The Reformed Baptist ministry G3 has called off its biennial conference after reporting that its president, Josh Buice, ran multiple anonymous online accounts to insult fellow Christian leaders.
Buice’s church, Pray’s Mill Baptist in Georgia, found “irrefutable evidence” that the pastor—who had over 59,000 followers on his personal X account—was secretly behind at least four other social media profiles as well as two email addresses and Substack accounts, according to an announcement on Monday.
“These accounts were used to publicly and anonymously slander numerous Christian leaders, including faithful pastors (some of whom have spoken at G3 conferences), several [church] elders, and others,” the church wrote. “These actions were not only sinful in nature but deeply divisive.”
Last week, Buice resigned from G3 and was put on indefinite leave from Pray’s Mill Baptist, where he served as pastor for 15 years. Church leaders said the suspicions around Buice’s ties to the anonymous accounts date back at least two years; Buice denied involvement until the end of an hourslong meeting with elders over a week ago.
Buice founded G3—named for gospel, grace, and glory—in 2013, growing the ministry into a biennial conference drawing over 8,000 attendees, as well as a church network and a publishing arm. The ministry involves several prominent Reformed leaders who are outspoken on X, including Scott Aniol as executive vice president and Tom Buck as a board member.
Buice was part of conservative Reformed circles where leaders debated and decried leftward drift within the evangelical church, including the Southern Baptist Convention. Citing concerns around critical race theory, social justice, women’s roles, and ecclesiology, Buice’s church left the Southern Baptist Convention in 2022.
But according to the church’s statement, his anonymous activity targeted those closer to his own conservative Reformed movement and even fellow elders in his own congregation. The church has not publicly identified Buice’s fake accounts, and his personal pages have been taken down from X and Instagram.
On Monday, Buice’s ministry partners and critics responded to the news. Some called out prominent pastors’ online platform-building and the role of anonymous accounts in stirring debate and dissent. Some applauded his church for taking action and explaining what happened.
The church said Buice continued to deny the accounts for two hours after being confronted by elders last Sunday, May 4. “Only after further evidence was presented and much pleading with him to walk in the light did Josh finally confess to his actions,” the statement read. “Since then, Josh has acknowledged his sin, expressed sorrow, and asked for forgiveness.”
G3 wrote that Buice resigned May 8 after board members privately encouraged him to do so. According to the ministry, no one working with Buice knew about his secret online activity. On Tuesday, G3 posted an update saying its leaders decided to remove Buice’s blog posts and teachings “due to the public and egregious nature” of his sin.
Tom Buck, a Texas pastor and G3 board member, said he was “deeply grieved.”
“For me personally, this is a great reminder of my own need to ‘keep a close watch’ on myself (1 Tim 4:16), to take heed lest I too fall (1 Cor 10:12), and to not deceive myself by thinking I am something (Gal 6:3),” he wrote on X.
More than a decade ago, Mark Driscoll apologized for comments he made on message boards under the pseudonym William Wallace II, and since then others have been subject to rebuke and church discipline for online behavior, anonymous or not. A 2024 survey of US evangelicals found that a majority use social media despite believing the negative effects on their faith outweigh the good.
“Twitter is part of your CV. It can disqualify you from ministry. It is a window into your soul. Your actions have actual impact outside the URL,” wrote Brandon Smith, cofounder of the Center for Baptist Renewal and a theology professor at Oklahoma Baptist University. “Twitter is indeed real life.”
The 2025 G3 Conference was slated to take place in the Atlanta area in September, featuring Buice along with Paul Washer, Phil Johnson, James White, and others. The ministry explained in its update on Tuesday that it canceled the gathering not because it couldn’t go on without Buice but because he had targeted several speakers on the lineup, and “we did not want to put these brothers in the difficult position of deciding whether to participate in an event so closely tied to someone who had maligned them.”
Though G3 said it will refund tickets, some attendees had already booked flights and hotels.
Buice and conference organizers faced pushback last month for marketing a $977 ticket option that included a meet-and-greet with plenary speakers; a couple weeks ago, after Buice responded to criticism on X, G3 apologized and eliminated the option.
The ministry also responded to controversy last year, taking down materials by Steve Lawson, a Dallas pastor and former dean of The Master’s Seminary, who was removed from ministry over sexual misconduct.
In his explanation, Buice wrote, “Moving forward from this tragedy, we take many lessons with us. First, we’re reminded never to lower our guard; temptations and worldly traps are ever-present. We also see that God’s sovereign plan to call His people out of darkness into His marvelous light continues. His plan doesn’t depend on the labor of any one person.”
