June 15, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) -- The Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Orlando, Florida, approved a change in its Baptist Faith and Message statement to strengthen its formal position against female pastors.

Old statement: "Southern Baptists, by practice as well as conviction, believe leadership is male."

New Statement: "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture."

While we applaud this public support for Bible truth in an hour in which unisex philosophy is rampant in society at large and even in most denominations and churches, we are forced to make the following observations for the sake of presenting a more complete picture:

First, the statement, while biblically true, is not binding on the churches and is therefore nearly meaningless. There are roughly 1,600 "clergywomen" in Southern Baptist congregations, and this statement will have little or no affect on them. Of these, about 100 are pastors. For example, the interim pastor at Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia, where Vice President Al Gore is a member, is a woman. Her name is Martha Phillips, and she demonstrated her open disobedience to the Scriptures when she commented to the press as follows: "I don't want to be a youth minister or a music minister. I want to lead a congregation. I think I’ve been called to do it. And if you’re called by God, you’re called by God. I don't see how they can say because you’re a woman, you can’t be" ("Southern Baptists Vote to Ban Female Pastors," Washington Post, June 15, 2000). Pastor Phillips’ authority is her feelings rather than the Bible. This is apostasy.

The pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, Julie Pennington-Russell, is a woman. Commenting on the SBC’s change in its Faith and Message statement, she said, "If you are a Baptist, as long as there are congregations who have the courage to follow the will of God, there will be a place for woman pastors" ("Baptist Group Rules Out Women Pastors," Associated Press, June 15, 2000). Pennington-Russell understands the reality of Southern Baptist life, that the public proclamations and the reality in the congregations are two different things.

Secondly, the new statement is extremely limited and does not address the full problem of Baptist churches and women who are disobeying the Bible. Consider the Lord’s command in 1 Timothy 2:12 -- "But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." The Bible not only forbids women to exercise pastoral authority in the congregation; it forbids them even to teach men. The matter of women teaching men is a far more widespread problem of disobedience in Southern Baptist congregations than is the matter of women pastors. Yet the same Bible that forbids one, forbids the other. It is just as wrong for a woman to teach a mixed adult Sunday School class, for example, as it is for her to be ordained as a pastor. On the authority of the infallible Word of God, it is wrong for a woman to exercise a leadership position over men or to teach men in a church in any context. If we are going to be bold for the Lord’s Word, why not be bold for all of it?

Thirdly, while many news reports about this change have warned that churches are threatening to leave the SBC because of such conservative stands, the threats are largely empty. While it is true that some churches have left the Southern Baptist Convention in recent years, what is happening more commonly is that liberal SBC congregations are forming duel membership with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). These churches are allowed to yoke together with the modernists in the CBF, while retaining their membership in the SBC. Thus the pastors of these churches can keep their retirement and other benefits even while opposing and undermining everything the national convention says it stands for.

While I would like to have limited this article to an applause of the new Southern Baptist statement, I do not believe it is very meaningful in light of the previous facts. Some seem to think that I rejoice in tearing down those who are trying to do good, but that is a wicked judgment which would require an intimate knowledge of the thoughts and motives of my heart, which none of my readers can know. I can testify before the Lord that I have no pleasure in warning about the error of professing Christians, except, perhaps, insomuch that I know that my warnings might be used of the Lord to protect some from error and to stir some up for righteousness and truth. I praise the Lord for every good thing in the Southern Baptist Convention, and there are many good things; I praise the Lord for every precious soul who is saved through the witness of Southern Baptist churches. At the same time, I have a responsibility to analyze the Southern Baptist Convention with the Word of God (1 Thess. 5:21), and I intend to continue to do so by God’s grace and blessing. I would urge every other preacher to do the same.

See "Challenge from a Southern Baptist Pastor"