no comments -- just that there are plenty like
Some have had good points of teaching. But on the other hand, I fully agree with you that letting this happen is the first step on the slippery slope
They should look at the PCUSA and Episcopal denomination and what happened after they did this.
Once I visited the Presbyterian USA church men's group that was being led by a woman who exhorted us to get in touch with our 'feminen' side.
This reminded me of the Apostle Paul's admonition: "But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet." 1 Timothy 2:12
Funny how when the Scriptures are not viewed as Inerrant and Authoritative how easily they are ignored resulting in peril.
no comments -- just that there are plenty like
Some have had good points of teaching. But on the other hand, I fully agree with you that letting this happen is the first step on the slippery slope
The difference is that Baptist churches are each autonomous and independent. These women pastors are not pushed on any local church by a denominational structure. Local Baptist churches select their own pastors, so this is a local church problem.
There is no Baptist denominational structure that ordains ministers; rather each local church calls for the ordination of its ministers, and votes up or down according to the recommendation of an ordination council invited by the local congregation to sit as a council.
Any Baptist congregation can elect to/not to fellowship with or cooperate with any other local congregation for any reason it considers proper. Therefore, no congregation is required to fellowship/cooperate with a congregation that has a female "pastor."
If a state convention or the national convention elects to seat messengers from churches which have female pastors, a Bible-believing church can just decline to send messengers, using its autonomy. The church deciding not to send messengers can also withhold financial support from the state and/or national organization(s).
And through it all, the local Bible-believing Baptist church is still a Baptist church.
Thousands of denominationally-connected Baptist churches, especially from 1945 to to 1970, ceased supporting denominational programs (Southern Baptist; American Baptist; others) and began supporting missionary projects on an individual basis.
After WWII, many Baptist missionary clearing houses sprung up around the USA for missionary activity outside of the denominational structures.
Better yet, especially from 1980, very many local Baptist churches themselves began to function as the clearing houses of missionary families sent from those churches, and from sister churches in close fellowship and cooperation.
Some of the very best pastor and missionary training schools today are operated by single independent Baptist churches, where the "President" or "Chancellor" of the school is the local church pastor himself.
So, rather than Baptists looking at what happened to Presbyterian and Episcopal denominations---that is, the consequences of making women pastors and deacons, . . . .
. . . . . the denominations should look to many Baptists who still maintain the distinctive of local church autonomy; and establish more independent Presbyterian churches and independent Episcopal congregations.
Lesbian Bishops kind of makes the sale of indulgences look tame by comparison.
NC Council of Churches installs homosexual leader
By
gcmwatch
– January 11, 2011Posted in: African American, black church, denominations, diapraxy, gay churches, gay clerics, GCMW Exclusive, Headline, homosexuality, Unity Fellowships
NC Council of Churches installs homosexual leader
Apostasy and collusion with apostates continue to dismantle the already morally bankrupt American church system. The North Carolina Council of Churches, an aggregation of various denominations which advocate mostly liberal social causes, has elected a homosexual cleric as the leader of the organization according to news reports.
Among the members of the NCCC is are three historic and predominately African American denominations, the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME), and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ).
The national headquarters of the National Council of Churches has been attempting for years to admit MCC, a Los Angeles based homosexual christian denomination but has been unsuccessful. Instead, they have incorporated clerics of the MCC which have had a devastating effect of the organization’s biblical views.
The council selected 55-year-old Stan Kimer(left), a lay leader in the Metropolitan Community Churches — a denomination that ministers to homosexual men and women.
The council’s executive director, the Rev. George Reed, says this is the first time a southern state church council has been led by an openly homosexual person.
The state branch of the Southern Baptist Convention does not belong to the North Carolina Council of churches, but North Carolina’s Roman Catholic dioceses are members. The council promotes left-leaning legislative goals on policies including immigration, guns, and the death penalty. Kimer, a retired IBM sales executive, says he wants young people more involved in inter-church activism.
A Christian renewal group says by electing an open homosexual to be its leader, an alliance of North Carolina churches has undermined its own purpose.
The North Carolina Council of Churches has chosen an open homosexual as its president-elect. He is 55-year-old Stan Kimer, a lay leader in the Metropolitan Community Church, which consists largely of homosexuals and lesbians.
According to its website, the purpose of the ecumenical organization is to promote “Christian unity.” But the vote in favor of Kimer, says Alan Wisdom of the Washington, DC-based Institute on Religion & Democracy, accomplishes just the opposite.
“All major branches of the Christian church — the Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, the evangelicals, the African-Americans, the historic Protestant denominations for the most part — agree that God’s standard of sexual morality is the marriage of man and woman and that homosexual relationships are not in accord with Christian teaching,” he explains.
Yet the Metropolitan Community Church with which Kimer is affiliated affirms homosexuality.
According to Wisdom, the Council has often pushed agendas not held in common by Christians. “It has pushed liberal positions on issues like immigration and the death penalty where there is not consensus among Christians,” he says, “but this is a further step in that same direction.”
GCM Watch contacted officials with the AME, CME and AMEZ denominations but none have responded as of publication. The story will be updated if that information becomes available.
Statements made by members of the council’s executive board suggest that denominational officials were not aware of the vote and may not have even participated in the vote installing Kimer man.
“A lot of our member denominations have internal battles about this,” said the Rev. George Reed, the council’s executive director. “But the governing board felt the fact that he is a gay man was not a disqualifying factor.”
The Rev. Steve Hickle, a Methodist pastor who sits on the governing board, said Kimer’s election was possible because the council does not require theological agreement. Members work together on social issues where they can find common ground.
“The point of interreligious conversation is to continue to find common ground and understanding,” Hickle said. “We want to work together on social justice whenever we can.”
The group’s governing board does not list any members of the three African American denominations. African Americans are only “members at large”.
Hickle and Reed are referring to a diaprax (false unity). tactics liberal denominations are using with greater frequency to draw in those whose biblical beliefs are against homosexuality. Membership is not based on moral beliefs just “social justice” issues. The Raleigh Observer said the coven “signals an acceptance among member denominations – Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics – that even if they have theological differences about homosexuality, they are OK with a gay man at the helm. Or at least, they don’t see it as an issue worth fighting.”
Ecumenical unity and the false church
No sooner than the NCCC elected the homosexual cleric as its leader, it moved to accept into its membership the North Carolina branch of the Unity Fellowship Movement.
“In her letter seeking membership on behalf of her judicatory, Bishop Tonyia M. Rawls wrote, “We would consider it an honor to join in your efforts to ‘enable denominations, congregations, and people of faith to individually and collectively impact our state on issues such as economic justice and development, human well-being, equality, compassion and peace, following the example and mission of Jesus Christ’.”
We’ve reported on this bizarre group here, here and here.
The scriptures do not lie. The goal of the apostate church is to gain influence and power. Once they are in the seats of influence they will open doors for every other demon and foul spirit who applies.
The bible uses Babylon to symbolize the false church. It is growing now and will in time come to dominant religion in the world with its false prophet. But it will fall and be violently destroyed. That’s why the Spirit of God is calling the saints to come out while you can still hear his voice.
And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. Rev 18:2 ESV
We urge God’s people to come from among them and separate yourself. Light cannot have fellowship with darkness and the spirit of God will not sanctify that which God has condemned.