The president of the Southern Baptist Convention has urged churches considering leaving the SBC to “press pause” until they hear from a new task force on cooperation that has not yet been named and will have less than nine months to work.
Meanwhile, anecdotal reports are circulating about large numbers of churches either leaving the SBC or being reported to the SBC Credentials Committee for investigation — all due to actions taken at the June annual meeting related to women in ministry.
The most conservative wing of the denomination has been pushing for absolute purity on their view that the Bible prohibits women from being preachers or pastors or exercising any kind of “spiritual authority” over men. Adherence to that belief must be a test of fellowship, they contend, or the SBC will be “compromising the word of God.”
That viewpoint won the day in two key votes in June — one a resolution expressing the will of the messengers gathered and one the first reading of a constitutional amendment that must be voted on again in June 2024 to be ratified. That amendment would automatically exclude from “friendly cooperation” any church that allows a woman to hold the title “pastor.”
Being in “friendly cooperation” with the convention is the requirement for churches to affiliate with the SBC.
Jared Wellman
On Friday, Aug. 11, SBC President Bart Barber released a letter naming members of this year’s version of the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force — the third year for such a group to exist — while also announcing the chairman of a task force on cooperation approved at the annual meeting.
That Cooperation Group will be chaired by Jared Wellman, pastor of Tate Springs Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas. Wellman is a former chairman of the SBC Executive Committee who earlier this year was nominated to become president of the Executive Committee. He did not receive sufficient votes to be elected to that post, however, because of widespread concern about the process.
News of Wellman’s appointment to this new role drew mixed reviews over the weekend on Southern Baptist Twitter.
Barber said he hopes to announce the remainder of the task force by the end of August. But in the meantime, he said, “I want to encourage our local associations and state conventions within the SBC family to press ‘pause’ on any ongoing work they may be conducting or motions they may be considering that involve the nature of what it means to be a church in friendly cooperation with sister Southern Baptist churches.”
While autonomous churches are free to decide what they will, Barber encouraged waiting to allow the new group to engage in “high-quality research, dialogue, prayer and contemplation about the nature of cooperation among Southern Baptist churches and our needs going forward.”
In recent years, the SBC Credentials Committee has become the center of attention as SBC leaders have sought to root out churches that affirm homosexuality, espouse racist beliefs or fail to act on knowledge of sexual abuse. Now, rooting out churches that allow women to preach or carry the title “pastor” has been added to the committee’s responsibilities.
At this year’s meeting, messengers affirmed an earlier action of the Executive Committee — recommended by the Credentials Committee — to oust two churches that allow women to preach and that ordain women. One of those was the largest and most prominent church in the convention.
James Merritt (center) with Bryant Wright, Ed Litton, Steve Gaines and J.D. Greear (BP photo)
A group of former SBC presidents — all conservatives — has banded together to sound an alarm about the so-called “Law Amendment” passed on first reading this summer. Georgia pastor James Merritt was the spokesman for that group at this year’s convention, where they called for creation of the Cooperation Group.
Joining him were former presidents Steve Gaines, J.D. Greear, Ed Litton and Bryant Wright.
Merritt says he agrees with the view that women should not be hired as pastors and should not preach, he does not believe that should be a test of fellowship in the SBC.
Greear, a North Carolina pastor, has written about his concerns with the amendment and last week appeared on a video posted by Baptist Press.
The role of women in ministry is not a primary issue and the convention should not have to “police the borders” of denomination.
If the amendment is ratified next June, Greear predicted, the Credentials Committee will be flooded with reports of churches to investigate and expel.
For now, the current Credentials Committee has met one time and has yet to select a chairperson from among its number. Anyone who wishes to report a church for being out of compliance with SBC doctrine may do so online through the committee’s website.
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