06/13/2026
This past week, the Southern Baptist Convention gathered in Orlando to conduct business, worship together, and encourage one another. It was an uplifting and unifying meeting, with 11,692 registered Messengers and approximately 21,000 total attendees.
This was also a historic moment for Uniontown Baptist Church, as it marked the first year we sent our own Messenger to participate, vote, and engage directly in the work of our Convention.
The SBC elected Florida pastor W***y Rice as the next President, who emphasized a renewed commitment to representing local churches and strengthening our cooperative mission efforts. Throughout the week, Southern Baptists demonstrated unity and conviction, passing resolutions and motions that reaffirm our commitment to biblical truth and our desire to speak faithfully into cultural issues.
One of the most encouraging moments came as 63 new International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries were commissioned and prayed over—many preparing to serve in high‑security regions. These new workers join the 3,500+ IMB missionaries already serving in 155 countries. The IMB also reported that in 2025, 31 previously unengaged people groups—groups with no known missionary presence or gospel access—became newly engaged through IMB teams and partners.
During the annual Crossover evangelism initiative, more than 1,000 people in Orlando came to faith in Christ. Send Relief also celebrated a powerful year of ministry, mobilizing over 60,000 volunteers, meeting needs for more than 2.5 million people, and sparking 816,000+ Gospel conversations around the world.
The preaching throughout the SBC Annual Meeting was deeply powerful—calling Southern Baptists to renewed holiness, humble repentance, and unwavering confidence in the authority of God’s Word. The messages consistently pointed us to Christ, urging our churches to pursue faithfulness in mission, unity in the gospel, and courage in a confused culture.
We are grateful to be part of a family of churches that love one another, work together, and joyfully support the Great Commission. This year we elected godly leaders to serve, passed resolutions and motions to guide our future, and approved budgets that continue to fund missionaries, church plants and replants, SBC seminaries, Send Relief compassion ministries, and much more.
Uniontown Baptist Church was honored to be represented in Orlando alongside many other Ohio Pastors and Messengers standing shoulder‑to‑shoulder with this Convention of churches—not because it's perfect—but because these brothers and sisters faitfhfully stand with us to advance the sake of the Gospel and the glory of the one who is perfect, Jesus Christ.
