New focus on a consistent mission
BJC’s board chair reflects on the updated mission statement, passed in October 2025.
By Rev. Dr. Philip Thompson
BJC Board Chair
Mission statements should not be revised very often. Frequent mission revision is a sign an organization lacks a clear sense of its identity and goals. That is manifestly not the case for BJC. We don’t revise our mission statement often, and we express consistent commitment to faith freedom for all when we do.
Until the BJC Board gathered in October 2025, the last time the mission statement was revised was 2004. I am one of the very few people who served on the Board both then and now. At that time, I was one of the younger members, learning from those who had helped guide BJC through the difficult 1990s, when the largest member body and financial contributor, the Southern Baptist Convention, had withdrawn. As we headed into the new millennium, a renewed sense of stability and aspiration had emerged.
It was by any measure a significant time. Emerging from great challenges, we looked to our upcoming 70th anniversary with a sense of renewed vigor. We appointed a committee to plan the celebration of seven decades of shared work. We adopted a (very slightly) larger budget. We took up the revision of our constitution and bylaws. We planned the launch of the First Freedoms Project. Alongside those events, 2004 was a good time to revisit the mission statement. One might expect that we would reflect the season of change in which we found ourselves. But that was not quite the case.
Many board members expressed preference for a slightly revised version of the existing mission statement rather than the proposed new one. Not unlike the discussion of the 2025 revision, we toned down language of Baptist uniqueness in our work for religious liberty. We are not alone in our advocacy, after all. In the midst of institutional change, we opted for a sense of missional continuity, declaring:
The mission of the Baptist Joint Committee is to defend and extend God-given religious liberty for all, furthering the Baptist heritage of championing the principle that religion must be freely exercised, neither advanced nor inhibited by government.
What are we to make of this, and what light might it shed on the 2025 mission statement, which is the successor to this one? In 2004, we had just changed our name from Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs in order to emphasize our singular commitment to work for the sake of religious liberty for all. The sense of focus was already present in our existing mission statement. This was the core of our identity and work, the shared task that brought together a diverse collection of Baptist bodies. For all the change we had been through, organizationally and culturally, in defending and extending religious liberty for all, we believed that the embodiment of our historic Baptist witness remained constant.
Now in 2025, we have again revisited our mission statement. Following another lengthy process of discussion, which included weighing various possibilities and receiving light from many sources, the BJC Board of Directors adopted our new mission statement at our October meeting:
Rooted in a Baptist commitment to soul liberty, we are building a movement toward a just society that cultivates and expands religious freedom for all.
It is under this mission statement that I begin my service as Chair of the Board. I believe it sets the right tone. There are more changes and less continuity in the wording here than in 2004. Yet the statement doesn’t reflect change in BJC’s sense of mission — it reflects change in the religious and political circumstances in which we seek to carry out our mission. In our discussion, Board members acknowledged that while we remain committed to defending and advocating for religious freedom at the highest levels, in the courts and in Congress, we are aware of the great need now for our new initiatives in mobilization and organizing at a more grassroots level. I believe that unless we strengthen commitment to faith freedom for all in faith and civic communities throughout the U.S., a commitment that may not have been as secure as we had thought and has certainly been eroded by aggressive Christian nationalism, our work to defend our first freedom may not be enough. All of this, the grassroots and the halls of power alike, are present in our new statement. Like its predecessors, the 2025 mission statement signals a steadfast commitment to embody and advocate for a conviction that goes all the way to Baptist beginnings in a new and challenging time and context.
I appreciate how the executive leadership of BJC consistently invites the board of directors into processes for organizational and programmatic decision-making. The same was true in the development of the new BJC mission statement. Amanda offered guiding questions and hopes for how the statement will function. Our board chair, the Rev. Anyra Cano, led the process as we envisioned through consensus. We listened well to each other, offered insightful perspectives and weighed the meaning in each proposed word or phrase. The commitment and energy of the group was inspiring. We reached an outcome that the full board unanimously affirmed.
In our nation, too many political and religious leaders are struggling with selective memory in a way that is causing harm. From the earliest years of the United States, people have come from other nations fleeing religious persecution, and that freedom has always required vigilant defense. We are standing up against hostility and intolerance from those who have forgotten how religious liberty makes us stronger in faith and nation.
I am thankful for the persistent work of BJC to uphold religious freedom for all, and the mission statement expresses that commitment.
As the new guy in the room, but with plenty of experience that reflects the joke, “wherever 2 or 3 Baptists are gathered, 5 or 6 opinions are there also,” I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I saw was an example of the best, beautiful, loving, democratic process that we Baptists like to claim we invented, or at least perfected. Many voices were heard, the first draft was referred to a smaller committee who listened even more, and then they stayed up late taking all of those voices into consideration. The next afternoon a revision was presented, discussed, and eventually unanimously and enthusiastically approved. I was reminded of something I tell my choir often: We don’t have to sing quieter, but we do have to listen better if we want to create something beautiful.
The mission statement itself is historically rooted and movement oriented, and it’s a mission that reflects the work that I think God is calling BJC to. It’s a mission that the BJC staff and we supporters can be excited to work on, together.
This column originally appeared in the winter 2025 edition of Report from the Capital. You can view it as a PDF or read a digital flip-through edition.
