Saddleback Church, the megachurch long led by Rick Warren, has been ousted from the Southern Baptist Convention for naming a woman to its pastoral team, against SBC teaching.
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee decided on Tuesday to approve the recommendation from the denomination’s credentials committee that the Lake Forest, California, church “be deemed not in friendly cooperation with the Convention, on the basis that the church has a faith and practice that does not closely identify with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith, as demonstrated by the church having a female teaching pastor functioning in the office of pastor.”
Stacie Wood, wife of Andy Wood, who replaced Warren as lead pastor last summer, has the title of “teaching pastor.”
Saddleback was one of five churches that were declared to no longer be in friendly cooperation because of a woman having a pastoral role. One church, Freedom Church in Vero Beach, Florida, was ousted “based on a lack of intent to cooperate in resolving concerns regarding a sexual abuse allegation,” the Executive Committee stated.
Executive Committee member Mike Keahbone tweeted that any of the churches that were ousted Tuesday have the option of appealing to the messengers, or delegates, in attendance at the SBC’s next annual meeting, scheduled for June in New Orleans.
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“Saddleback now has the option to appeal, which appears likely,” tweeted Keahbone, an Oklahoma pastor.
Saddleback now has the option to appeal, which appears likely. That appeal would happen on the floor of the annual meeting in New Orleans and decided by the messengers. This was the heart of the room; to let the messengers of the SBC decide.
Any named church may appeal.— Mike Keahbone (@keahbone) February 21, 2023
Warren, Saddleback’s founding pastor, made a surprise visit to the 2022 SBC annual meeting and urged Southern Baptists to overcome their differences and continue to cooperate.
“I love Southern Baptists,” the bestselling author said at the time. “As Western culture becomes more dark, more evil, more secular, we have to decide: Are we going to treat each other as allies or not?”
Warren declined to comment on Tuesday about the Executive Committee decision, his spokesperson A. Larry Ross said.
Saddleback’s support of women leaders was under scrutiny before the Woods’ arrival. On Mother’s Day weekend in 2021, the church ordained three women who were longtime staffers, drawing criticism from prominent Southern Baptist leaders and praise from supporters of women in ministry.
At the SBC annual meeting a month later, a delegate called on the SBC to “break fellowship with Saddleback Baptist Church, as they have ordained three ladies as pastors, and all other churches that would choose to follow this path.”
That request prompted an investigation by the credentials committee.
Andy Wood also was the subject of a separate inquiry ordered by Saddleback after allegations surfaced of him being an abusive leader at his previous church. In July, the megachurch’s elders announced after investigations that they determined “there is no systemic or pattern of abuse under Andy’s leadership, nor was there an individual that we felt was abused.” However, two former high-level staff at Wood’s former church challenged the investigation, saying victims’ voices were minimized to protect a powerful pastor.
Wood also has been accused by Baptist leaders of having a predatory pattern of trying to acquire expensive church properties from vulnerable, aging populations.
The other churches that were cited by the credentials committee for having women in pastoral roles were: New Faith Mission Ministry, Griffin, Georgia; St. Timothy’s Christian Baptist, Baltimore; Calvary Baptist Church, Jackson, Mississippi; and Fern Creek Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky.
This story is developing and will be updated.
Julie Roys contributed to this story.
Adelle Banks is production editor and a national correspondent at Religion News Service.
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23 Responses
Yep, as someone who spent 44 years as a Southern Baptist, I am sadly not surprised. On the day the EC meets what happens?-Morris Chapman gets an applause from the audience–he could have done something about sexual abuse in the SBC years ago and Saddleback and a few other churches get disfellowshipped.
And what happened about the decades old issue of sex abuse in the SBC-practically nothing.
I will say again and again based on the SBC leadership’s ignoring for decades the issue of sexual abuse in the SBC, they do not care.
As I said over at Reddit:
I’m complementarian, so I’m not too disturbed by this.
However, I am very disturbed that the Southern Baptists aren’t ousting churches that protected abusive pastors.
Neil: It disturbs me that it does not disturb you that the SBC kicked sister churches out. The only time the SBC will kick out a church is over women or being gay affirming. You should never expect the SBC to oust churches that protect abusive pastors. It will not happen in an organization that is entirely led by men.
Christianity Today used the term “disfellowshiped”. Isn’t that something the Watchtower does?
I’m told it is, but it’s not a denomination-specific term.
Thank God! The SBC is showing a little bit of life. Glory to God! Good and rightly done.
The most straight forward reading of the New Testament does not allow for women to have authority over men in the Church setting. Southern Baptists have always held to this belief. Mr. Warren is the one who has stepped out of line, not the Southern Baptists.
Right on, Peter; you’re absolutely correct!
Thank you Peter for laying it out.
The SBC is a great of example of the Pharisees in practice. Outwardly they are so righteous and pious, inwardly they are hypocrites and liars. Time and again we see the SBC circling the wagons and protecting the SBC instead of being Christian and reaching out. They are an anachronism that is one of the primary reasons for the decline of Christianity in the US.
This lady was given the title teaching pastor. Is the issue the title/label placed on this lady or is the issue who she might teach? Would the SBC be ok with her only teaching women and children or is the issue that she might teach adult men? Would the SBC ok with her having a leadership or teaching role in this church if a label other than “pastor” was used?
In answer to your question, Stacie Wood has taught on a few occasions in the main weekend services during the past five months.
