An Open Survey - the SBC on Women Pastors 2026

For the past several years, Southern Baptists have engaged in significant conversations surrounding women in ministry, pastoral titles, church leadership, cooperation, and biblical interpretation. Much of the discussion has been passionate. But often, conversations have been driven more by factions, inflammatory language, emotions, assumptions, isolated experiences, and online reactions than broad-based data from across the life of the SBC itself.

Collecting data on this and any other issue is time consuming, difficult and expensive. I get that.

Reactions to a recent survey by conducted by Sam Rainer were wide and varied. Some of the releases and commentary pointed to a wider acceptance of Women Pastors preaching among SBC identified respondents.  

Part of Rainer's text: Let’s do another graph today: Among Southern Baptists, 81% agree that a woman should be allowed to preach to the entire congregation. This level of support for women preaching (81%) is higher than the SBC’s support for women pastors (29%).

I work with churches, a local network here in Nashville. I also worked with hundreds, perhaps thousands of churches across North America for at least 8 years as part of a denominational entity.  That statement seems, from my experience, incredibly high and difficult to believe. I acknowledge, I might be wrong, but it seems high.

I asked Sam if the report could be made available for review. (Sam's response is above) Unfortunately the report and subsequent data, metrics and respondent categories are not made publicly available for critical examination. I'd have to pay 10 bucks to view them. They are behind a paywall as Church Answers and Rainer are a for profit business.

I gathered that from the social media comments and back and forth, the total survey group was about 1700 give or take, if so, it met a fairly accurate representation of the larger SBC population and has a confidence rate of 95% +/- I did some analysis here. 

Only a percentage of that 1700 were Baptists. We don't know how many were women or men, their ages, geographic distributions, or theological backgrounds. We don't know if they are Pastors or Lay Person's, conservative or not. We don't know where the survey pool came from. I get it...yes 10 bucks might answer some of these questions but I still wouldn't have access to all the data, the raw data, at least not likely. 

So....

I think we need another survey, at least a grass roots one. So, I took a stab at it and I built it, for free, with a couple of hours of time and personal investment and google forms. (Women in Ministry SBC Survey)

Why Another Survey? 

To attempt to gain a better understand where Southern Baptists actually stand on these issues.  I am launching a public survey designed to gather responses from pastors, staff members, church leaders, and laypeople from every region of the country.

The goal is not to inflame the conversation, but to better inform it.
Transparency matters in a discussion like this.

For that reason, every survey question is publicly visible before participation so respondents can clearly see what is being asked before they consider taking the survey.

The survey is intentionally not hidden behind a paywall or restricted platform because these conversations affect the broader Baptist family and should remain accessible to the churches and people involved in them.

The findings, summaries, charts, and analysis will be made publicly available on this site for anyone interested in understanding the current landscape of opinion and practice within the SBC and beyond.

Equally important is broad participation. I hope to hear from Southern Baptists and evangelicals from every region of the country, every church size, multiple theological perspectives, and a wide variety of ministry roles.

Responses from Baptists from every region of the country and background are important in helping provide a broad and fair picture of current perspectives.

Sample Size Goals

• 1,000 responses: Minimum threshold for meaningful analysis
• 1,500–2,500 responses: Strong representation
• 5,000+ responses: Gold standard

The initial goal for this survey is 2,000 completed responses by Tuesday June 2, 2026. The survey will remain open until Wednesday June 3, 2026 

Please consider sharing this survey with your Baptist friends, within your ministry networks, and on your social media platforms.

Whether you are a pastor, staff member, seminary student, deacon, volunteer leader, or church member, your perspective matters.

My hope is that this survey can contribute something often missing in difficult denominational conversations: clarity, honesty, transparency, and a better understanding of where people truly stand and how might respond.

And in all, may God's Kingdom Advance for His Glory and our good.

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