NEW ORLEANS — Southern Baptists will have the opportunity to vote on a measure that would enshrine a ban on women pastors within the denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee decided Monday.
The decision by the SBC Executive Committee ahead of the 2023 SBC annual meeting doesn’t guarantee the eventual passage of the measure, which is a proposed amendment to the SBC constitution. The amendment is one of several major decisions facing Southern Baptist voting delegates, called messengers, that will permanently affect the status of women pastors in the SBC.
More than 12,000 messengers will vote on major policies for the Nashville-based denomination at its two-day annual meeting starting Tuesday. The SBC Executive Committee, comprised of about 30 staff and 86-member board of elected representatives, manages denomination business outside the annual meeting and gathered for one of its regular meetings on Monday.
Executive committee members voted to approve a recommendation to forward the amendment to ban women pastors to the full convention for a vote, but with an explicit recommendation, the messengers vote against the amendment.
The proposed amendment comes ahead of former SBC congregations’ appeal to their disfellowships at the annual meeting in New Orleans. California megachurch Saddleback Church and Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, were ousted for having women pastors earlier this year.
SBC amendment would require no women pastors in church affiliates
Specifically, the amendment is to the SBC constitution and would make it a requirement for a church to affiliate with the SBC that no women at the church hold the title of pastor. A less binding requirement already exists within the convention’s doctrinal statement, called the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, which states “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”
A campaign for the amendment, led by Virginia pastor Mike Law, has garnered support in recent months. With enthusiastic backing from a more conservative faction of the SBC, Southern Baptist pastors have signed a letter supporting the amendment, and the campaign has published videos and other information on a website and social media.
“The SBC is in desperate need of clarity. The messengers need to make their voices heard on this amendment and I am thankful they have that opportunity this week,” Law said in a statement after Monday’s meeting. “We must believe what the Bible teaches, and put those beliefs into practice. I encourage my fellow messengers to adopt this amendment and reaffirm our commitment to God’s Word.”
Amendment proponents argue the measure cements a position the SBC already embraces. The SBC is a complementarian denomination, meaning it believes men and women have certain assigned roles.
Opponents of the amendment, though most agree with its intent in principle, worry it creates a slippery slope for other doctrinal statements becoming standards for affiliation with the SBC.
A brief debate broke out during Monday’s meeting about whether the committee should advise the messengers to vote against Law’s amendment. Executive committee member Josh Hetzler wanted the executive committee to take a “neutral” stance.
“The only recourse we have is to deem churches to no longer be in friendly cooperation and one of those reasons is because they no longer have a statement of beliefs that closely identifies with the Southern Baptist Convention,” Hetzler said in the meeting. “An amendment would help remedy that.”
But Hetzler found more of his fellow members disagreed with him.
“If you are a lay person coming into this you don’t swim in a fish bowl of SBC polity and SBC governance day and day out, you come to this with an understanding of how you feel about it theologically without perhaps taking time to consider all the ramifications of the governance issues and the potential unintended consequences,” executive committee member Dana McCain said.
Ahead of the 2023 SBC annual meeting, some Southern Baptists have discussed a possible compromise calling for a task force that would study what it means for a church to be in “friendly cooperation” with the SBC in accordance with the Baptist Faith & Message 2000.
Amendment vs. Saddleback, Fern Creek appeals
But the proposed amendment is only one decision facing messengers at the 2023 SBC annual meeting that will determine the status of women pastors in the SBC.
The other major decision at the SBC annual meeting on women pastors is upholding the ouster of Saddleback Church and Fern Creek Baptist Church with women pastors in lead or senior pastor roles. Saddleback founding pastor Rick Warren and Fern Creek pastor Linda Barnes Popham are expected to speak on the floor of the convention to appeal decisions to disfellowship the churches.
In February, the SBC Executive Committee approved a recommendation to disfellowship Saddleback, Fern Creek and three other churches with high-ranking women pastors for practices at odds with the Baptist Faith & Message 2000. Weeks ago, Fern Creek and Saddleback formally decided to appeal that decision at the annual meeting.
Some Southern Baptists see a decision on the ouster of Saddleback and Fern Creek as satisfying the conundrum driving the proposed amendment to ban women pastors.
Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.