Field Deck — companion to Dossier XIX · Baptists & the Free Church
No Bishop, No King
A hundred million people, half a hundred conventions — and not one man who can speak for them
✜ How to read the deck — and why the Ace is a secretaryBaptists have no head, and the refusal is the doctrine. Every congregation is a whole church, competent to
call its own pastor and answer to no bishop — so there is no primate, no synod that binds, and no throne to
photograph. What exists instead is voluntary association: conventions and unions that churches join and
may leave. The largest of them, the Baptist World Alliance, gathers 283 conventions and unions in 138
countries — 180,000 churches, 53 million baptized believers, about half the Baptists alive. Its general
secretary is not a ruler. He is the nearest thing this tradition permits to a centre, and that is why he
takes the Ace.
♠ Spades — The Conventions. Every gavel that actually convenes somebody. Complete at thirteen.
♥ Hearts — Formation & the Machine. The seminaries, the publisher, and the ethics office — where doctrine is made before anyone votes on it.
♦ Diamonds — The Fault Line. The amendment, and the reckoning.
♣ Clubs — The Wall & The Sword. Religious liberty's keepers, and the Baptists a state is currently hunting.
✓ All 36 verified online 2026-07-28.⚠︎★ THE CATCH THIS DECK FOUND: the Q♠ called his own denomination's abuse crisis a "snipe hunt," and the
convention elected him anyway. On 9–10 June 2026 Southern Baptists chose Willy Rice president
on the first ballot with 57.56%. Rice has publicly called the crisis a "ruse" and a
"snipe hunt"; Jack Graham (Q♦) called it a hoax. On 21 July 2026 — one week ago —
more than 80 survivors, advocates and pastors signed an open letter demanding both men apologise.
Neither responded to a request for comment. The deck records this because it is current, sourced and
contested — not because the hall has ruled on it.
⚠︎ THREE SUITS ARE SHORT, AND THAT IS THE MEASUREMENT. ♠ is complete at 13 — those are the
world's principal Baptist gavels and there is no fourteenth. ♥ deals 9, ♦ deals 9, ♣ deals only 5.
Clubs is short for a reason worth naming: the persecution reporting counts buildings far better than it
names people. At least 450 Baptist churches are documented destroyed or damaged in Ukraine, and the
public record names only a handful of the living men who pastored them. The gap is in the sources, not in
the suffering, and it is left open rather than filled.
♠The Conventionsevery gavel that convenes somebody · complete at thirteen · 13 cards
A♠EM
Elijah M. Brown
2018– · General Secretary & CEO, Baptist World Alliance
Chief executive of the largest Baptist body on earth — 283 conventions and unions in 138 countries, 180,000 churches, 53 million baptized believers , roughly half the Baptists alive — from the BWA office in Falls Church, Virginia. In a tradition that abolished bishops on purpose, the general secretary is the closest thing to a permanent centre , and he governs nothing: the BWA can expel a member body, and that is very nearly the whole of its power. In post · verified 07-28
Elected at the 23rd Baptist World Congress in Brisbane, 7–12 July 2025 — the first Caribbean leader in the BWA's history . General secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union and pastor of Phillippo Baptist Church, Spanish Town. ⚠︎ Note the title. The BWA has replaced President and First Vice President with Chair and Vice Chair , elected by the Global Council — a governance body, not a head of church. Johnson was first vice president 2020–2025. In post · verified 07-28
⚠︎ The most consequential card in this deck. Elected in Orlando, 9–10 June 2026 , on the first ballot — 5,217 votes, 57.56% — over Josh Powell's 3,821. Pastor of Calvary Church, Clearwater, Florida , and head of the largest Protestant denomination in the United States: 12.3 million . He has called the SBC's sexual abuse crisis a "ruse" and a "snipe hunt." ★ In April 2022 he withdrew from this same race after disclosing that one of his own deacons had committed what he then called "sexual sin that could also be described as abusive." In post · verified 07-28
2025– · President, National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
The 19th president , installed at the mid-winter board meeting in January 2025 . Pastor of First Calvary Baptist Church, New Haven, Connecticut , and a member of the convention since 1977. The largest Black Protestant denomination in the world — and a body this hall must not file under "American Baptist," because its history, its politics and its worship are its own. In post · verified 07-28
Ratified at the 113th Annual Session in Abuja, 23 April 2026 . Pastor of Ajayi Dahunsi Memorial Baptist Church, Lagos ; a doctorate in biblical studies and fifteen books behind him. He succeeded Israel Adelani Akanji (2021–2026), who left not by election or scandal but by the Convention's mandatory clergy retirement age of 65 . ★ Nigeria is one of the largest Baptist populations on earth — the centre of gravity is no longer American. In post · verified 07-28
