Whitworth and McMahon recap May 15, 2026, Executive Board meeting

Baptist Resource Network Executive Director Barry Whitworth and Watershed Church Pastor Eric McMahon share the topics discussed by the Executive Board in its May 2026 meeting. Leaders celebrated several encouraging ministry trends from the 2025 Annual Church Profile, including increases in church membership, baptisms, worship attendance, and Vacation Bible School participation. Additional updates included progress on the new nonprofit Serve Northeast/Serve PASJ, a positive financial audit, discussions regarding pastoral office policies aligned with the Baptist Faith and Message, church advancement initiatives, and an update on the Response and Relief Center. The meeting also emphasized the importance of the Cooperative Program and expressed appreciation for the volunteer leadership of the BRN Executive Board in guiding the organization’s mission and vision.

May 21, 2026
Barry Whitworth

BARRY WHITWORTH: Hello, BRN family. It’s good to be with you today. We’re here at The Hub in Harrisburg, our office, and today we had an Executive Board meeting. The folks that serve on our Board come from four different regions throughout our state convention area, and we had a great meeting.

BARRY WHITWORTH: I had the privilege in opening up the meeting talking about things that we can celebrate here at the BRN. So when I give my report at every Board meeting, I share those things that we’re celebrating about, and I share also with things that we are challenged with, which the board many times talks through those things afterwards.

But some of the things we’re celebrating, and this is what we got from the Annual Church Profile, the ACP, that we ask you to help with. This is something that came out of those reports:

Church membership last year in 2025 increased by 2.6%.
Baptisms increased by almost 8.5% last year.
Worship attendance increased 1.6%, and 90% of those attending are church members. So the number that we see from worship attendance, and we know about church membership, 90% of those people attending are in church membership.
And then the last one, it speaks to evangelism, vacation Bible school. That attendance rose to over 9%.

BARRY WHITWORTH: So as you can see, Eric, we have a lot to celebrate. And Eric is the vice president of our Board, and he stepped in today for our president, Jason Hunter. So Eric, tell them about the other things that we talked about today.

ERIC MCMAHON: Thanks, Barry, and God is doing God-sized things in the BRN. Some other things that we’re celebrating are our new nonprofit, Serve Northeast, doing business as Serve PASJ. This is off the ground. This is giving us the opportunity to expand our kingdom impact and our gospel presentation to our region, and we’re doing this through mercy ministry-type things. We’re really excited about that.

ERIC MCMAHON: We also affirmed a favorable 2025 audit and year-to-date finances. God is blessing us in so many ways. We reviewed our policy pertaining to pastoral offices, just so we’re clear about the biblical definition and what we are as a BRN family and what we affirm in our Baptist Faith and Message.

ERIC MCMAHON: Also, we had Dr. Larry Anderson join us, and he gave a church advancement update. God is using him and his team to help churches all across the state, churches just like yours. Kenton Hunt gave a Response and Relief Center groundbreaking update to the finance committee. We are so excited to have a Response and Relief Center right here in our state, and God is going to use DR for so many different things.

ERIC MCMAHON: And finally, we talked about ways to highlight the Cooperative Program in the BRN and beyond. God uses these funds for kingdom impact and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. He uses these funds to service churches just like yours, and so your church can get involved with a kingdom mindset and share the gospel through your funds and through your giving.

BARRY WHITWORTH: Amen. Well, thank you, Eric. It was a great meeting, and we here at the BRN are grateful for our Executive Board, men and women contributing volunteer time to be a part of being basically the key instrument that everything flows from here in the Baptist Resource Network.

BARRY WHITWORTH: So I would say to you, if you’re not familiar with the Executive Board, it is the leadership component that oversees the whole operations of what takes place across the Baptist Resource Network. They serve as my boss, and as I lead the team, they help champion what we’re seeking to do to accomplish the mission and the vision that we have at the BRN. So it’s always a joy, always a delight to welcome the executive board to the BRN Hub. Not only do we meet, but we eat. We fellowship. We have fun. We pray together.

ERIC MCMAHON: It’s been a great meeting.

BARRY WHITWORTH: So, thanks for listening in today, and if you have any questions about the Executive Board, you can go to our website. You can actually ask a question there, or you can reach out to us at the Help Desk, and we’ll be sure to answer you. So thanks again for listening in. God bless you.

ERIC MCMAHON: God bless.

Barry Whitworth

Barry has been in ministry for over 30 years, serving as a mission pastor, associate pastor, church planter, pastor, interim pastor, transitional pastor and planter, church planting strategist, lead church planting catalyst, church planting director, and now executive director. Before his calling as Executive Director of the Baptist Resource Network in February 2017, he was a church planting missionary and served the Multiplying Churches Team Leader for the BRN.