NEW ORLEANS (BP and local reports) – The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) approved a recommendation at their June 11 meeting to place a motion before messengers to the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) this week in New Orleans concerning whether churches that have women pastors should be considered outside the bounds of the convention’s governing document.
The motion calls for an amendment to the SBC Constitution whereby a sixth identifier would be placed to Article III, paragraph 1. If approved by messengers, churches “in friendly cooperation” with the SBC would “not affirm, appoint, or employ a woman as a pastor of any kind.”
At the same time, the Executive Committee expressed its opposition to the suggested amendment and “strongly affirms” Article VI of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 that limits the office of pastor to men as qualified by Scripture.
“However,” the committee continued, “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.”
The vote will go before messengers during the Executive Committee report on the morning of June 14.
New officers elected
Philip Robertson, pastor of Philadelphia Church, Pineville, La., was elected chairman of the Executive Committee. When two initial rounds of stand-up voting yielded no clear leader, Russ Barksdale removed his name from consideration and cleared the way for Philip Robertson to become the new chair.
Last year, Robertson, removed himself from consideration for vice chairman in a similar situation.
Barksdale, retired pastor of The Church at Rush Creek, Arlington, Texas, is a former singles minister at First Church, Jackson.
Other officers elected were vice chair Anthony Dockery, pastor of St. Stephen Church, La Puente, Calif.; and secretary Pam Reed, member of Calvary Church, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Executive Committee Interim President/CEO Willie McLaurin reported above-budget Cooperative Program (CP) receipts for the month of May as well as plans to celebrate CP’s 100th birthday in 2025 as part of “putting the spotlight on the headquarters of the SBC — the local church.”
“The centennial celebration will be a time for us to honor the past and launch a vision for the future of Cooperative Program engagement,” he said.
A team consisting of state convention leaders and national entity partners have already been at work “to lay the groundwork for this historic celebration,” said McLaurin.
There is “much to celebrate,” he added, such as the largest international missionary sending agency in the world with the International Mission Board and largest church-planting network through the North American Mission Board.
Messengers have “overwhelmingly approved” steps for sexual abuse reforms to make churches safer for those most vulnerable, McLaurin said.
SBC President Bart Barber, senior pastor of First Church, Farmersville, Texas, greeted trustees and followed with an admission that despite our devotion to Christ, it can be challenging to follow His admonition to “not be anxious about anything.”
“It is a time of difference of opinion [and] conflict at times,” he said. “I hear people talk about their concerns for the Southern Baptist Convention and half the time it’s about things that they think we mightdo, not what we’re doing today.”
Instead of being anxious, he said, bring those matters in prayer to God – then listen.
“How about we expect and pray that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, which cannot be explained in a press conference, which cannot be analyzed and picked apart but is divine in nature — how about we expect that the peace of God will guard our hearts and our minds — and dear Father, let it be, my mouth… in Christ Jesus. “
