NEW ORLEANS (BP and local reports) – The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee approved a recommendation June 11 to place a motion before messengers to the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting concerning whether local churches that have women serving with the title of pastor should be considered outside the bounds of cooperation with the largest Protestant denomination in America.
The motion, introduced to messengers at last year’s SBC Annual Meeting by Mike Law, senior pastor and messenger from Arlington Church in Arlington, Va., calls for an amendment to the SBC Constitution whereby a sixth identifier would be placed to Article III, paragraph 1.
Law’s proposal would require that in order for churches to be in “in friendly cooperation” with the SBC, churches will “not affirm, appoint, or employ a woman as a pastor of any kind.”
While the recommendation from the Executive Committee calls for messengers to decide the fate of the motion, the Committee expressed its opposition to the proposed amendment contained in the motion.
The Committee “strongly affirms” Article VI of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 that limits the office of pastor to men “as qualified by Scripture,” the recommendation stated.
“However, the Executive Committee deems that our beliefs are most appropriately stated in our adopted statement of faith rather than in our constitution and therefore opposes a suggested amendment to SBC Constitution, Article III, which would unnecessarily restate the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, Article VI.”
Trustee Joshua Hetzler, worship leader at Columbus Road Church in Quincy, Ill., proposed an amendment to the recommendation striking certain language in order to make it “more neutral.”
Hetzler’s amendment was voted down in the Missions and Ministry Committee to which it had been referred, with chair Richard Spring, pastor of First Church in Hesperia, Calif., explaining that it came down to a matter of “governance and procedure.”
Reiterating that the recommendation is going to messengers to the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting, Spring questioned the wisdom of “putting our statement of faith in our constitutional documents.”
“Have we taken the time to analyze all the ramifications of moving in this direction as a denomination and convention?” he asked. “The Executive Committee has historically not spoken to theology issues; we let the messengers make those determinations.”
The vote on the motion containing the proposed constitutional amendment will go before messengers during the Executive Committee report at the 2024 Annual Meeting on the morning of June 14.
Mississippi Baptist members of the SBC Executive Committee include:
— Brian A. Cloys, lay member of Carterville Church, Carterville.
— Daniel L. Lanier, retired senior pastor of Northcrest Church, Meridian.
— Adam Wyatt, pastor of Bethel Church, Monticello.
