As I mentioned earlier this week, some churches are appointing female “shepherds” in an effort to get around the biblical prohibition on female “pastors.” On this episode of The CBMW Podcast, we discuss what the Bible says about gender, the office of pastor, and why it matters. [Watch below on YouTube, or listen below on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.]
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Is a Female “Shepherd” Different from a Female “Pastor”?
I have a read a couple reports over the last week or so about a Southern Baptist Church in Texas that has seven female pastors (Fielder Church in Arlington). According to one report, each of these female pastors is listed on the church’s website as a “shepherd.” Indeed, now all the church’s pastors are listed as shepherds, including the senior pastor. These reports have raised eyebrows across the convention because the Baptist Faith & Message says that pastors must be men as qualified by Scripture. According to one report, Fielder Church was referred to the credentials committee of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC), and the committee decided not…
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No, Southern Baptists Have Not “Officially Rejected” the Nicene Creed
From time to time, people move from one Christian tradition to another. This is not a new thing, although sometimes it can be painful and unpleasant as one pulls up anchor, says goodbye to friends and loved ones, and heads for another shore. These things happen. And the best that we can do after all the conversations are done and attempts to persuade are over is wish each other well with as much grace as possible. That is why it is usually not necessary to comment publicly on such departures. But Southern Baptists have just witnessed a departure that unfortunately may require some comment. Dr. Matthew Barrett, well-known SBC seminary…
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Some Reflections on SBC 2025
Earlier this week I served as a messenger at the 2025 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). I already shared a little bit about what happened with respect to the vote on the Sanchez/Law amendment. Here are some reflections on the rest of the meeting and some further thoughts on the amendment. The President Clint Pressley did a fabulous job as chair. I couldn’t be more grateful for his leadership and the spirit with which he presided over the meeting. I have heard almost universal praise for how he led us. To him, I say well done and congratulations on winning a second term. The Resolutions Andrew Walker…
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A Post-Mortem on the Sanchez/Law Amendment
The annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention wrapped-up last night. A strong majority of SBC messengers voted in favor of the Sanchez/Law amendment (61%), but it fell short of the required supermajority (66%). So that effort is now dead. Some take-aways: 1. It is very clear that majorities of messengers at the last three conventions want this amendment. But it is very difficult to get a supermajority to pass a measure when the platform opposes it. The platform mounted strong opposition the last two years. 2. I thought the amendment had a good chance of reaching a supermajority until the platform warned messengers during the debate that the amendment…
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What does the failure of the Law Amendment mean?
Last month, pastor Willie Rice said something about the Law Amendment that was prescient. He predicted that after the SBC annual meeting, we are going to find one of two headlines. Either “Southern Baptists oppose women pastors” or “Southern Baptists keep the door open on women pastors.” He said that messengers would decide through their vote which headline we would be written. After the Law Amendment failed to meet the necessary supermajority earlier today, Rice’s prediction proved pretty accurate. Here are some of the headlines that began to appear almost immediately after the vote: “Southern Baptists reject ban on women pastors in historic vote.” –USA Today “Southern Baptists Reject Tighter…
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Will the Law Amendment pass next week?
As the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention has drawn near, I’ve had a lot of people asking me what the chances are that the Law Amendment will pass. The short answer is that I don’t know, but I am hopeful. On the one hand, it passed overwhelmingly last year with at least about 80% voting in favor. On the other hand, opponents only have to shave off about 10-15 percentage points from last year’s total to kill it. And they have done a pretty good job over the last year scaring people away from it with bad arguments. They have argued: There are hardly any female pastors in…
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The SBC Credentials Committee Yet To Recommend Removal of Church that Affirms Female Senior Pastors
The Baptist Press confirms that the Credentials Committee has yet to recommend removal of a church that employs women as pastors and that affirms women serving as senior pastors. This is full-fledged egalitarianism, and now the Baptist Press is reporting that our own Credentials Committee received a referral two years ago and still has made no recommendation for their removal (see update below). The church is FBC Alexandria, VA, and according to Baptist Press the Credentials Committee sent an inquiry to the church in April in the form of a questionnaire. The questionnaire asked the church a variety of questions about their faith and practice concerning the office of pastor.…
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Should we add the Nicene Creed to our confession? Yes, but not like this.
There is a proposal on the table to amend the Baptist Faith & Message from the floor of the convention in Indianapolis next month. The measure specifically calls for adding the Nicene Creed to the end of the Baptist Faith & Message. While I fully affirm the Nicene Creed, I have concerns about this specific proposal and likely won’t vote in favor of it. Here’s why: 1. I think it is imprudent to amend the BF&M from the floor of the convention. It happened at last year’s convention, and I expressed my alarm about it at the time, even though I agreed with the amendment. Our SBC seminaries and mission…
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Another Argument against the Law Amendment and in Favor of Female Pastors
Executive Committee member Russ Barksdale published an article this morning explaining why he intends to vote against the Law Amendment next month at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). He argues that the New Testament allows women to serve as pastors in local churches. He contends that female pastors rightly function as shepherds over the men in the church and even over male leaders in the church. He writes: Does a woman who is leading a children’s ministry “pastor” (verb poimaino) the children? Absolutely! Does she shepherd (verb poimaino) the parents, including the fathers? Absolutely! Does she pastor/shepherd (verb poimaino) the leaders, including the adult males, for…
