Saddleback mulls appeal, larger debate coming

Nashville, Tenn. | Saddleback Church is considering whether to appeal a vote by the SBC Executive Committee (EC) that ruled the California megachurch not in “friendly cooperation” with the Southern Baptist Convention. Whatever their decision, the church founded by Rick Warren in 1980 plans to “continue our 43-year partnership with our local association and state convention,” new lead pastor Pastor Andy Wood told Baptist Press.

“If we choose to appeal this decision it will be based on a desire to help serve other SBC churches,” Wood stated.

Saddleback posted a video featuring Wood explaining the church’s position on women in ministry. He explained that while the church believes women can be empowered with spiritual gifts, including preaching, those gifts are exercised under the authority of the elders of the church. The elder team at Saddleback is limited to men.

At their February meeting, the EC affirmed a recommendation by the Credentials Committee to disfellowship Saddleback, one of six churches removed from the rolls, five for having women pastors.

Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, will appeal its ouster at the June convention in New Orleans. The church, which is still a member of the Kentucky Baptist Convention and the Louisville Regional Baptist Association, has been pastored by Linda Barnes Popham for 33 years. As pointed out in a Tennessean article, she has served there “in the shadow of Southern Baptist institutions and leaders who have zero tolerance for women pastors.”

Messengers may be required to face the larger question of women as pastors and, in particular, as senior pastors, which could lead to debate over revisions in the Baptist Faith and Message (2000).

Virginia pastor Mike Law circulated a letter in February pushing for a constitutional amendment banning women pastors. Law’s letter received more than 2,000 signatures in support from SBC pastors.

Workers fear reprisals

“Abiding women in the pastoral office materially harms the work of the Convention because it cultivates disunity where we have long been united,” Law wrote. “It contaminates the soil of our Convention with distrust and disobedience.”

The amendment would require SBCmember churches to affiliate based on the BF&M (2000). Presently some churches use the 1963 version as their statement of faith, which is allowed by the national SBC, some state conventions including Illinois, and many local associations.

Fern Creek Church said in a letter to the SBC Credentials Committee, “If our convention continues to make ‘minor things’ the ‘main thing,’ there will soon not be many churches left in the convention.”

It will be up to messengers ultimately to determine what’s minor and what’s the main thing.

– with information from Baptist Press and The Tennessean