Runs the SBC's permanent machine in Nashville between annual meetings — the office that handles the money, the credentials and the crises. He championed the budget shift giving 51% of national Cooperative Program receipts to the mission board . He is also the man who said in 2025 that the abuse database was "not a focus" for SBC leadership. In post · verified 07-28
2026– · President, Progressive National Baptist Convention
Elected at the 65th annual session in Washington, DC, 19–23 July 2026 — five days before this deck was dealt . Pastor of Zion Baptist Church, DC , for twenty years; previously first vice president. He succeeds David Peoples. ★ This is the convention that was Martin Luther King Jr.'s denominational home — the body Black Baptists formed in 1961 when the civil rights question split them. In post · verified 07-28
2024– · General Secretary, American Baptist Churches USA
Chief executive of the historic Northern body — the half of American Baptist life that did not split away over slavery in 1845, and which ordains women without argument. Her three-year term began 1 February 2024 . ABCUSA is the standing proof that "Baptist" does not mean "Southern Baptist," a distinction this hall should never blur. In post · verified 07-28
General Secretary, Baptist Union of Great Britain · Vice Chair, BWA
Leads the union in the country where the tradition began — the descendants of the congregation Thomas Helwys planted at Spitalfields in 1612 — and now sits as Vice Chair of the Baptist World Alliance alongside Johnson. A woman holds the general secretaryship of the British union , which is worth setting beside the Q♠ and the A♦ on this same table. In post · verified 07-28
Fourth head of the fellowship formed by the moderates who lost the SBC's Conservative Resurgence and left rather than submit — ~1,400 congregations , 19 state and regional bodies, field personnel in 20 countries. He marked CBF's 35th anniversary at the 2026 General Assembly in Jacksonville. The living record of what the SBC's civil war cost. In post · verified 07-28
Leads the body once called the Baptist General Conference — Swedish free-church in origin, 170 years old in 2026 , more than 1,600 churches across the US, the Caribbean and South America. The first African American to lead it , appointed unanimously. A reminder that "Baptist" in America includes a Scandinavian immigrant stream with no stake in the Southern quarrel at all. In post · verified 07-28
Commands the SBC's overseas arm from Richmond, Virginia — historically one of the largest Protestant missionary forces on earth. ★ From fiscal year 2026–27 the IMB receives 51% of all national Cooperative Program receipts , capping a sixteen-year budgeting process. In a denomination shedding members, the money moved toward the mission field rather than the bureaucracy. In post · verified 07-28
Runs church planting and disaster relief across the US and Canada from Alpharetta, Georgia . NAMB's Send Relief , jointly with the IMB, put up the initial $4 million that funded the SBC's abuse reforms — and both boards later declined to fund the independent body meant to carry that work on. In post · verified 07-28
♥Formation & The Machinewhere doctrine is made before anyone votes on it · nine dealt · 9 cards
A♥JT
Jason Thacker
Director, ERLC Research Institute · Asst. Professor of Philosophy & Ethics, Southern Seminary & Boyce College
★ The single most important card in this deck for the house that built it. Lead drafter of "Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles" (2019) — twelve articles, ~70 signatories, the first serious evangelical framework on AI anywhere — and primary drafter of the Brentwood Statement on AI in Christian ministry, released 8 June 2026 . Author of The Age of AI and Following Jesus in the Digital Age . No other person in this hall has written more of a denomination's doctrine on the machine. In post · verified 07-28
Tenth president, installed 27 September 2022 , brought in to stop a collapse. He reported to the 2026 convention that Southwestern has paid off its short-term debt and holds $10 million in cash , with enrollment rising. ★ A seminary that was in genuine institutional crisis has been pulled back from it — the counter-example to every assumption that these schools only decline. In post · verified 07-28 ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-11: Still president: he reported to the 2026 SBC and was elected 2027 convention preacher. But the card's dates are off. On 27 September 2022 he was named joint interim leader with O.S. Hawkins. Trustees elected him 10th president on 19 April 2023 (Wikipedia, David Dockery).
