SBC Issues

At the heart of the proposed (and first-vote-affirmed) amendment to the SBC Constitution are two doctrinal beliefs held by a majority of Southern Baptists. (Count me among those who hold them. Men and women, while both created in the image of God, were created with different roles to play in both the home and the church. Only men are to be responsible to fill the pastoral role(s) in the church. What, then, does the Bible say that only pastors do? No one seems to be addressing this question either. This is at the root of disagreement between the varieties of complementarians. Is … [Read more...] about What Do Only Pastors Do? (Stephanie Jones)

At the Annual Meeting, messengers voted multiple times overwhelmingly in favor of complementarianism. One of those votes included amending Article III of the SBC Constitution with a sixth requirement of churches. The exact wording of that section of Article III would read: “The Convention will only deem a church to be in friendly cooperation with the Convention, and sympathetic with its purposes and work … which: … 6.Affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.” If messengers in Indianapolis next year give a second affirmative vote … [Read more...] about How Will Churches Respond to a Moratorium on Female Pastors? (Stephanie Jones)

Around the time discussing Beth Moore’s Mother’s Day activities became controversial, my pastor husband and I began having regular – and sometimes heated – conversations about what women can’t do in service of the church. The question I started asking was, “What, then, can women do in the church?” As complementarians, we are quick to make lists, and they vary from church to church: women cannot preach, women cannot teach mixed group classes, women cannot be ordained, women cannot baptize, women cannot be the worship leader, women cannot be deacons, women cannot be in authority over a … [Read more...] about What CAN Women Do in the Church? (Stephanie Jones)

Scatter shooting while thinking that Bart Barber is out, standing in his field. Color me pleased that Bart Barber won the SBC presidency for a second time. He has served us well and deserved a second term. Beyond that, he has proven one need not be a mega-church pastor to handle the demands of the office. That opinion was often voiced in the past. Color me perplexed that Mike Stone chose to run in 2023. Surely, next year would have been better for him. He was bucking SBC tradition—to give a president a second term—and a popular candidate, also. I was not surprised that the SBC … [Read more...] about Scatter Shooting – Part 6

Language really is a funny thing, because so often how words are used determines what they mean regardless of their actual definition. Or to put it another way, meaning is dictated by connotation more than by actual denotation. This is especially so when it comes to current discussions in the Southern Baptist Convention about who can and cannot serve as pastor. Over the past several decades, the titles and types of pastors on church staffs all across this country have proliferated exponentially. We now have Senior Pastors, Lead Pastors, Teaching Pastors, Executive Pastors, Assistant … [Read more...] about On Pastoral Ministry and Job Titles (Phillip Powers)

Listening to Chellee Taylor last night at the SBC Voices breakout session on Adult Sexual Abuse in Churches, put together by Todd Benkert, I was reminded of how important this subject is. I sat as she told her horrifying story of abuse in an SBC megachurch, as one of her pastors groomed and then abused her in ways that are horrendous. I read the full story online while she talked. Then, her husband (I think his name was Peter) got up to speak and he said something that I've heard other survivors say. He said that the abuse, as awful as it was, wasn't the worst part of their trauma. It … [Read more...] about We CANNOT Back Off or Back Down in Facing Sexual Abuse