By Landon Coleman
Pastor, Immanuel
The Southern Baptist Convention met in New Orleans, Louisiana, earlier this month. If you’ve watched cable news or been on social media, you’ve likely heard plenty of “hot takes” about what happened at that meeting, and those “hot takes” likely centered on several votes that took place in New Orleans.
The Executive Committee of the SBC had previously taken action to exclude two churches from affiliation in the SBC because those churches had ordained females to the office of pastor (overseer, elder). Both churches knew their action was contrary to the Baptist Faith and Message (2000), and rather than leave the SBC, both churches decided to stay within the SBC and appeal the decision of the Executive Committee. In New Orleans, the action of the SBC’s Executive Committee in excluding these churches was upheld by the messengers by a resounding majority. Additionally, the messengers voted to move forward with an amendment that would clarify the SBC’s position on the ordination of pastor’s (overseers, elders), limiting this office of pastor to qualified men.
Some within the SBC have raised questions about how these votes relate to the autonomy of Southern Baptist churches. The short answer is, these votes have absolutely nothing to do with the autonomy of any local church. Individual Baptist churches have every right to ordain anyone as a pastor — that’s autonomy. The SBC is not telling any church what to do or not do. Rather, the SBC is rightly defining the parameters of affiliation within a voluntary association of churches, something it certainly has the right to do.
Some have questioned whether or not Southern Baptists are becoming too “creedal” in clarifying how the Baptist Faith and Message defines affiliation with the SBC. I would simply note that Baptists have a long, rich history of writing confessions of faith and statements of faith. These documents do not carry the authority of the Bible, but they do clarify what a voluntary association of churches believes about the Bible. In doing so, they define the parameters of cooperation, something the SBC has done from its inception.
Some have questions about where these votes leave Southern Baptists churches that do not have females in the position of “senior” pastor, but that do have females who have been given the title of pastor as staff members (ie, “Children’s Pastor”). Some have suggested that these votes will begin an inquisition to remove these churches — but that need not be the case. Instead of launching an inquisition, the SBC is encouraging its churches to give consideration to the clear teaching of the New Testament and the polity of their local church.
Some have suggested that women are being banned from leadership and involvement in the SBC. Nothing could be further from the truth, and this is not an accurate description of the votes that took place in New Orleans this week. There was no vote to ban women from leadership, nor was there a vote to prohibit women from serving in ministry on the staff of a Baptist church. The votes this week were specifically focused on the office of pastor and who ought to be recognized with that title.
In these votes, the messengers of the SBC affirmed their commitment to complementarianism over egalitarianism, and in doing so, the SBC affirmed its commitment to the inerrancy and authority of Scripture. To be sure, nothing changed in Southern Baptist life with these votes, but the convictions of Southern Baptists were clarified in helpful ways. Clearly, the majority of Southern Baptists believe the question about who can rightly be recognized as a pastor is a biblical question rather than a cultural question. Furthermore, in these votes, Southern Baptists showed that celebrity, size, and influence will not overrule our convictions.
