Pastor Rhett Burns Calls for Jeff Iorg’s Resignation: “The Re-Iorganization of the SBC Has Failed”

Pastor Rhett Burns has had enough.

In a sharply written essay for the Center for Baptist Leadership, Burns calls for SBC Executive Committee president Jeff Iorg to resign, declaring that “the re-Iorganization of the SBC has failed.”

Drawing from a vivid car-wreck analogy—warning lights ignored until the engine seizes—Burns argues that Iorg’s leadership has presided over a catastrophic breakdown of trust, accountability, and conviction within the Southern Baptist Convention.

“We were warned. We saw the dashboard lights. But instead of pulling over, Iorg hit the gas.”
— Rhett Burns, Center for Baptist Leadership

Burns’ call lands at a moment when many Southern Baptists have already lost confidence in the Executive Committee’s direction—and in Iorg’s ability to lead it.

The Straw That Broke the Camel’s Back

Burns’ central indictment is that Iorg has repeatedly misdiagnosed the Convention’s problems and, worse, blamed faithful churches for them.

When CP giving fell, Iorg did not ask why churches were losing trust—he scolded them for designating their giving, likening their autonomy to “children choosing their own gender.”

That jaw-dropping comparison, first reported by Protestia in “SBC Exec Comm Prez Jeff Iorg Likens Churches Who Designate Their CP Giving to Children Choosing Their Own Gender”, encapsulated Iorg’s condescension toward churches acting in conscience.

Burns seizes on that moment as emblematic of how SBC leadership has lost touch with its base. Instead of addressing corruption, doctrinal compromise, and institutional opacity, Iorg spiritualized the problem away—diagnosing rebellion where there was discernment.

“According to Iorg, the problem isn’t the EC’s mismanagement or drift—it’s that you’re basically like a woke kid choosing your pronouns.”
— Protestia analysis

Lukewarm Leadership in a Lukewarm Convention

Burns’s critique also resurrects an older but persistent theme: Iorg’s Laodicean leadership.

In 2024, Protestia warned that Iorg’s tenure at Gateway Seminary revealed a pattern of comfortable institutionalism—a commitment to peace and professionalism rather than conviction. As noted in Jeff Iorg Encapsulates the Laodicean SBC, Iorg is polished but passionless, managerial where prophets are needed. He preaches steadiness while the house burns. That pattern has only deepened at the Executive Committee. Burns’ essay reads like the inevitable fruit of such leadership—one that values optics over obedience and consensus over clarity.

In other words, the Re-Iorganization merely rearranged deck chairs on the Titanic.

Compromise by Design: Iorg’s Opposition to Doctrinal Boundaries

Burns’s indictment also intersects with Iorg’s earlier public opposition to an SBC ban on female pastors—a position first documented by Evangelical Dark Web and widely covered across conservative Baptist media.

Iorg’s insistence that such a ban was unnecessary revealed a broader pattern: a refusal to draw bright doctrinal lines. The same instinct now governs his administrative philosophy—preferring ambiguity to conviction, autonomy to accountability, and “dialogue” to discipline.

Burns’s piece is the logical extension of that frustration. If a leader cannot affirm basic biblical qualifications for pastoral ministry, how can he safeguard the theological integrity of the Cooperative Program itself?

The Financial and Moral Crisis

Burns doesn’t stop at theology. He points to the EC’s looming financial insolvency, its opaque handling of legal settlements, and Iorg’s unwillingness to release full accounting details. The rhetoric of “trust the process” has worn thin.

In Burns’s words, the SBC’s leadership class has “confused cooperation with complicity.” Churches no longer believe the EC represents them; it manages them. The result is a denominational body functionally accountable to itself.

And yet, rather than confess institutional sin or pursue reform, Iorg’s messaging strategy has been one of tone management—issuing statements that sound spiritual while offering no substantive repentance.

His defensive “clarification” email to Southern Baptists in September was a case in point: he blamed critics for “editing” his comments when, in fact, full transcripts were already published.

Burns’s Call: Pull Over Before the Engine Explodes

Burns concludes his essay with a clear imperative:

“Jeff Iorg should resign.”

Not because of a single misstatement, but because the cumulative evidence—spiritual, moral, and managerial—shows he cannot lead the Convention forward.

Burns’s article marks a turning point: it is not the complaint of a fringe blogger or an institutional rival. It is the voice of a pastor who loves the SBC enough to say the quiet part aloud.

For Southern Baptists weary of endless “reorganizations” that change nothing, Burns’s call may finally give language to what they have long felt. You can’t reform a system whose leaders refuse to admit it’s broken.

A Moment of Decision

Jeff Iorg once described the SBC as a “partnership of Great Commission churches.”
But a partnership requires trust, and trust requires truth.

For months, Iorg has chosen managerial control over moral clarity, spin over transparency, and political calculus over pastoral conviction.

Burns’s article simply exposes the obvious: the car has already thrown a rod. The engine is done.

If the Executive Committee wants to salvage what remains of denominational trust, it should heed Burns’s call and begin again—with leaders who fear God more than fallout.

Related Reading

• SBC Exec Comm Prez Jeff Iorg Likens Churches Who Designate Their CP Giving to Children Choosing Their Own Gender
• Jeff Iorg Encapsulates the Laodicean SBC
• SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg Opposes Banning Female Pastors

If you value journalism from a unapologetically Christian worldview, show your support by becoming a Protestia INSIDER today.