Southern Baptists poised to ban congregations with women pastors

From its imposing white steeple and red brick facade to its Sunday services filled with stirring gospel hymns and evangelistic sermons, the First Baptist Church of Alexandria, Virginia, bears many of the classic characteristics of a Southern Baptist church.

On a recent Sunday, its women’s and children’s pastor, Kim Eskridge, urged members to invite friends and neighbors to an upcoming vacation Bible school — a perennial Baptist activity — to help “reach families in the community with the gospel.”

But because this pastor is a woman, the days of the First Baptist at the Southern Baptist Convention can be numbered.

At the SBC’s annual meeting June 11-12 in Indianapolis, representatives will vote on whether to amend the denomination’s constitution to essentially ban churches with any female pastors — and not just in the highest position. That measure received overwhelming approval in a preliminary vote last year.

Leaders of the First Baptist Church – which donated millions to Southern Baptist causes and has been involved with the convention since its founding in the 19th century – are preparing for possible expulsion.

“We are saddened by the direction the SBC has taken,” the church said in a statement.

And you’re not alone.

Ban could affect hundreds of congregations

By some estimates, the proposed ban could affect hundreds of congregations and have a disproportionate impact on predominantly black churches.

The vote is, in part, the culmination of events that began two years ago.

It was then that a Virginia pastor contacted SBC officials to argue that First Baptist Church and four nearby churches were “out of step” with the denominational doctrine that says only men can be pastors. The SBC Credentials Committee launched a formal investigation in April.

Southern Baptists disagree about which ministerial positions this doctrine refers to. Some say it is just the senior pastor, others say that a pastor is anyone who preaches and exercises spiritual authority.

In a Baptist tradition that values ​​local church autonomy, critics say the convention should not enshrine a constitutional rule based on an interpretation of its non-binding doctrinal statement.

By some estimates, women are working in pastoral roles in hundreds of SBC-affiliated churches, a fraction of the nearly 47,000 across the denomination.

But critics say the change would represent a further reduction in the numbers and mindset of the country’s largest Protestant denomination, which has moved steadily to the right in recent decades.

They also wonder if the SBC has better things to do.

Has struggled to respond sexual abuse cases in their churches. A former professor at a Southern Baptist seminary in Texas was indicted in May on charges of falsifying a record about alleged sexual abuse by a student in order to obstruct a federal investigation into sexual misconduct at the convention.

SBC membership has fallen below 13 million, the lowest level in nearly half a century. Baptismal rates are in long-term decline.

The amendment, if approved, would not trigger an immediate purge. But it could keep the denomination’s leaders busy for years investigating and expelling churches.

Predominantly black churches possibly the most impacted

Many predominantly black churches have men as lead pastors but assign pastoral titles to women in other areas, such as worship and children’s ministry.

“Disfellowshipping like-minded churches… based on a local church governance decision dishonors the spirit of cooperation and guiding principles of our denomination,” Pastor Gregory Perkins, president of the National African American Fellowship of the SBC, wrote to officials ​denominational.

The controversy complicates the mostly white denomination’s already shaky efforts to diversify and overcome its legacy of slavery and segregation.

Proponents of the change say the convention needs to strengthen its doctrinal statement, the Baptist Faith and Message, which states that the office of pastor is “limited to men qualified by Scripture.”

“If we don’t take a stand on this issue and we’re not unapologetically biblical, then we won’t take a stand on anything,” said amendment proponent Mike Law, pastor of Arlington Baptist Church in Virginia.

Because Baptist churches are independent, the convention cannot tell them what to do or who to appoint as pastor.

But the convention can decide which churches are in and which are out. And even without a formal change, its Executive Committee has begun telling churches with female pastors that they are out. What included one of his greatestSaddleback Church of Southern California.

When Saddleback and a small Kentucky church appealed to hold the annual meeting in 2023, the delegates overwhelmingly refused to take them back.

Before the vote, retired pastor Rick Warren, who founded Saddleback, made a futile plea to members not to move forward with expulsion from his church.

“I’m not asking you to agree with my church,” Warren said at the convention at the time. “I’m asking you to act like a Southern Baptist.”

The change would give more power to these inspection actions.

Some churches with female pastors quit on their own last year. They range from Elevation Church, a North Carolina megachurch, to First Baptist of Richmond, Virginia, which has had close ties to the SBC since the convention’s founding.

Law said the issue has been a “canary in the coal mine” for liberal denominations, several of which have begun to ordain women and later LGBTQ+ people.

“Southern Baptists are facing a defining moment,” he said in a video on a pro-amendment website. “This is the trajectory of doing nothing: Soon Southern Baptist churches will begin to openly support homosexual clergy, same-sex marriage, and eventually transgenderism.”

Women pastors for generations in other denominations

Others point out that Pentecostals and other denominations have had women pastors for generations and remain theologically conservative.

Some SBC churches with female pastors are heavily involved with the convention, while others have minimal connections and identify more closely with historically black or other progressive denominations.

Additionally, some SBC churches interpret the 2000 statement of faith as applying only to senior pastors. As long as the church leader is male, women can perform other pastoral roles, they say.

These churches could leave if SBC leaders interfere with congregations that follow “their conscience, biblical convictions and values, recognizing that women can receive a pastoral gift from God in partnership with male leadership,” said Dwight McKissic, pastor of Arlington, Texas, on social media platform X.

Other churches say women can hold any role, including senior pastors, and churches can agree to disagree if they embrace most of the MSC statement of faith.

This category includes First Baptist Alexandria. Although its current senior pastor is male, he recognizes “God’s calling to ordain any qualified individual, male or female, into pastoral ministry,” the church said in a statement.

Early Baptist leaders declined interview requests but have published extensively on the subject on their website.

He said that although he plans to send representatives to the SBC annual meeting, he has been told to expect a motion to deny them voting privileges.

“I believe we need to be heard and represented,” Senior Pastor Robert Stephens told members in a videotaped meeting.

The SBC’s main administrative body opposes the change. Investigating churches’ compliance would consume an unsustainable amount of time and energy over something that should not be a litmus test for fellowship, wrote Jeff Iorg, chairman of the SBC Executive Committee, in a Baptist Press commentary.

Baptist Women in Ministry, which began within the SBC in the 1980s but now works across several Baptist denominations, took note. The Rev. Meredith Stone, its executive director, said some SBC pastors have reached out for support.

The group plans to release a documentary, “Midwives of a Movement,” about 20th-century pioneers for women in Baptist ministry on the eve of the SBC meeting.

“Because women are said to have less value to God than men in the church, we want to make sure women know they have equal value and that there are no limits to how they follow Christ in the work of the church,” Stone said. she said.