Fourteen years at Kansas City — the second-longest seminary tenure in Southern Baptist life after Mohler. Midwestern went from the smallest of the six schools to one of the largest under him. In post · verified 07-28
2019– · President, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
Marked his seventh anniversary in office when he addressed the 2026 convention in Orlando. A philosopher of religion by training, running the seminary that has survived more hurricanes than any other institution on this table. In post · verified 07-28
Seventh President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary & Judson College
⚠︎ This card changes hands in three days. Elected unanimously on 21 April 2026 ; takes office 1 August 2026 , when Daniel Akin retires on 31 July after more than two decades. A two-time Southeastern alumnus who taught there from 2018 and rose through dean and provost. Akin still holds the office as this deck is dealt; the deck records the handover rather than pretending it has happened or that it has not. Takes office 08-01 · verified 07-28 ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-11: The handover happened. Scott Pace took office as Southeastern's president on 1 August 2026 when Akin retired. The seminary's site now presents "President Scott Pace" and invites the public to his inauguration on Tuesday (13 October 2026).
In his second year , Gateway's headcount enrollment reached a record high across the school's 82-year history . The SBC's West Coast seminary, and the one furthest from the convention's centre of gravity in every sense. In post · verified 07-28
2026– · President & CEO, Lifeway Christian Resources
Eleventh president , elected 22 April 2026 , in office since 1 June . Came from Cross Church, Springdale, Arkansas. He inherits the publishing house that supplies curriculum to tens of thousands of churches — and whose research arm produced the 2026 numbers on how many pastors are actually using AI. Follows interim Joe Walker; Ben Mandrell left in 2025 to pastor Bellevue Baptist. In post · verified 07-28
2026– · President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Elected unanimously 13 April 2026 , in office 1 June , aged 47; came from Mississippi College. ⚠︎ He fills a chair that stood empty for ten months. Brent Leatherwood's resignation was accepted 31 July 2025 . The SBC's ethics and public-policy office — the one that would have carried both the abuse question and the AI question — had no president through the whole of that year. In post · verified 07-28
Runs the retirement and insurance arm that holds the pensions of Southern Baptist ministers — quiet power, and the reason a great many pastors cannot afford to be on the losing side of a convention fight. In post · verified 07-28
1993– · President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
★ Thirty-three years in one chair — the longest grip on any office in this deck , and the architect of the Conservative Resurgence's victory in its flagship school. In 2026 he authored the "Truth and Unity Amendment," which would limit friendly cooperation to churches that do not "affirm, appoint, or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, such as preaching to the assembled congregation." ⚠︎ It passed its first reading in Orlando 74.66% to 25.09%. A second two-thirds vote in 2027 puts it in the constitution. In post · verified 07-28
Attorney & advocate · signatory, July 2026 open letter
The advocate whose testimony broke the Nassar case and who has spent a decade pressing institutional churches on abuse response. Among the 80-plus survivors, advocates and pastors who signed the open letter of 21 July 2026 demanding that SBC leaders apologise for calling the denomination's abuse crisis a hoax. She is not an officeholder, and she has more moral authority in this fight than most people who are. Active · verified 07-28
Pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church, Texas · former SBC president
⚠︎ One of the two men named in the July 2026 letter. He called the denomination's sexual abuse crisis a hoax. Pastor of one of the largest churches in the convention and a former SBC president, so the words carry institutional weight rather than merely personal opinion. He did not respond to a request for comment. In post · verified 07-28
Survivor & author · longest-running public critic of SBC abuse handling
She began pressing the convention on clergy abuse when almost no one would print her, and she is still publishing — her account of the 2026 Orlando meeting is titled a round-up of its harms. Where the institutional record goes quiet, hers is the continuous one. Active · verified 07-28
