Messengers to the Nov. 11–12 Alabama Baptist State Convention annual meeting at Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville approved a $37.5 million Cooperative Program allocation budget for 2026, elected a slate of new officers, and voted to extend their partnership with Alaska Baptists “indefinitely with periodic reviews.”
The budget amount remains unchanged from the 2025 budget and maintains the 50–50 percentage allocation between Alabama Baptist and Southern Baptist ministries. The 202nd annual meeting of Alabama Baptists also included various presentations featuring the meeting’s theme of “Compelled,” based on 2 Cor. 5:14.
Special offering goals
Messengers also approved the following 2026 special offering goals, all of which are the same amount as last year:
- Lottie Moon Christmas Offering: $12 million
- Annie Armstrong Easter Offering: $6 million
- Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries: $3 million
- Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering: $1.2 million
- World Hunger Offering: $800,000
During the SBOM report, Alabama Baptists also voted to extend their partnership with Alaska Baptists “indefinitely with periodic reviews assessing the effectiveness of the collaboration.”
The two state conventions established their partnership in 2021, and in a video message to Alabama Baptists on Nov. 11, Bruce Rowell, president of the Alaska Baptist Convention, shared his gratitude.
“Alabama Baptists have left a permanent mark on the Great Land, on the Last Frontier where we do ministry,” he said.
Rowell noted that Alabama Baptists have given more than $300,000 in direct financial support to the Alaska Baptist Convention, as well as thousands more to individual ministries and churches.
State convention officers
Jarman Leatherwood, pastor of House of Hope and Restoration Church in Huntsville, was elected state convention president. Ryan Whitley, pastor of CrossPoint Church in Trussville, was elected first vice president, defeating Kenneth Wells, bivocational pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Scottsboro, 206 to 112 with 2 ballots not counted. Mat Alexander, pastor of First Baptist Church Gadsden, was elected second vice president. Both Leatherwood and Alexander ran unopposed.
Also re-elected were Debbie Oliver as recording secretary and Mike Jackson as statistical secretary and registration secretary. Oliver and Jackson both serve on staff of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
Awards
Mark Wakefield, SBOM state disaster relief strategist, presented the Tommy Puckett Award for Excellence to five individuals who made the “strategic contribution” of setting Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief up on a new software program, a needed change that could have cost the ministry thousands of dollars.
Those five award recipients were three volunteers — Melinda Maddox of First Baptist Church Clanton, Mike Chandler of Hunter Street Baptist Church in Hoover and Tami Power of Willowbrook Baptist Church in Huntsville — as well as two SBOM staff members, Mickey Crawford and Scott Whittington.
Scotty Goldman, director of the SBOM office of global missions, presented the Volunteer of the Year award to Dr. Patrick Daugherty, an oncologist and member of Woodmont Baptist Church in Florence. Daugherty has served in missions work on all seven continents.
Presidential address
Craig Carlisle, who completed his second term as Alabama Baptist State Convention president, preached his presidential address on the theme Compelled, and urged the crowd to remember several “important things.”
Carlisle listed the following items:
-that the local church is the headquarters of the ABSC, Carlisle said. “You are the convention — pastors, leaders, laypeople, churches.”
-that the Cooperative Program, now 100 years old, is “still the best way to fund missions and theological education,” he said.
– that “making our churches safe places for children and teenagers must remain a high priority.”
– to invest in the Calling Out the Called initiative to encourage raising up more pastors.
– to “continue to let bivocational ministers know they are valuable, important and needed now more than ever.”
– to elevate the importance of churches praying for revival.
– that “we are going churches for a coming Christ, and we pray that Jesus will come soon, but until then, we’re going to keep going.”
Sermons
The convention sermon was delivered by Andy John King, pastor of Lindsay Lane Baptist Church in Athens.
Presenting the Compelled theme interpretations throughout the annual meeting were Matt Daniels, who serves on the campus of the University of North Alabama in Florence; Dewayne Rembert, Montgomery Baptist Association pastor; Jeff Iorg, president and CEO of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Association; and Spencer Bell, an associate in the office of evangelism and church revitalization of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
Resolutions
In other business, messengers adopted three resolutions.
Resolution #1 — On Cooperation focuses on continued support of the Cooperative Program and “commendation for the convictional clarity” of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.
“Both the Cooperative Program and BFM 2000 exemplify the spirit of cooperation and shared purpose that has characterized Southern Baptists and Alabama Baptists, fostering effective ministry and faithful witness in a rapidly changing world,” the resolution reads.
“Both the Cooperative Program and our confession of faith have encouraged Southern Baptists and Alabama Baptists to remain steadfast in commitment to reaching our state and the world for Christ, impacting generations for the glory of God.”
Resolution #2 — Against Abortion-Inducing Drugs was the only resolution to be amended from the floor, but the amendment was considered a “friendly amendment” and provided a new introduction to the resolution. It reads:
“WHEREAS, We as Alabama Baptists believe that all human life is sacred – created and sustained by God – and that abortion by medical procedure or by abortion-inducing drugs is contrary to God’s creative design; and” which leads into the other points noting concerns related to chemical abortion drugs.
The amendment was offered by pastor Chris Farmer, a messenger from First Baptist Church Dawes.
An excerpt from the resolution reads: “Data indicates that chemical abortion drugs, which are the most common method of abortion, carry a higher risk of serious adverse events for patients with certain underlying or unscreened medical conditions, posing a grave threat to the health and safety of women.
“The dispensing of these drugs without an in-person physical examination or ultrasound creates the risk of failing to detect life-threatening conditions such as ectopic pregnancy, and may prevent the administration of necessary preventive treatments and jeopardize future fertility. … The remote distribution of these drugs prevents verification of who is taking the medication, raising concerns about potential coercion and lack of consent.”
With the resolution, messengers “urge federal authorities to take immediate action to affirm and empower states to enforce their duly enacted laws regarding the protection of unborn children, specifically addressing the circumvention of these laws through any forms of delivery services that distribute abortion-inducing drugs.”
The committee did not report how many proposed resolutions were submitted for consideration. Resolutions Committee chair Mat Alexander, pastor of First Baptist Church Gadsden, explained that committee deliberations are kept confidential so that prevents them from reporting out any details other than the official resolutions presented to messengers.
Resolution #3 – On Appreciation
Expresses gratitude to the Lord and to all those who served Him during the 2025 Alabama Baptist State Convention annual meeting held at Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville.
A downloadable file of the full text of the three adopted resolutions is available here: Alabama Baptist resolutions 2025.
Other news
A total of 882 people representing 368 churches were present for the state convention annual meeting — 767 messengers and 115 guests.
The 2026 annual meeting will be held Nov. 17–18 at First Baptist Church Trussville, Alabama.
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