First Baptist Church of Alexandria, Virginia, has many of the traditional characteristics of a Southern Baptist church, from its towering bright spire and red-brick wall to its Sunday services dripping with waking gospel songs and christian speeches.
Kim Eskridge, the organization’s pastor for women and children, urged people to ask friends and neighbors to an upcoming vacation Bible school, a tradition of Baptist charity, to “reach households in the community with the gospel.”
But because that priest is a girl, First Baptist’s time in the Southern Baptist Convention perhaps be numbered.
At the SBC’s monthly meeting June 11- 12 in Indianapolis, representatives may vote on whether to alter the denomination’s constitution to effectively ban churches with any women pastors— and not just in the best job. In a tentative vote next year, that measure received overwhelmingly favorable votes.
Second Baptist, which has donated millions to Southern Baptist causes and been a part of the convention since its establishment in the 19th century, is gearing up for a possible eviction.
” We are grieved at the way the SBC has taken”, the cathedral said in a statement.
And it’s not only.
According to some estimates, the proposed ban could have an disproportionately negative impact on largely Black churches and affect hundreds of communities.
The ballot marks a portion of what was happening two years ago.
A Virginia priest then contacted SBC officials to claim that First Baptist and four other nearby churches were “out of action” with religious doctrine, which says even men may remain pastors. In April, the SBC Credentials Committee held a proper investigation.
Southern Protestants disagree on the government positions that are mentioned in this philosophy. Some claim that the senior pastor is the only one who exercises moral power while some claim that the priest is just that.
And in line with Baptist tradition, which values local church autonomy, critics claim that the agreement should n’t enact a constitutional law based on one understanding of its non-binding doctrinal statement.
By some quotes, people are working in rural roles in hundreds of SBC- linked churches, a fraction of the almost 47, 000 across the church.
The amendment, according to critics, would result in a further slack in the population and mindset for the country’s largest Protestant denomination, which has progressively shifted its focus in recent decades.
They enquire about the SBC’s future plans.
It has struggled to respond to sexual abuse allegations in its churches. A former professor at a Southern Baptist seminary in Texas was charged with fabricating a report on alleged sexual abuse by a student in order to obstruct a federal investigation into the convention’s sexual misconduct.
SBC membership has dipped below 13 million, nearly a half- century low. Baptismal rates are in long- term decline.
The amendment, if passed, would n’t prompt an immediate purge. But it could keep the denomination’s leaders busy for years, investigating and ousting churches.
Many predominantly Black churches have men as their lead pastors, but many also give women pastor titles in other areas, such as children’s and worship.
” To disfellowship like- minded churches… based on a local- church governance decision dishonors the spirit of cooperation and the guiding tenets of our denomination”, wrote Pastor Gregory Perkins, president of the SBC’s National African American Fellowship, to denominational officials.
The controversy makes it harder for the already struggling, mostly white denomination to diversify and get past its legacy of slavery and segregation.
The Baptist Faith and Message, which states that the office of pastor is “limited to men as qualified by Scripture,” needs to be reinforced, according to supporters of the amendment.
” If we wo n’t stand on this issue and be unapologetically biblical, then we wo n’t stand on anything”, said amendment proponent Mike Law, pastor of Arlington Baptist Church in Virginia.
Since Baptist churches are independent, the convention ca n’t tell them what to do or whom to appoint as a pastor.
However, the convention has the power to decide which churches are in and which are out. And its Executive Committee has started letting women pastors-only churches know when they are leaving, even without a formal change. That included one of its largest, Saddleback Church of California.
Delegates overwhelmingly declined to take them back when Saddleback and a small Kentucky church made an appeal to the annual meeting in 2023.
The amendment would give these enforcing laws more weight.
Some churches with female pastors left on their own in the last year. They range from Elevation Church, a North Carolina megachurch, to First Baptist of Richmond, Virginia, which had close SBC ties from the convention’s founding.
Law contended the issue has been a” canary in the coalmine” for liberal denominations, several of which began ordaining women and later LGBTQ+ people.
” Southern Baptists are facing a decisive moment”, he said in a video on a pro- amendment website. ” Here’s the trajectory of doing nothing: Soon Southern Baptist churches will start openly supporting homosexual clergy, same- sex marriage and eventually transgenderism”.
Others make the case that Pentecostal and other religious organizations have had female pastors for generations and still practice theology conservative doctrine.
Some SBC churches have women pastors who are actively involved in the convention, while others have little or no ties and tend to associate more with historically Black or other progressive denominations.
Also, some SBC churches interpret the 2000 faith statement as only applying to senior pastors. Women can serve other pastoral roles as long as a church leader is male, they say.
Such churches may leave if SBC leaders interfere with congregations following” their conscience, biblical convictions, and values by recognizing women can receive a pastoral gift from God in partnership with male leadership”, said Dwight McKissic, a pastor from Arlington, Texas, on the social media platform X.
Other churches acknowledge that women can hold any positions, including senior pastor, and that they can disagree if they agree with the majority of the SBC faith statement.
That category includes First Baptist of Alexandria. Though its current senior pastor is male, it recognizes” God’s calling to ordain any qualified individual, male or female, for pastoral ministry”, the church said in a statement.
Although First Baptist leaders declined to interview people, the organization has written a lot about the problem on its website.
It stated that while it intends to send representatives to the SBC annual meeting, it was re-advised to anticipate a motion to deny them voting rights.
” I do believe we need to be heard and represented”, Senior Pastor Robert Stephens told members in a video- recorded meeting.
The SBC’s top administrative body opposes the amendment. Investigating churches ‘ compliance would consume an unsustainable amount of time and energy over something that should n’t be a litmus test for fellowship, wrote Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, in a Baptist Press commentary.
Baptist Women in Ministry, which began within the SBC in the 1980s but now works in multiple Baptist denominations, has taken note. The Rev. Meredith Stone, its executive director, said some women pastors within the SBC have reached out for support.
The group plans to release a documentary,” Midwives of a Movement”, about 20th century trailblazers for women in Baptist ministry, on the eve of the SBC meeting.
We want to make sure that women know they do have equal value and that there are no restrictions on how they follow Christ in the church because they claim that women have less value than men in the church, according to Stone.
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