Southern Baptists to vote on formally banning women from pastoral roles: 'Desperate need of clarity'

Southern Baptists will have the chance to vote on a proposal this week that would change the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) constitution to formally ban women in the denomination from serving in a teaching pastoral role.

More than 12,000 voting delegates – known as "messengers" – at the 2023 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans will be voting on the measure, which would require churches affiliated with the SBC to adhere to a policy by which no woman can hold the title of pastor, according to USA Today.

The SBC Executive Committee, which is made up about 30 staff and 86 elected representatives, approved the proposal to head for a vote Monday, but recommended messengers vote against the measure.

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Opponents of the amendment fear it would open the floodgates for other doctrinal statements, effectively becoming a litmus test for churches to affiliate with the denomination, according to USA Today.

"If you are a lay person coming into this you don’t swim in a fishbowl 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 told the outlet.

Virginia pastor Mike Law, who has led the charge in support of the proposal in recent months, has garnered support from other conservative SBC pastors who signed a letter supporting it.

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"The SBC is in desperate need of clarity," Law said in a statement Monday. "The messengers need to make their voices heard on this amendment and I am thankful they have that opportunity this week."

"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," he added.

SBC is a "complementarian" denomination, holding to the theological view that men and women have different but complementary roles in society and church leadership. If passed, the proposal will more firmly establish the teaching laid out in The Baptist Faith & Message 2000, a doctrinal statement that says "the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture."

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Chuck Kelley, Al Mohler and Richard Land, authors of a study guide for the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message Confession, said in a statement last year that a "pastor" is someone "who fulfills the pastoral office and carries out the pastor's functions," as noted by the Christian Post.

"It is important to understand that the word pastor was chosen precisely because of its clarity among Southern Baptists," the wrote at the time. "The statement carefully affirms that both men and women are gifted for service in the church, but the role of pastor is biblically defined and is to be held only by men as qualified by Scripture."

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Famous Baptist pastor and author Rick Warren has been on a media blitz in recent days as his California-based Saddleback Church is scheduled to appeal the SBC's decision to oust the church for having women as pastors. Louisville, Kentucky-based Fern Creek Baptist Church is also appealing their expulsion in February over the same issue.

Three other churches were kicked out, but are not appealing.

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The proposal regarding women pastors joins other proposed resolutions at the meeting regarding other hot-button issues such as immigration, artificial intelligence and transgender health care, according to the Tennessean.