In his address to messengers, Willie McLaurin, interim president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, warned Southern Baptists against “mission drift” — something messengers seemed eager to weigh in on as well, at least when it comes to women serving in pastoral roles.
Speaking during the first EC report on June 13, McLaurin called on Southern Baptists to reignite their passion and purpose for the Great Commission and the Great Commandment, which have fueled cooperation among sister churches for 178 years, he said.
“Generations come and generations go, but our mission has not changed. In fact, it must not change,” McLaurin said. “Brothers and sisters, we must move forward together.”
But the SBC will move forward from New Orleans without its largest church and may be looking to trim even more from the list of cooperating congregations.
Messengers overwhelmingly voted to uphold the EC’s February decision to disaffiliate Saddleback Church, based in California, and Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville because both churches affirm women in pastoral roles.
Conflicting views
Linda Barnes Popham, an Alabama native who has served as pastor of Fern Creek for 33 years, delivered an emphatic plea during the three minutes granted her to speak against the EC’s decision.
“We’re not here to convince any of you to let your church have women pastors; that’s not the issue here,” Popham said.
She pointed out several issues where other churches have been allowed their own opinions, including Calvinism and COVID closures.
“I don’t agree with you (on those issues), but I don’t want to kick you out of the family. … We want to partner together to share the good news to the ends of the earth,” she said.
Rick Warren, Saddleback’s founding pastor, also was granted three minutes to appeal to messengers to reverse the EC’s decision to disfellowship the church, which has more than 20,000 members across several campuses.
Warren, who led the 43-year-old church with more than 20,000 members across several campuses until he retired in 2022, briefly traced differences that the denomination has previously allowed over theological issues, and sought to add women as pastors to the list.
“I’m not asking you to agree with my church. 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,” he said.
Warren said he only disagreed with one word in the Baptist Faith and Message: “Men” as it limits the qualifications for pastor. “Why should this one issue cancel our fellowship?” Warren asked.
Both Warren and Popham exceeded their time limits, and their microphones were cut off.
In both cases, Southern Seminary President Al Mohler was appointed by the Executive Committee to bring their response. Mohler did not tackle the theology of women pastors but pointed to the issue of friendly cooperation.
“It is the responsibility of the Southern Baptist Convention to understand what it means for a church to be in friendly cooperation with this convention,” Mohler said. “This is an essential part of our responsibility and our identity. It’s also important for us to recognize that the congregations of the Southern Baptist Convention are autonomous and we do not seek to invade the autonomy of any local church.”
A third church, Freedom Church in Vero Beach, Florida, also was disaffiliated by the EC in February for its handling of abuse claims involving the pastor. A representative from the church said the pastor, who had been accused of sexual abuse, had been cleared by an outside investigation but had since resigned so that the church could pursue reinstatement.
A representative from the SBC Credentials Committee disputed the claims and said the church had accepted the pastor’s resignation, but he was still actively involved in leadership.
EC decisions upheld
Messengers cast three ballots, voting on each church’s appeal separately, and in all three cases, messengers overwhelmingly upheld the EC’s decision. The results were announced in the June 14 morning business session.
The vote to uphold the dismissal of Saddleback Community was 88% in favor, while the other two votes were more than 90%.
Before the tally was announced, Barber urged a temperate response from the messengers.
“We don’t celebrate divorce parties at our church,” Barber said. “Whatever these results are, I’m asking you to act like Christians.”
When the vote was announced, there was virtual silence in the hall.
Constitutional amendment
The EC also advanced to the messengers, with a word of caution, a proposed amendment to the SBC constitution that would require cooperating churches to affirm, appoint or employ “only men” as pastors and elders. The latest version of Southern Baptists’ statement of faith, the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, already specifies the role of pastor is limited to men only.
Virginia pastor Mike Law proposed the amendment at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim. It came to the EC by way of the Committee on Order of Business. Law, pastor of Arlington Baptist Church in Arlington, has spent the past year campaigning for his amendment, going so far as to begin a list of churches that have a female ministry leader called a “pastor.”
In the EC’s June 12 meeting prior to the start of the annual meeting, some members expressed concerns that such a change to the denomination’s governing documents would move the SBC into uncharted territory.
“Is it prudent to start putting our statement of faith in our constitutional documents? Have we taken the time to analyze all the ramifications of moving in this direction as a denomination and as a convention?” asked Richard Spring of California, who chairs the EC subgroup charged with studying the motion from Virginia pastor Mike Law.
EC member Dana McCain of Alabama echoed those concerns.
“Messengers have an understanding of where they are theologically, but we need to give guidance of other facets beyond the theological … (to avoid) unintended consequences of collapsing those two documents,” she said.
But EC member Josh Hetzler of Virginia disagreed. The constitution is more enforceable than the BF&M, he said, noting an alleged new report citing nearly 2,000 women currently serve in Southern Baptist churches in a role with pastor in the title.
EC member Todd Burgess of Alaska concurred, emphasizing that “we need to make it very clear where we stand.”
During the EC report on June 14, Law spoke in favor of his amendment, saying he believes the addition “clarifies and strengthens our cooperation as Southern Baptists” when coupled with the existing BF&M statement.
Messengers rewarded Law’s efforts by approving the proposed amendment. The final language of the proposed amendment as adopted by messengers on June 14 states that any church in friendly cooperation with the SBC “affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.”
Because any amendment to the SBC constitution requires a two-thirds vote at two consecutive SBC annual meetings to go into effect, the amendment will be voted on again at the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Budgets adopted
In other EC-related business, messengers adopted the 2023–2024 SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget in the amount of $195,250,000, and the 2023–2024 SBC Executive Committee and SBC Operating Budget in the amount of $8,305,500.
Messengers also voted in favor of the EC’s recommendation to amend SBC Bylaw 20 to task the Resolutions Committee to release its initial report no later than 10 days prior to the annual meeting, with the final report to be published in the first day’s bulletin. Currently, resolutions are not made public until the first day of the annual meeting. Messengers have protested that timeframe, saying they do not have enough time to review proposed resolutions.
New officers, chairs
The EC will have a new leader for the coming year. Recently elected chair, South Carolina pastor David Sons, declined to seek reelection to the post. Sons, who served just two months as chair, described himself as “weary” from the past three years, with “wounds that have yet to fully heal.”
The new EC chair is Philip Robertson, pastor of Philadelphia Baptist Church in Deville and Alexandria, Louisiana. He was elected on the third ballot, after his opponent Russ Barksdale of Arlington, Texas, withdrew.
Robertson is a leader in the Conservative Baptist Network, whereas Barksdale, who just retired after 25 years at his Texas church, was positioned as less identified with a movement within the denomination.
Anthony Dockery, pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church in LaPuente, California, was elected vice chair on the first balloting, and secretary Pam Reed of North Carolina was reelected unopposed.
Elected to chair the various EC committees were:
- Committee on Southern Baptist Relations — Adron Robinson of Illinois.
- Committee on Convention Finance — Adam Wyatt of Mississippi.
- Committee on Convention Events — Carolyn Fountain of Louisiana.
- Committee on Missions and Ministry — Todd Stiles of Iowa.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This article was compiled from team coverage of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting by staff members from The Baptist Record, Baptist & Reflector, Baptist Message, Illinois Baptist, The Alabama Baptist and The Baptist Paper.
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