The Southern Baptist Convention is expected to announce on Wednesday whether two churches ousted from the denomination over female leaders can return.
In an event that was highly anticipated, Rick Warren, the founding pastor of Saddleback Church, one of the largest megachurches in the denomination; and Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., which is led by the Rev. Linda Barnes Popham, had three minutes each to appeal their ouster.
”No one is asking any Southern Baptist to change their theology,” said Warren, speaking to nearly 13,000 messengers gathered in New Orleans for the 2023 annual meeting.
Author of the international best seller seller “The Purpose Driven Life,” Warren said he was not asking messengers to agree with Saddleback. “I am asking you to act like Southern Baptists who have historically ‘agreed to disagree’ on dozens of doctrines in order to share a common mission”
Warren said if the ouster stands, Southern Seminary will have to change the name of the Billy Graham School “since Billy trained women pastors at our global training events and he endorsed the preaching ministry of his daughter, saying, ‘Anne is the best preacher in the Graham family.’”
Warren’s successor Andy Wood is the current lead pastor at Saddleback Church, and his wife Stacie is the teaching pastor “functioning in the office of pastor,” according to the SBC.
Fern Creek’s Popham said she has been a Southern Baptist all of her life, giving her life to Jesus Christ at eight years old. She has served on the staffs of Southern Baptist churches for more than five decades.
Today, she leads a church that she described as “a very conservative, evangelical, mission-minded Great Commission church.”
She said Southern Baptist don’t all interpret every Scripture the same way.
“We believe that the Bible allows women to serve in ways in which all of you do not agree, but we should still be able to partner together.”
In February, the Nashville-based denomination ousted several churches from the fellowship for not being in “friendly cooperation” with the SBC because they had women serving as lead or senior pastor roles. Saddleback and Fern Creek were the only two to appeal.
A rebuttal to Saddleback and Fern Creek’s appeal was delivered by R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, who was representing the Executive Committee.
He called the issue a matter of biblical commitment.
Mohler said, “The words, ‘the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture’ was inserted because 30 years ago this issue threatened to tear this denomination apart.”
A third church, Freedom Church in Vero Beach, Fla., also appealed their removal over concerns regarding a sexual abuse allegation, although the church said it had been investigated and resolved. The minister in question later resigned.
Also on Tuesday, SBC President Bart Barber secured a second term in that office. Barber, a Texas pastor and a conservative, has been a big force in sex abuse reform.
Barber defeated Georgia Pastor Mike Stone, who leads Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, Ga. Stone had the support of some of the denomination’s most conservative elements.
“I am proud of how our Southern Baptist family handles business,” said the Rev. Josh Saefkow, pastor of Fayetteville’s Flat Creek Baptist Church and president of the Georgia Baptist Convention. “We have a great and godly leader in Bart Barber, who will continue to keep us focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Stone said in a previously emailed questions that should he lose his bid to lead the national convention, he would “be honored to spend my time focused on my family and my church. And I would definitely support the next president with my prayers and anything else he felt would be helpful.”
The SBC has roughly 13 million members, down from a peak of more than 16 million in 2006, according to Ryan Burge, assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, who has tracked membership in the SBC.
According to the Georgia Baptist Convention, there are more than 1.2 million Southern Baptists in the state and 3,400 local autonomous churches.
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