Southern Baptists affirm decision to oust Rick Warren's church over ban on female pastors

Rick Warren's herculean efforts came to naught.

Despite the best-selling author and evangelist's video series, open letter, media interviews and social media blitz, disagreement over the scriptural compatibility of female pastors ultimately drove a final wedge between the Southern Baptist Convention and the megachurch that Warren founded in 1980.

Warren learned on Wednesday that he was unsuccessful in persuading Southern Baptists to overturn a decision by the denomination's credentials committee and Executive Committee to "disfellowship" Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, because the house of worship has women serving as pastors.

More than 12,000 Southern Baptist delegates, called messengers, attended the faith group's annual meeting in New Orleans, and a majority voted to uphold the decision to oust both Saddleback and Fern Creek Baptist in Louisville, Kentucky, over the issue of female pastors, Messengers voted overwhelmingly — by 88% — to uphold the ouster of Saddleback from "friendly cooperation" with the denomination, but not before hearing passionate speeches from Warren and Fern Creek's pastor Linda Barnes Popham.

Previously: As Southern Baptists meet, will 'America's pastor' Rick Warren change minds on female pastors?

"Why should this one issue cancel our fellowship?" Warren said.

"No one is asking any Southern Baptists to change their theology. I'm not asking you to agree with my church. I am asking you to act like a Southern Baptist, who have historically agreed to disagree on dozens of doctrines in order to share a common mission."

Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, gave rebuttals to the Saddleback and Fern Creek appeals. He said the determination that employing female pastors means a church is not in "friendly cooperation" with the Southern Baptist Convention is a "statement without rancor and without personal attack."

"It is an issue of biblical authority," he told those gathered.

The Rev. Blake Gideon, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Edmond, said the decision regarding Saddleback wasn't cause for celebration.

"I think that the convention did the right thing, but it's never a happy occasion when you experience a divorce, you know, and that's the way it kind of felt with having to do that," Gideon said. "Nobody's really happy about it, but sometimes the right thing to do is like the hardest thing to do."

Gideon and the Rev. Dick Kurtz were among at least 45 Oklahoma Southern Baptist preachers who signed an online letter in support of an amendment to the Southern Baptist constitution that unequivocally prohibits women from becoming pastors of Southern Baptist churches because they believe, according to scripture, the office of pastor is reserved solely for men.

Doubling down on the ban on female pastors, the amendment, approved by messengers on Wednesday, was brought to the denomination's annual meeting by the Rev. Mike Law of Arlington, Virginia. Law said he conducted research and found 170 Southern Baptist churches with female pastors on staff.

Meanwhile, Kurtz, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in El Reno, said he wasn't shocked that messengers voted to affirm Saddleback's expulsion.

"I felt like most Southern Baptists were pretty much in agreement with our bylaws that we had adopted in the Baptist Faith and Message in 2000 that clearly states that in there (prohibition on female pastors)," he said.

Like Gideon, Kurtz said the decision on Warren's church wasn't about animosity for the influential pastor who founded it, but about installing women in pastoral roles, a practice that doesn't align with Scripture.

More: Live updates: Southern Baptist Convention meeting in New Orleans

"I believe that none of us wish any ill fate upon those churches that choose to do that, but you cannot be associated with the Southern Baptists if you're going against the bylaws or rules that we've established."

Trouble began brewing between the denomination and Saddleback when the house of worship — one of the largest and most influential Southern Baptist churches in the country ― ordained three women as pastors in 2021. After Warren retired in 2022, Saddleback's choice of Andy Wood as lead pastor appeared to bring the issue to a head because Wood's wife, Stacie, assumed a role as teaching pastor. The church was then deemed no longer in "friendly cooperation" with the Southern Baptist Convention but given an opportunity to appeal the decision.

Warren's high-profile campaign to persuade Southern Baptists to change their minds about the decision to disfellowship the megachurch he founded began several weeks ago and included, among other things, letters to Southern Baptist clergy throughout the country.

After Wednesday's vote regarding Saddleback, Warren said more Southern Baptists than he anticipated voted in favor of reinstating his church.

"We have said since last February that we didn’t expect to win," he told members of the media. "We made this effort to push a conversation that’s been stagnant for years.”

He said he felt compelled to defend Saddleback — and women.

"I wanted to speak up for the millions of Southern Baptist women whose spiritual gifts, leadership gifts and talents are being wasted," he said.

That the issue of women's role in the church was a key topic at this year's meeting was further emphasized as messengers considered resolutions on Tuesday. Messengers conveyed their appreciation for women and their importance to the Church through a resolution "On the Legacy and Responsibility of Women Fulfilling the Great Commission."

"Both men and women are created in the image of God, sharing equal value, dignity and worth, and are commissioned by God ... and scripture calls women to obey Christ's Great Commission and demonstrates women are crucial and indispensable to His mission," the resolution stated. "Women today serve courageously, and selflessly in our Southern Baptist churches and entities, and in a multitude of contexts around the world, through praying, giving and obeying the Great Commission of our only Lord Jesus Christ."

Southern Baptist denomination president picked

In other business, the Rev. Bart Barber on Tuesday was reelected to a second one-year term as the denomination's president, with 68% of messengers voting for the Texas preacher.

Typically, individuals are reelected to a second term as president after fulfilling the role for the first one-year term, but Barber drew a challenger on Tuesday in the Rev. Mike Stone, of Georgia.

The two men appeared to represent divergent views on the denomination's way forward in confronting a sexual abuse crisis that has rocked the faith group in recent years.

Barber was elected to his first term in 2022, just as Southern Baptists gathered in the wake of a bombshell independent report on denominational leaders' mishandling of sex abuse cases. He appointed Southern Baptists to to a new Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force to oversee implementation of the abuse reforms delegates approved at the group's 2022 annual meeting in Anaheim.

Stone's nomination was backed by a group of conservatives called the Conservative Baptist Network. He made it widely known that he would dismantle the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force appointed by Barber and possibly replace them with his own appointees. Stone also said he was against the implementation of a proposed Ministry Check website, a type of database of sex abusers with connections to Southern Baptist churches and affiliates. The database, which hasn't been launched, was viewed as an integral part of a series of reforms Southern Baptist messengers approved at the Anaheim gathering.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Southern Baptist Convention vote ousts Rick Warren's Saddleback church