Over the last week or so, Rick Warren and his successor at Saddleback Andy Wood have made public arguments in favor of women serving as pastors. I addressed Rick Warren’s remarks in an article last week, and some readers have asked me to weigh-in on Wood’s remarks as well. Wood recorded a video explaining Saddleback’s decision, and there is a good deal of clarifying information in it (transcript here). To date, it’s probably the fullest explication of Saddleback’s view that I have seen, so that’s good. It’s also good to see that Wood wishes to affirm the authority of Scripture, to reject the transing of the culture, and to lay…
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Rick Warren Has Done the SBC a Great Service
Last week, I had the opportunity to listen to Russell Moore’s provocative interview with Rick Warren, the former pastor of Saddleback Community Church. If you are a Southern Baptist and you haven’t heard it yet, I recommend that you take a listen or read the transcript here. Warren makes it crystal clear that he knows Saddleback is in defiance of the BF&M by ordaining women as pastors. He also says that Saddleback doesn’t need the SBC but that the SBC needs Saddleback. So it would be no skin off his nose to leave the SBC behind. Nevertheless, he’s going to fight Saddleback’s removal in order to make the SBC a…
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Taking a Dog by the Ears
Last week people kept asking me if I was going to weigh-in on the drama du jour generated by a salacious post at The Gospel Coalition website. My response was that there was no way I would be taking this dog by the ears (Prov. 26:17). As far as I could tell, this was “strife” not belonging to me, and there was no sense in making it mine for no good reason. Nevertheless, over the weekend it became clear that the conversation had taken a turn in a way that implicates not just me but all complementarians. So here I am now. The controversy concerns an essay that Joshua Butler…
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Answering Objections To Saddleback’s Removal from the SBC
I have seen a variety of responses to the news yesterday that the SBC has found Saddleback Church to be out of step with “the Convention’s adopted statement of faith” and now no longer recognizes them as a “cooperating” church (Art. 3, SBC Constitution). As many of you know, the presenting issue is Saddleback’s recognition of a variety of female pastors, including one of their new lead teaching pastors. Having female pastors contradicts our statement of faith, The Baptist Faith & Message (BF&M), which says, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” As…
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Heterodoxy in the Rectory: The Blessing of Gay Spouses in the Church of England
How would you feel if your denomination seized your church building and sold it to a mosque as a result of your biblical stance on sexuality? That is exactly what happened to Matt Kennedy, the Rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghampton, New York. Rev. Kennedy joins us on the CBMW Podcast today to answer our questions about what it cost him and his family to be faithful to the Bible’s teaching about homosexuality and marriage. He also helps us to understand the current controversy within the worldwide Anglican communion over the Church of England’s decision to bless same-sex spouses. This is a really fascinating conversation, and…
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An Ecclesiastical Shot Heard Round the World
No doubt many of you have already read about the Church of England’s recent decision to bless same-sex marriages. The orthodox leaders of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) have responded with a declaration that is nothing less than an ecclesiastical shot heard round the world. These leaders are largely from Africa, although other regions are also represented. They have set forth a series of resolutions that effectively declare their independence from the heterodox Church of England. Rather than explain it, I will let you read the powerful declaration in their own words: As the Church of England has departed from the historic faith passed down from the…
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Sprinkle Reconsiders His Views on Complementarianism
Preston Sprinkle is reconsidering his views on the debate between complementarians and egalitarians. If I’m not mistaken, he has claimed the complementarian label up until this point. But now he’s doing a deep dive on the issue and is processing out loud so that others can follow him on his journey. Recently, he released a two-hour video in which he talks his way through the exegesis of 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and especially of verse 12 (watch video below). He announces at the outset that he is not going to come to any firm conclusions by the end of the discussion. He is merely going to talk through the issues. I…
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Some Thoughts on the Asbury Revival
Perhaps you have heard or read by now reports about a revival taking place on the campus of Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. A campus chapel service on Wednesday did not end at its appointed time but rather carried on for days on end. Students lingered and prayed and repented and worshipped. Students from surrounding universities and parents began arriving to experience what appears to have been a powerful move of the Spirit. Traffic jams accumulated in Wilmore as countless others came to Asbury to see what was happening. I know that people of a more Calvinistic bent tend to be reflexively skeptical about such reports. After all, haven’t we…
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An Eternal Weight of Glory – 2 Cor. 4:16-18
On Thursday, I preached a message in the chapel service of Southern Seminary and Boyce College. The text is 2 Corinthians 4:16-17, and it’s titled “An Eternal Weight of Glory.” It’s available on the SBTS Chapel podcast, which you can subscribe to or watch below. Excerpt: Don’t let your present pains eclipse your coming glory. That glory has already been planted in your heart, and the Devil and your flesh have no power to steal away the seeds sown on the good earth. God has planted the seeds of glory so deeply in your heart that your future renewal has already broken into the present through the Holy Spirit. Fight…
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Introducing the CBMW Podcast
The title of this post is a bit of misnomer because this is actually a reintroduction of a podcast that has been around for a while but only with irregular content. Well, that has changed. Colin Smothers and I are now producing weekly episodes of the podcast. For the next several months we are going to be discussing/teaching through the Nashville and Danvers Statements. The first episode has already been posted, and it is available now. We will also be doing interviews with guests from time to time to discuss books and other items of interest. Our first interview is with Dr. Heath Lambert, the pastor of FBC Jacksonville, who…
