So does this mean . . .
Our hand to the plow.
I was born and raised in a Southern Baptist Church. I learned the Bible, a love for Jesus, what it means to trust Jesus, and was baptized. I was licensed to preach and ordained to Christian Ministry in the same church. I have served in volunteer and paid vocational roles in Southern Baptist churches since I was 18. I have three degrees from Southern Baptist-affiliated institutions: Oklahoma Baptist University (B.A. ‘85) and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div. ‘88 and D.Min. ‘93). I have served the church I am currently in as pastor for almost 32 years. I have served as a representative of the SBC on the Baptist World Alliance, in several roles in the Oklahoma Baptist Convention, and in the Union Baptist Association. My involvement has diminished over time. I have felt and lived the description “on the edge of the inside” I read in a piece from Father Rohr some twenty years ago. After the recent vote on the Mohler Amendment at the Annual Meeting of the SBC, I received a message. It seemed others in our church might have the same questions. So, I wrote the following piece.
Dear Church Family,
The Southern Baptist Convention makes news at least every June. Why June? Because that is when the Southern Baptist Convention’s Annual Meeting is held. It is not that Southern Baptists don’t make news other months of the year. But when your reported numbers make you the largest non-Catholic denomination in the world, the media pays closer attention to what you do in your annual gathering.
This year was no different. In fact, this has been the pattern for most of my adult life, attending and serving local Southern Baptist churches.
A few months ago, Al Mohler began circulating his intention to put forward a motion to amend the Constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention. He had heard a woman on a church podcast teaching an audience that included men, and that, for Al and others, is outside the cooperative parameters of Southern Baptist Churches. The immediate question is: What does this mean?
Nothing.
I did receive a text message after the newsmaking event at this year’s Annual Meeting,
So does this mean we are no longer SBC…and/or has the convention become a top-down entity that has oversight and influence over local congregations?
Since others may wonder what the implications are, I thought I would reply this way in the event others have the same question.
First, what is the issue?
There are many.
But the presenting issue began when some Southern Baptist churches invited women to preach on Mother’s Day. The most notable Southern Baptist woman invited to preach on Mother’s Day was Beth Moore in 2019. She was not the pastor. Nor was she invited to pastor. Moore was invited to preach. For many, this signaled a liberal drift in the SBC.
Over the weeks leading to the Annual Meeting in June, after that day in May 2019, others expressed their opinions. For example, many Southern Baptists believe a woman serving a local church should not be a pastor or have the word “pastor” in her job title. And still others believe that any vocation that includes a pastoral function should be filled only by men.
After pushback on his proposed amendment became public, Mohler revised his wording to illustrate the pastoral function he had in mind. He added “such as” preaching. One group believed this was enough to narrow the amendment to only preaching. Others see the words “such as” as allowing more narrow applications to be arbitrarily applied.
This is an interesting position for Al Mohler, who opposed such an amendment when it first came up. Now he is for it.
What does this vote mean?
A change to the constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention requires a positive vote for two consecutive years. It must pass by a 2/3 majority on the second vote. Previous attempts to approve a similar amendment have failed to reach the threshold in the second vote. Thus, the immediate answer to the question: What does this mean?
Nothing.
Next June, 2027, in Indianapolis, where the Annual Meeting will be held, the second vote will be taken. If approved by a 2/3 majority, then the constitutional amendment will be approved, and churches that invite women to preach or are asked to proclaim the Gospel in a pastoral setting will be in violation of the Constitution. That church then risks its messengers being denied “seating” at future annual meetings.
Second, what is the history?
The Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845 over disagreement with northern churches refusing to send slaveowners as missionaries. From 1845 until 1925, Southern Baptist Churches exercised their autonomy by using the confessional statement of faith of their choice. Three common confessions used were the New Hampshire Confession (1833), the Philadelphia Confession (1742), and the Abstract of Principles (1858).
When the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy broke out in the early twentieth century, Southern Baptists set out to author their own confession of faith. Thus, the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message is the outcome of that desire. Then, in 1963, amid the impact of Biblical Higher Criticism, the Southern Baptist Convention revised the 1925 version to include what amounts to a confessional response, resulting in the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message. Various reasons and objections have been given in support of updating the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message that resulted in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. Whatever position someone takes on the motivations, the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message is the most recent version available to Southern Baptists.
The article The Church in the Baptist Faith and Message (BFM) is among the shortest of all articles. All three of the versions of the BFM confess local church autonomy, independence, and reference the offices found in Southern Baptist Churches - pastors, deacons, and elders. (The naming of these offices varies. For example, in the 1925 edition, it was bishops, or elders, and deacons. In the 1963 update, it was pastors and deacons. In the 2000 BFM, it is pastor/elder/overseer and deacon.) In the 2000 BFM, this line is added: While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
Since the approval of the BFM2000, there has been a push to consider only those Southern Baptist Churches that use the BFM2000 as cooperating churches. This has not universally succeeded except at the level of the individual persons who serve at the will of the Convention. Some local associations have implemented this position for their cooperating churches. The move risks what the article, “The Church,” also identifies as a Baptist principle: local church autonomy, as described in the first Southern Baptist Confession dating to 1925.
Third, what about us at this moment?
The nature of confessions, as distinct from creeds, is that they are not used to create a binding, top-down connectional framework in which the denomination tells a church what it must do or how it works out its own understanding of the confession. That means that nothing changes for us. Things may change for the Southern Baptist Convention, but that does not mean a change for us.
We have a woman who serves as our Youth Pastor. Changing her title will not remove the reality that Laura serves our church in pastoral ways. She functions as a pastor. Given that the amendment uses the word “function,” which is not precisely defined but illustrated only with “such as.” History indicates that “function” will become the next word to parse until it excludes women from any future list of pastoral functions.
So while the recent vote does not change what we do, a future vote will not change it either. This has been unanimously expressed. What’s more, this issue came up in our church in concert with what our church believes is a mishandling of the clergy sexual abuse issue in the SBC. Adding more consternation is that the SBC elected as President someone who views the recent sexual abuse investigations as a hoax and a distraction.
We have much to pray for and over.
Fourth, what will we do?
My mentor, Rick Davis, provided me with a number of what I have come to call Davisisms. One whose sentiment is taken from the mouth of Jesus applies here.
Put your head down and do your job.
When distractions mount, those that do not rise to the level of the Gospel of Grace keep doing what you are doing. Jesus put it this way,
But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
As far as what we will do with regard to the recent action taken in Orlando at the SBC Annual meeting?
Nothing.
We will keep our hand to the plow, proclaiming the Good News of the Risen Christ, giving glory to the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit.