Another megachurch where a woman has preached has left the Southern Baptist Convention. Elevation Church in Charlotte, N.C., led by Pastor Steven Furtick and his wife, Holly, voluntarily withdrew from the SBC just two weeks after the denomination voted to…
Baptist Women in Ministry marks 40th anniversary by blessing women cast out by the SBC
Meredith Stone opened Baptist Women in Ministry’s 40th anniversary celebration dinner with spontaneous and scathing remarks about the Southern Baptist Convention’s continuing assault on female clergy. “Forty years later and we are still talking about the SBC,” quipped Stone, BWIM’s…
Women’s leadership in the church is a primary issue
As an associate pastor, I made weekly hospital visits. The church’s size meant it was not unusual for me to meet church members for the first time in the hospital, which was what happened one Thursday morning when I knocked…
The SBC just put the nail in its own coffin
I am thinking back on the past and looking at the present for the Southern Baptist Convention, the denominational body in which I was brought up and educated but which I left completely when the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message…
There is no way to be against racism and ethnic discrimination but remain in support of sexism and gender discrimination
Christine A. Smith calls sexism in the church’s ongoing life “the stained-glass ceiling” — the invisible but often impenetrable limits imposed upon female clergy. The stained-glass ceiling takes many forms. Among the most common are differences in salary between men…
At this Baptist gathering, there will be no debate about women preaching
The national media won’t be on hand, and there aren’t likely to be hot debates over women in ministry when the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship gathers in Atlanta next week for its General Assembly. The largest of two breakaway groups from…
If you bet on how many churches the SBC will kick out, take the ‘under’
Southern Baptists will not excommunicate as many churches with women pastors as you might think. They won’t even get the chance. In fact, if Las Vegas oddsmakers set an over/under bet on how many churches the Southern Baptist Convention will…
The SBC 2023: When dogma trumps gospel
In 1964, Addie Davis was ordained to the gospel ministry by Watts Street Baptist Church, Durham, N.C., becoming the first female ordained by a congregation affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. A new generation of female ordinands soon followed, not…
The Southern Baptists left me
Last week in its annual meeting held in New Orleans, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention voted to uphold the denomination’s Credentials and Executive Committees in expelling Saddleback Church in California and Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville Ky. The…
The best way to protest the SBC is to carry on and preach louder
Last week, the Southern Baptist Convention’s overwhelming number of messengers voted to kick out Saddleback Church and Fern Creek Baptist due to their inclusion of female leadership. I support the credentialing of female pastors as not only legitimate in our time, but also…
Baptists, football and women who changed the game
Baptists love football. How many college and pro football illustrations did I hear in sermons preached in my childhood Southern Baptist church? How many Baptists are just as likely to don college colors and spend Saturdays watching the game as…
My ordination is precious to me
When the Southern Baptist Convention voted last week to reaffirm its expulsion of churches with women pastors on staff and to begin the process of amending its constitution to make sure any member congregation “does not affirm, appoint or employ…