On February 21 of this year, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee voted to oust five Southern Baptist churches for having female pastors. One of the churches was the Saddleback mega-church in Lake Forest, California.
Saddleback appealed the decision. On June 11-14, the Southern Baptist Convention met in New Orleans for their 2023 Annual Convention. One of the business items was the Saddleback Church appeal.
Today, in business session, 10,649 messengers (delegates) considered the Saddleback appeal and the issue of women pastors in general. The Southern Baptist Convention upheld its decision to expel Saddleback Church for having women pastors.
Before the vote, former pastor of Saddleback, Rick Warren, encouraged SBC members to vote against the expulsion “in order to share a common mission,” according to the AP. Afterward he criticized members’ outdated beliefs.
“There are people who want to take the SBC back to the 1950s when white men ruled supreme and when the woman’s place was in the home. There are others who want to take it back 500 years to the time of the Reformation,” Warren lamented today.
Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, gave rebuttals to the Saddleback and Fern Creek appeals. He said the determination that employing female pastors means a church is not in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention is a "statement without rancor and without personal attack."
"It is an issue of biblical authority," he told those gathered.
Constitutional Amendment To Ban Female Pastors
Another motion to clarify Southern Baptists’ stance on women and men filling the role of pastor was passed by messengers today.
The motion, brought by Virginia pastor Mike Law, received the required two-thirds vote by messengers. Another two-thirds vote of approval is necessary at next year’s annual meeting to proceed with the amendment to Article III of the SBC Constitution.
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.
From the floor, Mike Law stated: “We are not ashamed of 1 Timothy 2:12 or afraid of what the Bible teaches. We are not ashamed of our God and His Word.”
This Amendment passed overwhelmingly (80%) just hours after messengers voted to uphold the removal of Saddleback Church, founded by Rick Warren, from the denomination due to the California megachurch allowing a woman to serve in the office of teaching pastor.
This is the equivalent of the SDA Church adding a fundamental belief affirming male leadership (which it should do), or amending Fundamental Beliefs 12, 14 or 17 to include the biblical distinction of male leadership.
Failure to do this will continue to make the Seventh-day Adventist Church vulnerable to the LGBTQ+ gender perversions that are rapidly corrupting our culture.
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