This week in its annual meeting held this year in New Orleans messengers (delegates) to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) voted to uphold the denomination’s Credentials and Executive Committees in expelling Saddleback Church in California and Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville Kentucky. The vote was not even close with about a 9-1 ratio in favor.
What were the sins of these two
congregations? Financial improprieties? Alleged racism? Failure to report child
abuse? Cover-ups of sexual abuses against women? No, no, no, and no. The SBC
messengers were concerned that these two churches had crossed the line in
biblical orthodoxy by ordaining women pastors.
Women in pastoral ministry seems have
been a controversial issue in the SBC ever since I became a Christian and joined
a mega SBC church in Oklahoma. No women pastors and no women deacons. But it is
not as simple as some in that corner describe the situation. Their position
overlooks the fact that women were the first to see our Resurrected Lord, that
women were included in the outpouring of the Spirit during Peter’s Pentecostal
sermon, and the role of Phoebe in presenting Paul’s letter to the Roman house churches.
I am no church historian on this issue but I suspect that that women began to
be be sidelined when the Church went mainline during its then Constantinian captivity.
I truly understand and appreciate
the “no women pastors, no women deacons” position espoused by the majority of
the SBC, Biblical authority and doctrinal integrity are indeed vital during our
current Babylonian captivity. I do not doubt the sincerity of those who hold to
the “no women pastors, no women deacons” position, I do, however, believe that
they are sincerely wrong on this issue.
I am not defending Saddleback
Church per se. (By the way, the church takes its name from the distinctly featured
Saddleback “Mountain: located in Orange County. It is the most prominent
geographic feature in the area other than the scenic coastline.) It is a well-known story in SBC life how Rick
Warren, the founding pastor now retired, returned to his native California after
seminary in Texas to begin a church that would reach and disciple the unchurched
and its first members were Warren and his family, and the landlord who leased
them their first living space.
And yet, Saddleback is an acquired taste,
The sermons, the music, and indeed its entire culture does not speak to me, and
I do not think Saddleback is supposed to appeal to me. After all, Saddleback is
located in southern California swimming in the “Cali” culrue and although I
spent much of my childhood in California, I am at my core a small town “kid”
from northeast Oklahoma. But I will defend Saddleback’s decision to ordain three
women pastors from the church’s conservative critics just I have defended
Saddleback from its liberal critics over its supposed lack of ministries and
missions to the poor and the marginalized folks on this planet.
Currently, my wife and I along with
my daughter and her family belong to a large SBC church in the Kansas suburbs
of Kansas City, a church with the “no women pastors, no women deacons” position.
Before we joined I asked both my wife and daughter what they thought. They both
shared that it was not a “deal breaker” for them and so, I decided the issue
was not going to stop me from joining. And our church has been a delight for us-
strong biblical preaching, insightful Bbile study, compassionate pastoral care,
and vibrant ministries and missions, along with little mention of the SBC.
Nevertheless, I must speak up.
Because of the SBC action against Saddleback and Fern Creek churches this week
and with future actions anticipated other SBC churches with women pastors, I
henceforth will not consider myself a Southern Baptist, only a Baptist
with an anabaptist disposition. I am not leaving the SBC, the SBC left me.
No comments:
Post a Comment