Free Republic

Earlier this summer, the Southern Baptist Convention garnered considerable attention for its disfellowshipping of two churches that allow women to serve in the office of pastor.Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, and a smaller congregation known as Fern Creek Baptist Church of Louisville, Kentucky, were disfellowshipped following a majority vote by messengers at the SBC's Annual Meeting in June. Some 90% of messengers voted to disfellowship churches that have women in the role of pastor. That is 9 in 10 messengers.Several other Christian denominations allow women to serve as pastors, however. As The Christian Post previouslyreported, this number even includes...

Ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in New Orleans this week, Saddleback Church founder Rick Warren stressed that he agrees with all of the denomination’s beliefs — except for its stance on women pastors. “The SBC Constitution was changed in 2015 after 170yrs of Baptist cooperation. Now churches must be ‘CLOSELY’ identified with our confession. NOT ‘completely’ Our BF&M2000 is 4,032 words. We disagree with only 1 word: men. We're 99.9999999999% in agreement! Is that CLOSE ENOUGH?” Warren tweeted on Sunday."I'm not making this stuff up," he added on Monday. "This is the history of the SBC: After...

Former Saddleback Church pastor and founder Rick Warren recently laid out three passages from the Bible that led him to conclude that it is acceptable for women to serve in the office of pastor.Saddleback Church, the California-based megachurch founded by Warren in 1980, was recently expelled from the Southern Baptist Convention for having a woman fill the office of teaching pastor. The church plans to appeal the decision later this year. Since Warren's retirement last year, the church has been led by Andy and Stacie Wood. In a podcast interview with former SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell...

As the news recently stated, “Controversy began to swirl when popular Bible teacher Beth Moore, a Southern Baptist, mentioned in a tweet that she would be preaching at a Mother's Day church service.” It continued, “A group of male SBC leaders who are "complementarians"—those who oppose women in the pulpit—began expressing concerns that Moore was scheduled to speak on a panel during the conference on June 12.” Let me begin by saying that I know and appreciate many women who have been recognized as pastors. They are diligent, steadfast, and hard-working. Our country has done a great disservice to women...