★ Elected 7 June 2026 in Orlando as WMU's 25th president — the first African American woman to hold the office — succeeding Connie Dixon. A former church planter with her husband Leroy under the Home Mission Board. ⚠︎ She was elected in the same week, in the same building, that the convention voted 74.66% to begin writing women out of the pastorate. WMU is the largest women's organisation in Southern Baptist life and is auxiliary to the convention, not governed by it. In post · verified 07-28
Survivor & advocate · signatory, July 2026 open letter
One of the survivors whose persistence kept the abuse question on the convention floor through four annual meetings. A signatory of the 21 July 2026 letter. Survivors' summary of the 2026 meeting, reported plainly: "The SBC is dead to me." Active · verified 07-28
Her public account in 2018 was among the first that made the SBC's abuse problem impossible to file away, and it led directly to a megachurch pastor's resignation. Signed the July 2026 letter. ★ Eight years separate her disclosure from a convention president calling the crisis a snipe hunt. Active · verified 07-28
Author & former Southern Baptist professor · signatory, July 2026 open letter
Taught for decades inside Southern Baptist higher education before leaving it, and writes now from just outside the walls. A signatory of the July 2026 letter — and a working example of the tradition's own principle that a congregation cannot silence a conscience it does not own. Active · verified 07-28
Pastor, Taylors First Baptist Church, South Carolina · 42.16% in 2026
Rice's sole opponent, and 3,821 messengers — 42.16% — voted for him . He is on this table because the runner-up is a measurement: the convention is not unanimous about anything. ⚠︎ Reporting from the 2026 meeting records that both presidential candidates told Southern Baptists the denomination does not have an abuse crisis. In post · verified 07-28
2017– · Executive Director, BJC (Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty)
★ She holds the office that guards the one thing Baptists gave the world. BJC exists for a single purpose — no establishment, free exercise, for everybody — and it is the oldest Baptist agency in Washington doing it. Lead organiser of Christians Against Christian Nationalism and author of How to End Christian Nationalism (2024). ⚠︎ Her chief opponents are other Baptists , which is exactly the argument Dossier 18 on the queue will have to settle. In post · verified 07-28
Former President, Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists · former Vice President, BWA
⚠︎ The card that proves the tradition still costs something. Aged 74 . He prayed publicly for peace in Ukraine , was charged with criminally slandering the Russian military, had his home raided, and fled Russia in August 2023 ahead of arrest. ★ As of 28 May he is listed as a terrorist and extremist by Rosfinmonitoring, Russia's federal financial monitoring service. A former vice president of the Baptist World Alliance is on a state terror registry for praying for peace. In exile · listed 05-28 · verified 07-28
Head, All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists
Leads the Baptist union of a country at war, and one of the largest evangelical bodies in Europe. His churches are being shelled and his pastors are being detained in the occupied territories , where Protestant congregations are pressed to register under Russian control or stop meeting. In post · verified 07-28
Vice President for International Affairs, All-Ukrainian Union · BWA General Council
★ He is the man who counted. Bandura documented at least 450 Baptist churches among the 737 Ukrainian houses of worship damaged or destroyed in four years of full-scale war — the overall figure compiled by the Religion on Fire project as of 16 December 2025 . Baptists are a small minority of Ukraine's population and account for the majority of the documented losses. In post · verified 07-28
General Counsel & Associate Executive Director, BJC
The lawyer who actually writes the briefs — church-state analysis for Congress, the courts and the agencies, plus friend-of-the-court filings. Adjunct professor at Georgetown Law , where she co-teaches the Church-State Law Seminar. The wall is maintained by someone who reads the statutes, not only by someone who gives the speeches. In post · verified 07-28 ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-11: She left BJC. Her last day on staff was 7 August 2026, after 25 years; Amanda Tyler leads BJC's legal work in the interim. No new role was named.
36 cards · 13 ♠ complete · 9 ♥ · 9 ♦ · 5 ♣ · all verified 2026-07-28. Rank = the weight of the office. Ace = the summit of that kind of power. Only the living, only those holding power now. The ♣ suit is short because the record counts destroyed buildings far better than it names the living pastors who served them. ✠ No bishop, no king, no creed but conscience ✠
