One of the nation’s most significant and best-known megachurches, Saddleback Church, is no longer a part of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) after causing a female mentor pastor in 2015.
Saddleback was amongst 5 churches with female pastors who were considered “no longer in friendly cooperation” with the denomination at a conference of the SBC Executive Committee in Nashville on Tuesday.
The Lake Forest, California, churchgoers ordained 3 females from the phase in May 2021, a choice that rattled some Southern Baptists who think the function of pastor is booked for guys. Then in 2015, Saddleback picked Andy Wood as Rick Warren’s follower and the church’s lead pastor, and his other half Stacie Wood began as a mentor pastor.
Warren reacted to require the SBC to cut ties with his church at the convention’s June 2022 yearly conference, kept in Anaheim, California. “Are we going to keep bickering over secondary issues,” he said, “or are we going to keep the main thing the main thing?”
At the time, the qualifications committee—the group entrusted with advising whether to disfellowship a specific church—hadn’t decide on Saddleback, stating it wasn’t clear if the SBC’s declaration of faith limited females from any position doing pastoral work or with a pastoral title, or if it simply used to the senior pastor.
“I could talk to you all about what I believe about the gift of pastorate as opposed to the office of pastorate, but I’m not here to talk about that,” Warren said, spending the majority of his time at the mic reviewing his decades-long history with the SBC.
This week, the committee advised Saddleback be disfellowshipped, stating the church “has a faith and practice that does not closely identify with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith, as demonstrated by the church having a female teaching pastor functioning in the office of pastor.”
The Executive Committee authorized the choice, likewise cutting ties with 2 churches that have female senior pastors (New Faith Mission Ministry in Griffin, Georgia, and St. Timothy’s Christian Baptist in Baltimore, Maryland) and 2 churches that have female lead pastors (Calvary Baptist in Jackson, Mississippi, and Fern Creek Baptist in Louisville, Kentucky).
“As stated in the Baptist Faith and Message Article VI, the SBC holds to the belief that the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture,” said Executive Committee chairman Jared Wellman in a declaration. “These churches have been valued, cooperating churches for many years, and this decision was not made lightly. However, we remain committed to upholding the theological convictions of the SBC and maintaining unity among its cooperating churches.”
The qualifications committee likewise advised a single church—Freedom Church in Vero Beach, Florida—be disfellowshipped for problems connected to its action to sexual assault. Despite a growing awareness of sexual assault in the denomination, the SBC has actually just acted to get rid of a handful of parishes considering that 2020, most of whom intentionally utilized a signed up sex transgressor as pastor. Others have actually been disfellowshiped for their positions on LGBT and racial problems.
Churches who lose their location in cooperation with the SBC are no longer able to send out ballot messengers to its yearly conference, however they can appeal the choice. The next SBC yearly conference is scheduled for New Orleans in June.
