Southern Baptist Convention removes Calvary Baptist Church over role of women as pastors

Southern Baptist Convention leadership disfellowshipped a Jackson church from the convention on Tuesday, concluding a long running debate in the denomination.

Calvary Baptist Church, a fixture on Capitol Street, was one of six churches removed from the convention by the executive committee. The executive committee approved similar recommendations for five other churches, one for a sex abuse related issue and four others for women serving in senior pastor roles.

Linda Smith has led Calvary since 2013, when she became the church's 11th pastor. She was the church's first female pastor.

Rev. Smith did not respond for comment. In comments to WAPT television, she said nothing will change at the Jackson church.

"I guess it's a little sadness, because we believe that we are doing — not the easiest part of the city of Jackson or Mississippi, but an important part," Smith told WAPT. "We just feel like we are doing what God called us to do."

The SBC Executive Committee is comprised of about 30 staff and an 86-member board of elected representatives and manages denomination business outside the Nashville-based SBC's annual meeting. It met for a major two-day meeting in Nashville on Monday and Tuesday.

Saddleback Church in California was the prominent church removed Tuesday. The megachurch’s stance on a woman serving as head co-pastor led the SBC Executive Committee to consider a recommendation for the SBC to break with Saddleback.

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With 23,000-plus members and 12 locations in Southern California, with its flagship campus in Lake Forest, Saddleback is a household name in American evangelical Christianity that long flourished under the leadership of Pastor Rick Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life.”

Warren retired from Saddleback in August, handing the reins to pastors Andy and Stacie Wood.

Even before Warren announced his retirement and the Woods as his successors last year, Saddleback has been at the center of a multi-year controversy in the SBC over the role of women in church leadership. In May 2021, the California church ordained its first three women pastors.

The ordinations led some Southern Baptists to try and oust Saddleback from the SBC for the first time at the 2021 SBC annual meeting in Nashville. Critics pointed to the denomination’s statement of beliefs, called the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, which says “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

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Southern Baptists hold to a complementarianism, a theological idea that teaches men and women have certain assigned roles.

At the 2021 SBC annual meeting in Nashville, Southern Baptist voting delegates, called messengers, made a motion for the SBC Credentials Committee to consider disfellowshipping Saddleback. The credentials committee evaluates whether a church is in “friendly cooperation” with the convention and determines whether to recommend disfellowship. The executive committee then votes on that recommendation.

At the 2022 SBC annual meeting in Anaheim, a discussion on Saddleback ended with indecision about the church’s permanent status in the SBC. The possibility Saddleback would lose its affiliation remained.

Warren delivered an emotional speech on the floor of the 2022 annual meeting, reading what he called a “love letter” and seemingly resigned to an inevitable split between Saddleback and the SBC. It also led to a larger debate about Southern Baptist doctrine on women pastors and the criteria for SBC affiliation.

Other churches disfellowshipped

In addition to Saddleback, the executive committee approved recommendations to disfellowship five other churches, including Calvary in Jackson.

The decision to disfellowship Freedom Church in Vero Beach, Florida was over a sex abuse related issue.

The executive committee approved a recommendation to disfellowship four churches in which a woman serves as a lead or senior pastor: New Faith Mission Ministry in Griffin, Georgia, Timothy’s Christian Baptist in Baltimore, Maryland, Calvary Baptist Church in Jackson and Fern Creek Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky.

In September, the executive committee approved recommendations to disfellowship two churches, one for its stance on sexuality and the other for alleged discriminatory behavior.

This is a developing story.

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Southern Baptist Convention disfellowships Calvary Baptist Church in Jackson