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 it even possible for the SBC to definitively answer this question and still hold to the autonomy of the local church?
Take baptizing for example. Some hold to the position that only pastors baptize. Some say only ordained men baptize. Some say the person who led one to Christ may baptize them. And for each position held, Scripture – or a lack of explicit examples within it – would be cited as evidence. Each of those positions held, however, rely not only on the evidence but also on the interpretation of that evidence.
Each of the ways that churches may respond to an amended Article III comes down to how those churches define what a pastor does.
I suspect the churches who leave will be the churches which believe strongly in a difference between the responsibilities of pastors and elders, that the two positions can overlap but don’t necessarily, that only the senior pastor holds the office of pastor referred to in the BF&M 2000, and that it is the responsibilities the Bible reserves for elders that need be carried out by men only. These will be churches which just as strongly feel the title of pastor belongs equally to male and female ministers.
The churches who respond by dismissing the female staff from their positions will be churches who’ve labored over the question of what pastors alone do and determined that indeed they’ve been asking women to take on these responsibilities. But no longer. Their consciences will have been pricked by the action of the convention.
The churches who respond by simply changing the title of the women who are serving them will be the churches who don’t care to give any thought to this question at all. “We’ve got a lady doing this job. She can’t be called pastor any more. We’ll call her ‘minister’ or ‘director.’ She’s humble and not in it for the recognition. Problem solved!”
This is fraud.
I pray this amendment is to the messengers about more than protecting a title. I expect a survey of us would reveal it is about protecting a doctrine. If so, Southern Baptist churches are being instructed by the convention to consider whether they have women acting as pastors, not whether they merely have women being called pastors. By calling men who do the job ‘Pastor’ but women who do the job ‘Director,’ by refusing to do the hard work of searching the Scriptures to declare in their job descriptions what a pastor is and what a pastor does, these churches are devaluing what it means to be a pastor.
Even before this amendment became a thought in Pastor Mike Law’s mind, churches were already defrauding themselves in this way. I’ve seen on more than one occasion a position posting on SBC Jobs for a church that’s seeking ‘Children’s Director or Pastor’ and then clicked through to the job description only to see that there is no listed difference between the two. In some churches, the title ‘Minister’ is also reserved for men, so women in the exact same role are titled ‘Director.’
I said, however, that I see four possibilities for how churches may respond:
Some churches may look closely at the work they are asking of their female pastors. But unlike the second response, they find that they could revamp what they are asking of the women who hold these positions. They could adjust their responsibilities and, genuinely, be able to call them Children’s Ministers instead. Directors of Communications rather than Communications Pastor. Music Ministers instead of Worship Pastors.
Ideally, all of our churches would heed this wake-up call to consider what the differences are between the responsibilities of all of their leaders, both male and female, whether called Director, Pastor, Elder, Coordinator, or Minister and adjust their titles accordingly.
This response will take hard work. And I predict it is work that many churches will either not know how to do or, at worst, just not bother to do.
If we continue down the path begun, and this amendment goes into effect in June 2024 with a second affirmative vote, how will the convention respond to the consequences of that choice?
How will we adjust our budgets to reflect the dollars lost by churches who choose to respond by leaving? How will our churches and seminaries increase the number of male students they train to fill the positions left vacant when churches choose to respond by firing women? How will we treat churches who have women on staff with the title of director but doing the work of a pastor?
How much mercy will we show churches who are reported to the Credentials Committee but need time, training, or assistance in responding the fourth way?
I fear the answer will be – very little.
Stephanie Jones is a native of Sherwood Arkansas. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Ouachita Baptist University She is the wife of voices contributor Tony Jones and mother of five weird but awesome children. She serves faithfully at First Baptist Rich Hill in a variety of different positions, and if she’s not serving at church or taking care of her family, she is probably reading a good book.
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