Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) President Clint Pressley told Newsmax host Todd Starnes he is “absolutely enraged” and “infuriated” over anti-protestors who disrupted a Cities Church worship service in Minnesota on Sunday.
Pressley, who pastors Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, will conclude his second term as SBC president during the denomination’s annual meeting in June.
The SBC is the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, made up of more than 40,000 autonomous churches that cooperate to share the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.
RELATED: NAMB Calls Anti-ICE Disruption of Minnesota Church ‘Lawless Harassment’
On Jan. 18, a group of anti-ICE protesters deliberately disrupted a worship service at Cities Church, a church plant in St. Paul, Minnesota, supported by the SBC’s Send Network. The protesters entered the church as the congregation—including men, women, and children—was worshiping.
A user who identified himself as a Cities Church member described the incident in a post on Threads:
ICE Protestors invaded my church this morning. They stormed in right as the sermon started, surrounded the congregation, and started shouting obscenities and their disgusting slogans. As the children started crying, this seemed to enrage one man even more and he started screaming about how we are “privileged pigs”. It’s hard to know what to say or do in a situation like this but the congregation began to pray, read Scripture, and sing. Eventually we were told to move to another part of the church and the protestors were cleared out. I don’t know what kind of person can do something this disordered and evil but I keep thinking Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Pray for Minnesota.
Describing his reaction after watching video of the disruption, Pressley told Starnes, “It was infuriating.”
“I mean, I heard about it last night as I was at a college event,” he said, “and everybody that I know, from all of the presidents of all of our entities, to the leaders I know, to the pastors I know, it is infuriating to think that a worship service was disrupted as it was.”
Pressley continued, “A peaceful, God-honoring, family-oriented worship service and looking at the video, you know, I’m having to work through, just pray through, being absolutely enraged.”
“ABSOLUTELY ENRAGED!” – The president of the Southern Baptist Convention joins me on Newsmax to discuss the attack on Cities Church in Minnesota.
“It is infuriating to think that a worship service was disrupted as it was – a peaceful, God-honoring family oriented worship… pic.twitter.com/xaJnlz54sL
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) January 20, 2026
Starnes, who is a Southern Baptist, said he could not believe such an incident occurred in the United States.
Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) President Clint Pressley told Newsmax host Todd Starnes he is “absolutely enraged” and “infuriated” over anti-protestors who disrupted a Cities Church worship service in Minnesota on Sunday.Click to Post
