let’s operate it for the next decade.
“Taskforces have their place, but eventually someone has to get down to the work of producing an ongoing process. I think Jeff and the team around him can get that done.”
A time for hope
Through the years Iorg has faced his share of challenges.
“I’ve had some very low days,” he said. “And on those days, Southern Baptists have never failed me. They have always stood up and stood together, and that gives me such confidence that we’re going to keep doing that.”
With each challenge, Iorg came to understand and embrace the truth of Romans 5:3-4, which states that affliction leads to endurance, which leads to proven character, which leads to hope.
When Iorg stepped into the role of president and CEO of the Executive Committee, he knew many challenges would be waiting at his door.
At the time, he recalled, “I had many people tell me, ‘Oh, your coming gives us hope,’ and I recoiled, thinking, ‘I’m no one’s hope.’ Then I read this verse and realized, ‘Well, I am.’
“When you’re a person who has been afflicted in ministry, and you’ve endured, and it’s changed your character, people look at you and say, ‘You made it, and I can make it, and that gives me hope.’”
That Scripture, he said, has helped him understand “that leaders are a source of hope. If we model endurance in the midst of difficulty–and that’s shaping us to be more like Jesus and demonstrate the character of Christ in the difficulty–it causes other believers to say, ‘I can make it too.’”
Iorg has had many older individuals in his life who modeled endurance for him. “I drew great hope from them, and I believe God is speaking to me from this verse that I might be doing the same for others,” he said.
Greatest people in the world
As Iorg looks back over the past year in his new role, his love and respect for Southern Baptists are unmistakable.
“Southern Baptists are the greatest people in the world. They love the Lord Jesus with their whole heart. They are passionate about His mission. They are trying to do the right thing by building a strong church and building strong families and impacting their communities. That’s who they are,” he said.
When asked about a path forward for the denomination, even amid challenging days, Iorg doesn’t hesitate.
“It starts with pastors and churches riveting their attention on sharing the gospel with the lost, discipling those who are saved, preparing them to be on mission or ministry in some meaningful way … and then repeat. That’s what it comes down to. The churches that are making the biggest impact these days—small churches, large churches, rural churches, urban churches—are the churches that have a focus. They are focused on getting the gospel to lost people, discipling them once they become Christians, preparing them for mission and ministry and repeating that over and over again.
“That’s what I long for—that Southern Baptist pastors and churches will have that kind of resolute focus that then expresses itself when we get together so that’s our focus as a group as well.”
Prayer is the foundation of such gospel focus, believes Iorg, who shared both personal and denominational prayer requests.
“Pray for my personal stamina, that I can stay strong in doing this work. It’s very demanding, and I’m not as young as I used to be.
“Pray for Southern Baptists to be resolutely focused on God’s mission and not be distracted by anything lesser,” he said.
“Pray for Southern Baptists to be resolutely focused on God’s mission and not be distracted by anything lesser.”
And, again, speaking directly to Florida Baptists, Iorg said, “Thank you so much for your gifts to the Cooperative Program, for your prayers for me and for building strong churches that change Florida.”