From its tall white steeple and red brick facade, to its Sunday services filled with gospel hymns and heartwarming evangelistic sermons, First Baptist Church of Alexandria, Virginia, has many of the classic characteristics of a Southern Baptist church.
On a recent Sunday, the pastor for women and children, Kim Eskridge, invited members to invite their friends and neighbors to the upcoming vacation Bible school – a perennial Baptist activity – to help “reach families in the community with the Gospel. “
But because the pastor is a woman, the day of First Baptist in the Southern Baptist Convention can be numbered.
At the SBC’s annual meeting on June 11-12 in Indianapolis, representatives will vote on whether to amend the denomination’s constitution, which means banning churches from any female pastor – and not just at the top. The measure won overwhelming approval in an early vote last year.
The leader of First Baptist – which has been given millions to Southern Baptists causes and has been involved with the convention since the 19th century founding – that bracing for possible expulsion.
“We are saddened by the direction the SBC is taking,” the church said in a statement.
And it is not alone.
The ban could affect hundreds of congregations
According to some estimates, the proposed ban could affect hundreds of congregations and have a disproportionate impact on predominantly black churches.
The election is the culmination of events that took place two years ago.
That’s when a Virginia pastor contacted SBC officials to insist that First Baptist and four nearby churches were “not in line” with the denomination’s doctrine that says only men can serve as pastors. The SBC’s Credentials Committee launched a formal investigation in April.
Southern Baptists disagree about the duties of ministry that this doctrine calls for. Some say it’s just a senior pastor, others say a pastor is anyone who preaches and exercises spiritual authority.
In the Baptist tradition of giving local churches autonomy, critics say the convention should not impose constitutional rules based on one interpretation of a non-binding doctrinal statement.
By some estimates, women work in pastoral roles in hundreds of SBC-affiliated churches, a fraction of the nearly 47,000 in the denomination.
But critics say the amendment would increase the numbers and mindset of the country’s largest Protestant denomination, which has been growing steadily over the past few decades.
He also wondered if the SBC had better things to do.
It has struggled to respond cases of sexual harassment in their churches. A former professor at a Southern Baptist seminary in Texas was indicted in May on charges of falsifying records of sexual allegations made by students to obstruct a federal investigation into sexual misconduct at the convention.
SBC membership has fallen below 13 million, nearly half a century. Baptism rates in the long run are falling.
The amendment, if passed, would not immediately clean it up. But it can keep denominational leaders for years, investigating and excommunicating churches.
Most of the black churches were probably affected
Many predominantly black churches have men as lead pastors but give pastor titles to women in other areas, such as worship and children’s ministry.
“To exclude like-minded churches … based on local church government decisions undermines the spirit of cooperation and guiding principles of our denomination,” wrote Pastor Gregory Perkins, president of the SBC’s National African American Fellowship, to denominational officials.
The controversy complicates already-choppy efforts by the mostly White denomination to diversify and overcome the legacy of slavery and segregation.
Supporters of the Amendment say the convention should reinforce its doctrinal statement, the Baptist Faith and Message, which says the office of pastor is “restricted to those who conform to the Scriptures.”
“If we’re not going to stand on this issue and unapologetically biblical, then we’re not going to stand on anything,” said supporter of the amendment Mike Law, pastor of Arlington Baptist Church in Virginia.
Since the Baptist churches were independent, the convention could not tell them what to do or who to appoint as pastors.
But the convention can decide which churches go in and which go out. And even without an official amendment, the Executive Committee has begun to tell churches with female pastors that they are out. That including one of the largestSouthern California Saddleback Church.
When Saddleback and the small Kentucky church appealed to the annual meeting in 2023, delegates strongly refused to return it.
Before the vote, retired pastor Rick Warren, who founded Saddleback, made a futile appeal to members not to go ahead with evicting his church.
“I’m not asking you to agree with my church,” Warren told the convention. “I’m asking you to act like a Southern Baptist.”
The amendment would provide for more enforcement action.
A number of churches with female pastors quit on their own in the past year. They range from Elevation Church, a North Carolina megachurch, to First Baptist of Richmond, Virginia, which has close SBC ties from the convention.
Law emphasized the issue as a “canary in the coal mine” for liberal denominations, some of which began to respect women and later LGBTQ+ people.
“Southern Baptists face a defining moment,” he said in a video on a pro-amendment website. “This is a trajectory of doing nothing: Soon Southern Baptist churches will start openly supporting homosexual pastors, same-sex marriage and eventually transgenderism.”
Women pastors for generations in other denominations
Others point out that Pentecostals and other denominations have had female pastors for generations and remain theologically conservative.
Some SBC churches with female pastors are closely involved with the convention, while others have minimal ties and are closer to black or other progressive denominations.
Also, some SBC churches explain the 2000 statement of faith only applies to senior pastors. As long as church leaders are men, women can serve in other pastoral roles, he said.
Those churches may leave if SBC leaders disturb congregations according to their “conscience, biblical beliefs, and values ​​by recognizing that women can receive pastoral gifts from God in partnership with male leaders,” said Dwight McKissic, a pastor from Arlington, Texas. , on the X social media platform.
Other churches say women can be in any role, including senior pastor, and churches can agree to disagree if they embrace most of the SBC’s statement of faith.
That category includes First Baptist of Alexandria. Although the current senior pastor is male, he recognizes “God’s call to establish qualified individuals, male or female, for pastoral ministry,” the church said in a statement.
First Baptist leaders declined an interview request, but have posted numerous posts about the issue on their website.
He said that when he plans to send representatives to the SBC annual meeting, he is warned to expect a movement to deny voting rights.
“I believe we need to be heard and represented,” Senior Pastor Robert Stephens told members in a videotaped meeting.
The highest administrative body of the SBC opposed the amendment. Investigating the compliance of churches will consume an unsustainable amount of time and energy on a matter that should not be a litmus test for fellowship, wrote Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, in a Baptist Press commentary.
Baptist Women in Ministry, which started in the SBC in the 1980s but now works in many Baptist denominations, has been noted. The Reverend Meredith Stone, executive director, said some female pastors in the SBC have received support.
The group plans to release a documentary, “Midwives of a Movement,” about 20th century trailblazers for women in Baptist ministry, on the eve of the SBC meeting.
“Because it is said that women have less value than men in the church, we want to make sure that women know that they have the same value and that there are no restrictions on how to follow Christ in the work of the church,” Stone. said.
