By Jeremy Gray
The executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the nation, on Tuesday voted to sell its Nashville headquarters.
“The sale of the building, located at 901 Commerce St. … is expected to provide the executive committee a much-needed cash infusion,” The Tennessean reported. “As those expenditures increase, which recently is due to legal expenses that emerged from a sexual abuse investigation, there is also decreased revenue.”
The headquarters of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tenn., is seen on Dec. 7, 2011. On Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee has offered a public apology and a confidential monetary settlement to sexual abuse survivor Jennifer Lyell, who was mischaracterized by the denomination’s in-house news service when she decided to go public with her story in March 2019.
According to the Baptist Press, much of the $12.1 million spent on legal fees between 2020 and July 2024 involved the cases of former SBC president Johnny Hunt and former Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor David Sills.
“To meet the EC’s operational and legal expenses, the Executive Committee has authorized the president to execute a loan secured by the building and place the SBC building on the market,” Chairman Philip Robertson said, according to the Baptist Press.
The Guidepost Report into sexual abuse found an allegation that Hunt sexually assaulted another pastor’s wife in 2010 to be credible. His lawsuit cost the denomination $3.1 million, The Tennessean’s Liam Adams tweeted.
Sills was accused in an Alabama defamation suit of sexual abuse by a former student. It was not immediately clear how much went toward legal costs related to that case.
The sale of the building has been discussed for years but the decision was made public near the end of the executive committee meeting today.
Public records list the building’s appraised value at $31.7 million.
