Conservative churches have been dropping from the Southern Baptist Convention in droves since J.D. Greear became president of the denomination a few years ago. But since Ed Litton was elected to the presidency last year, the mass exodus of faithful churches and pastors has drastically increased.

Last year, prominent anti-social justice pastor, Josh Buice, led his church out of the denomination over the failed leadership and the lack of accountability for our current president who has been embroiled in a plagiarism scandal of epic proportions spanning multiple years. But Ed Litton isn’t actually the problem; he’s only a symptom of the problem.

The problem with conservative churches leaving the denomination is the failed leadership; the refusal to address the underlying problems within the denomination that have brought us to this place, to begin with. The problem is that postmodernism has infected every institution in the Southern Baptist Convention in such a way that any public confrontation among leadership is largely seen as taboo. Therefore, we see little to no public accountability for the unrepentant sins of leadership by other leadership.

This is draining and taxing on those who desperately want to see real leadership.

Now, in the wake of new leadership in the Southern Baptist Convention, conservatives are feeling even more alienated than ever before. In the name of “unity,” there has been much disunity between those who stand on the Scriptures as the final authority for all things, and those who seek to build bridges with churches that ordain women to the pastorate and hold to various other anti-biblical doctrines.

Since Texas pastor, Bart Barber was elected to the presidency and Voddie Baucham was defeated by another moderate pastor for the Pastors’ Conference presidency, the Southern Baptist Convention has more of the same. It’s clear that denominational leadership is a brotherhood and that brotherhood must be maintained at all costs, even at the expense of sound doctrine.

And, again, good shepherds and laypeople are growing tired.

In the latest example of a good, solid, conservative church leaving the SBC, Homer, AK pastor, Nathaniel Jolly announced his church’s departure citing “doctrinal drift.”

“This past week our church met and decided that it was time to dissociate from the Southern Baptist Convention,” Jolly wrote in a letter published on Twitter. “Unfortunately, the writing is on the wall; the SBC has simply gone in a direction with which our church is unwilling to be associated, now or in the foreseeable future.”

In closing, he wrote “there are still faithful and godly men within the SBC. I do not wish to make my conscience a burden for them. However, the claim that there is no doctrinal drift in the SBC is not credible. The drift is unmistakable and the downgrade is steep. The 2022 convention has made it crystal clear to me that there is no way for our church to remain. I take no joy in what has happened to the SBC, I grieve over it.”

What else has become crystal clear is that God will not be mocked. He will separate the sheep from the goats. And while it is taking some churches longer to realize that the SBC has become more about its money business than about advancing the actual gospel, true bible-believing churches are departing and heading for the hills. And as more and more do, it will become more and more clear that the SBC is under the judgment of God.

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues… —Revelation 18:4

Linked below is the full text of Jolly’s letter.