Again, it is important to understand that the word pastor was chosen precisely because of its clarity among Southern Baptists. “As we wrote in the commentary on the BF&M, ‘Central to the pastor’s role is the responsibility to preach and teach.’ Pastors also provide spiritual leadership and oversight for the congregation.

In the Baptist understanding, office and function are inseparable. Thus, the statement means simply what it states, that the office of pastor is to be held only by men as qualified by Scripture. The language means that a pastor is one who fulfills the pastoral office and carries out the pastor’s functions.

(Adrian) Rogers stated and the committee concurred, the one word that virtually all Southern Baptists understand is the word pastor. The three men wrote: “As background, it is important to know that the committee sought to identify the one word about the pastoral role that Southern Baptists would best understand. Both the major groups that splintered from the SBC in that period - the Alliance of Baptists and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship - made support for women in ministry key aspects of their identity. “Both the major groups that splintered from the SBC in that period - the Alliance of Baptists and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship - made support for women in ministry key aspects of their identity.”Ĭodifying this belief about a male-only pastorate was important at the time because it had been a hallmark of the “conservative resurgence” of the 1980s and ’90s. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” In Article VI on “The Church,” the Baptist Faith and Message states: “Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. Mohler, Kelley and Land speakĪl Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Chuck Kelley, former president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Richard Land, former president of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission signed the statement recounting their understanding of how the word “pastor” was intended to be used in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.Īll three were members of the blue-ribbon committee that drafted the 2000 update to the SBC’s doctrinal statement and later jointly authored a commentary and study guide interpreting the faith statement. In fact, the pressure campaign advanced by the staunchest complementarians - who also happen to be the same people who believe the SBC is sliding into “woke” liberalism on multiple fronts - caused three denominational leaders to issue a joint statement July 29. The SBC Credentials Committee backtracked and asked for more time to study the matter, but the debate has not died down in the subsequent weeks. Rick Warren addresses messengers to the SBC annual meeting. While Warren received a warm response from many in the room, his comments were met with ridicule by the SBC Calvinists who seek purity at all costs and immediately took to social media to criticize him and mock him. Warren showed up unexpectedly on the convention floor and gave an impassioned speech about his church’s commitment to the SBC and missions and evangelism and church planting. The sin of Saddleback Church and its Senior Pastor Rick Warren is ordaining three female staff members as pastors or ministers.

That was evidenced at the SBC’s June annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif., where the most hardline complementarians - those who believe God has created men and women for different roles in home and church, with men always the leaders - tried to remove the largest and best-known church in the convention.

“The nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination is being forced into a gnat-straining debate about the word ‘pastor’ mainly for the purpose of determining what roles women may fill and what roles they may not.” It is a battle worth fighting and one they will not give ground on. Today, the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination is being forced into a gnat-straining debate about the word “pastor” mainly for the purpose of determining what roles women may fill and what roles they may not.Īnd for the far-right segment of the Southern Baptist Convention - mainly the neo-Calvinists - this is a matter of life-and-death doctrine. Sixty years ago, Baptists would have had little reason to debate the meaning of the word “pastor.” In those simpler days, “the pastor” was the primary staff leader of a congregation - the person who preached most Sundays and provided pastoral care and leadership to the flock.

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