By Michael Gryboski, Editor Monday, April 13, 2026Evan Lenow, an associate professor of Christian ethics, speaks at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2022. | YouTube/Southeastern Seminary
Evan Lenow has been unanimously elected the new president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
At a special-called meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday, the ERLC board of trustees voted to appoint the 47-year-old Lenow as president of the prominent commission.
“Dr. Lenow is a proven, trusted servant to Southern Baptists, and he has a demonstrated love for helping churches live out the Great Commission fully in their contexts,” said Scott Foshie, chair of the ERLC board of trustees, in a statement.
“His biblically rooted ethics resources are trusted by our seminaries, and many local churches have benefitted from his faithful preaching and helpful consultations. We are overjoyed that he has answered God’s call to use his keen intellect and shepherd’s heart to lead the ERLC.”
Lenow said he is “humbled” that the board of trustees elected him as the next ERLC president.
“The Lord has worked through my academic and professional life to prepare me for the work entrusted to this very important entity by Southern Baptists,” he continued.
“I believe the best days are ahead for the ERLC as our team comes alongside SBC churches and leaders to equip them to address the essential ethical and moral questions of our day with confidence and biblical fidelity.”
Lenow is director of the Institute for Christian Leadership at Mississippi College and chairs the college’s Christian Studies Department. He also serves as director of the Clinton Extension of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, based on the Mississippi College campus.
In July, former ERLC President Brent Leatherwood resigned, saying in a statement at the time that he felt it was “time to close this chapter of my life.”
“It has been an honor to guide this Baptist organization in a way that has honored the Lord, served the churches of our Convention, and made this fallen world a little better,” Leatherwood said.
“I believe gratitude is at the heart of conservatism. That means I will always be thankful for the opportunity provided to me by our churches — for the support they have offered and the resources they have sacrificially given to this entity.”
ERLC Vice President and Chief of Staff Miles Mullin was appointed acting president. Later in September, trustees voted to make Gary Hollingsworth interim president effective Oct. 1.
Late last month, the ERLC’s presidential search committee nominated Lenow as its presidential candidate, with a vote by the trustees scheduled soon after.
Dr. Richard Land, executive editor for The Christian Post and former president of the ERLC from 1988 to 2013, told CP last month that he “could not be more pleased with the nomination” of Lenow.
“I cannot think of anyone more qualified and prepared by background, training, experience, and conviction to lead the ERLC in assisting Southern Baptists and other faithful Christians in being the Gospel ‘salt and light’ in America that our Heavenly Father has called us all to be,” he said.
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