I’ve been a member of an SBC church all my adult life. I’m not complementarian. But the SBC had the right to make this decision. I don’t agree but they didn’t break any law. I hate to say it ladies, but the SBC wants you but only limited to specific roles – wife, mother, attendee and tither.
I work with and know many smart, well educated, and accomplished ladies that would never stand for this in the workplace or general society. When large numbers of those ladies in the SBC start saying “Okay, but I’m going somewhere else” we will see the declining numbers start to really plummet. Even then, there is a resurgent fundamentalists group that will embrace this decline as a confirmation of what they see as the only right way..
I like scripture. I’m really do like (the vast majority). The parts that I don’t like, are the parts that don’t fit our cultural norms. Therefore, I’ve decided to follow the parts that were written for general usage and to view the remainder as a historical snapshot.
There are people out there that make well-formulated arguments that the church of today looks nothing like the church of the 1st century. So, if we are basing church practice on scripture and not cultural norms, perhaps we should also consider throwing out things like as church as a business entity, tax exemptions for churches, extravagant salaries (or any salary at all) for church workers, and separate church buildings while we are at it.
Amy, definitely thought-provoking❗????
“Seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship™”
https://www.ecfa.org/Content/Standards
All churches should have an 8th standard—Fill out an IRS990 form and make it public❗
https://yourtaxmatterspartner.com/pilot-to-black-panther-to-pastor-calls-for-financial-transparency-in-churches/
They above certainly will not cure all the problems of modern churches. But getting back to The standards of the 1st century church would certainly help the modern-day Baptist Church.
We would also have to throw out cats, which are not mentioned in the Bible, and probably pants as well, since those seem to be restricted to the Levites (Exodus 28:42) and the Persians (Daniel 3:21).
Exodus and and Daniel are Old Testament books, aren’t they? Ironically, the people that argue that today’s church looks nothing like the 1st century, New Testament church also argue that many of the features of today’s church are more Old Testament – dedicated buildings and rituals, etc.
My goodness me, but don’t we have interesting priorities here?!?!?!
On the one hand the sexual abuse scandals continue to pile up and action is taken at snail’s pace (with all due apologies to snails).
Yet a church names a woman as pastor and the reaction is swift.
I thank God for having brought a very good Bapti-costal church into my life many years ago, one which affirmed women in leadership.
Church leadership pointed out that in describing the work of the deacon, the Apostle seemed to be describing a man’s job. (I Timothy 3: 8-13)
Yet, writing to the Roman church, the Apostle called a woman (Phoebe) a deaconess. (Romans 16:1)
Furthermore, in describing the work of a bishop (or overseer) the Apostle again seemed to be describing a man’s job. (I Timothy 3: 1-7).
Yet, again writing to the Romans, the Apostle went beyond calling a woman a bishop. Rather, he went further by calling a woman (Junia) an apostle. (Romans 16: 7)
Indeed, speaking through the prophet Joel, God said that in the last days, our sons and daughters will prophesy, (Joel 2:28) and the Apostle, writing to the Corinthians affirmed Joel’s promise by speaking of women prophesying. (I Cor. 11: 5). Yet, very conveniently, some teach that the gift of prophecy is not for today.
Finally, I need the complementarians to explain clearly those ministries which are open to women.
““be deemed not in friendly cooperation with the Convention, on the basis that the church has a faith and practice that does not closely identify with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith, as demonstrated by the church having a female teaching pastor functioning in the office of pastor.””
I find a degree of comfort in the phrasing of this statement. Firstly, there is a recognition that all parties currently in disagreement, act out of faith: where there is then a basis for avoiding polarised and entrenched condemnation of the other; such that address and discussion of the ground of disagreement, remains an alive possibility. Secondly, by tying this faith difference to the outcome of “convention”, all the dynamics of collective coming together, are brought into view for full consideration; this again mitigating against polarisation. Thirdly, appeal and messenger consideration, are thereby justified.
Not until I see the women in these churches with their heads covered, hair cut off or their heads shaved, will I take any of this seriously. In my opinion too many people have either lived very sheltered lives or they have lived their lives with eyes closed. These male dominant churches have some very serious problems, they only wish they could solve them by silencing women.
Reginia Sabe, speaking as a man here, I can only state my very strong opinion that if the biggest issue in people’s lives is the length of a woman’s hair or the wearing of a head covering, then I would love to trade places with them.
Furthermore, I would just love it if, on a Sunday morning in church a man were to preach a sermon at the women about wearing a head covering and then, on the following Sunday morning, the women were all to show up wearing baseball caps.
The rules of Southern Baptistdom are pretty clear: No women pastors. So actually enforcing the rule may or may not be harsh, but it’s consistent with the denomination’s historic stand on the issue. But Calvary Baptist Church has had a woman pastor since 2013 and the SBC let it go on for ten years before they did anything about it. It seems unlikely that they’re just finding out about Linda Smith, and it raises the question of what other problems they’ve missed. Or, this may mean only that the denominational hierarchy is aware of a lot of issues in the organization, but isn’t particularly interested in doing anything about them. Sort of like their handling of ministerial and staff abuse.
My question is, If the men running the SBC actually wanted to discredit their leadership and show themselves unworthy of the trust and respect of the members of the congregations, what would they be doing differently? They are behaving in a manner unworthy of their calling.
See, https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2023/02/21/southern-baptist-convention-disfellowships-calvary-baptist-church-jackson-mississippi/69928822007/