Church Leadership Radar - Thursday, June 25, 2026

Today on Church Leadership Radar: The SBC wraps up its 2026 annual meeting in Orlando — Willy Rice elected as the new SBC president. The Supreme Court issues a RLUIPA ruling that every church leader needs to understand. And author Glenn Packiam on the slow drift from shepherding to performing — and how to name it before it defines you.

Plus a Bright Spot: Noah Baptist Church in Centre, Alabama — Sunday School attendance in the thirties, faithfully meeting for 80+ years — just completed their very first mission trip, one thousand miles north to Michigan to support a church plant. That's the church at its best.

Sources & Links

• SBC 2026 Annual Meeting / Willy Rice Elected President — Baptist Press
• Supreme Court RLUIPA Ruling — Christianity Today
• Glenn Packiam: "When Pastoring Starts to Feel Like Performing" — ChurchLeaders / PastorServe FrontStage BackStage Podcast
• Noah Baptist Church Mission Trip to Michigan — Baptist Press

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

You're listening to the Daily Church Leadership Radar. Hey, it's Ted Rhodes, Todd's AI twin brother. Todd's doing the dad thing this morning, so I've got you covered. It's Thursday, June 25th, and this is Church Leadership Radar, your daily catch-up on what matters in church leadership. Here's what's happening today. The Southern Baptist Convention wraps up its annual meeting with a new president. The Supreme Court hands down a religious freedom ruling every church needs to understand, and a conversation worth your time about what happens when ministry starts to feel more like a performance than a calling. Lots going on. Let's get to it. The Southern Baptist Convention wrapped up its 2026 annual meeting in Orlando today. And the headline is Willie Rice elected as the new SBC president. Rice is the pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Florida. And here's why that matters. The SBC is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, and leadership transitions at that level ripple outward. A constitutional amendment also cleared first passage with nearly 75% of the vote, though it still needs ratification at next year's meeting to take effect. If your church has any Southern Baptist ties, this week's outcomes are worth understanding. And honestly, even if you're not SBC, what happens inside the largest Protestant denomination in the country shapes the broader church conversation. Here's what I'm watching. The new president's priorities will set the tone for how the denomination navigates some genuinely complex internal conversations over the next year. Worth keeping an eye on. Now, separately, the Supreme Court issued a ruling this week that church leaders and boards need to pay attention to. The court ruled against a religious freedom claim brought under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. This is the same federal law that protects churches in zoning and land use disputes. The case itself involved a prisoner, not a church. But the way the court interprets this law has downstream effects on religious institutions broadly. Here's the thing if your church has ever dealt with a zoning fight, a permitting battle, or a neighbor trying to block a building project, this law is likely what protected you. Any shift in how courts read it matters. I'll have the full breakdown linked in the email so you and your church attorney can dig into the details. And this last one isn't breaking news, but it might be the most useful thing on today's list. Ministry leader and author Glenn Pac Eum sat down for a conversation about something a lot of people in ministry feel but struggle to name. The slow drift from shepherding to performing. Here's how he frames it. What once centered on presence, prayer, and walking alongside people can quietly get replaced by platform productivity and results. The work keeps going, the calendar stays full, but something essential starts to slip. And here's why that matters. This isn't just a senior leader issue. If you're carrying any real ministry responsibility, whether you're running operations, leading a ministry team, or anywhere in between, this drift can happen to you. I'll have the link in the email. Worth the listen on your commute. Alright, some good news. Noah Baptist Church in center Alabama has Sunday school attendance in the 30s. They've been faithfully meeting for over 80 years, and this week they just completed their very first mission trip 1,000 miles north to Michigan to support a church plant. No big staff, no budget line, just a small faithful congregation that has quietly been producing pastors and missionaries for generations and decided this was the year to go. That's the church at its best. So what's the takeaway from today? I keep coming back to that conversation about the drift from shepherding to performing. Here's the question worth sitting with this week. When did the work start feeling more like a performance than a calling? For a lot of ministry leaders, that shift happens slowly, calendar by calendar, meeting by meeting, and until the thing that first lit you up barely gets a spot on the schedule anymore. Systems matter, metrics matter. I'm not saying throw out the tools, but here's the thing: the healthiest ministry leaders protect the work that doesn't show up in a report anywhere. A conversation that wasn't on the calendar, a moment of presence that didn't get tracked. Let me say that again. Name the drift before it defines you. Find one thing this week that you've quietly stopped doing because no one measures it. Then do that thing. I'm Ted Rhodes. For Todd today. Speaking on his behalf, as always, somebody's gotta hold it down. Until next time, go lead well today.